‘All yours. Want the defib?’
‘Might be wise. I’ll carry it.’ Thankfully, she didn’t argue. It took only a moment to find what he might need, covering the basics for pain, shock, cardiac arrest. After hauling on a jacket and shoes, he rushed up the road with the women.
Vicki asked Helen, ‘What was Bill doing up a ladder in this weather? He’s at least seventy-five and not as stable as he used to be,’ she added, for his benefit.
‘Then some of his bones have likely broken on impact.’ But it was the head injury worrying Cole most at the moment. The man was apparently unconscious. That wasn’t good.
‘His guttering was blocked with leaves and flooding the internal garage,’ Helen replied. ‘Stubborn old coot didn’t think to ask anyone for help.’
‘Where is he now?’ Cole asked.
Helen glanced at him, quickly looked away. ‘I know you’re not supposed to move someone in this situation but he was soaked and with this weather we all thought it best to get him under shelter so we rolled him onto a blanket and slid him across the floor to the back of the garage where there’s a modicum of shelter.’
There was no changing that so as they raced up the driveway, Cole said, ‘You’re right about getting him out of the rain.’ Fingers crossed. Someone holding a large sun umbrella over the man might’ve been a better option, but these people were obviously not medically trained and couldn’t be blamed for trying to do their best to helping a friend.
Gingerly lowering onto his knees beside the elderly man, Cole immediately began listening to his airway, and finally nodded. ‘Breathing’s shallow, but his chest’s rising and falling regularly,’ he told Vicki as she knelt on the opposite side of Bill.
‘Bill? It’s Vicki Halliday—Vicki Chandler. Can you hear me?’
The old man didn’t move.
Vicki continued. ‘Cole’s here too. He’s a doctor.’
No response.
She reached for Bill’s wrist to take his pulse.
‘Bill,’ Cole said. ‘We’re going to check you all over. I don’t want you trying to move at all. Okay?’ He’d continue talking to him while finishing his primary survey in case the words got through. ‘Pulse?’ he asked Vicki.
‘Low. He’s sweating profusely.’ She was placing patches from the defibrillator on Bill’s now exposed chest so they could get a reading of his heart. Immediately, the rapid heart rate was apparent.
‘Shock and probable internal blood loss.’ Feeling Bill’s abdomen, groin, listening to his chest, Cole found swelling, signs of haemorrhaging. ‘The liver’s taken a knock.’
‘His arm was caught in the ladder and we had trouble removing it,’ a man told him. ‘It was jammed between his upper body and elbow.’
Why had they moved the man? Cole stared at the arm now lying beside Bill’s body. More damage might’ve been done. His gentle prodding told him the elbow was shattered. He left the limb as it was, not wanting to inflict further injury. ‘Right, now the head.’ Gently touching the skull, he quickly found trauma that explained Bill’s unconscious state. ‘We need an ambulance fast.’ He looked around at the people standing back, watching him and Vicki attend to their neighbour. ‘Can someone call 000 and give me the phone when you’ve got the service on line?’
‘On it,’ a woman answered.
‘There a neck brace in that pack?’ Cole asked Vicki.
She gave him a quick glance before returning to watching the defib screen. ‘Yes.’
‘I’ll find it.’ Helen opened the bag and began removing containers of bandages. ‘This what you want?’
‘Thanks.’
The other woman handed him the phone. ‘I’ve explained that we’ve already called this in so he knows where you are.’
He nodded and spoke to the dispatcher. ‘I’m a doctor and I understand there’re delays getting an ambulance but we have a GCS of two. Severe head wound, major fractures of ankle, knee and elbow, also internal bleeding.’
‘I’ve contacted the rescue helicopter service. They’re about to lift off. Can you put someone on so I can explain what we need done for the chopper to land safely?’
‘Sure. And thanks.’ Cole looked around. ‘I need someone to take this. We need the road cleared for a helicopter.’
A man grabbed the phone and Cole returned his attention to Bill.
‘BP’s slowly dropping,’ Vicki informed him. Calmly, she rechecked all the readings and noted them down on a pad, which Helen had found in the pack, to go with Bill to hospital. Nurse Vicki was in play. Not the woman whose heart he had broken. Or who was breaking his. Even in nurse mode she was gorgeous.
His own heart squeezed. Damn, he loved her. He had to win her back. Had to.
‘Have to get this collar on,’ she reminded him, dragging his thoughts back to where they needed to be.
‘Let’s do it.’ With practised ease they quickly had the collar in place. Even though Bill hadn’t moved at all since they’d arrived, a sudden jerk could cause serious damage to his spine if there was any trauma.
Cole continued examining his patient, now checking the less urgent injuries. Blood stained the trousers around the knee area. There was a tear in the fabric that he used to rip down the leg to expose the damage. The bleeding was minor, the least of their worries. The right ankle was at an odd angle. Again, there was nothing he could do until the paramedics got here with splints and a stretcher.
It seemed for ever before the thumping of rotors suddenly slammed their eardrums from directly above the house. The rain had hidden the approach of the flying machine now hurling water in all directions outside as it descended to the road beyond the end of the driveway where many locals had come out with torches and lanterns to light up the area and stop any traffic that might come along.
Within moments paramedics were kneeling beside Bill, and Cole filled them in with his observations before stepping away, glad there were others to lift the stretcher. His leg was throbbing. The emergency crew was in charge now, and had all the gear needed to transfer Bill safely to hospital. There was nothing more he or Vicki could do. Time to head back to the house and that unfinished conversation.
Except what else could he tell her?
That he?
??d missed her more than ever while lying on his back for weeks on end, waiting for his bones to heal enough to be able to get up on crutches and start walking again. How the fear brought on by her words, which had kept ringing in his head throughout the sleepless nights, hadn’t let up. Even when he’d been concentrating hard on walking and ignoring the pain of those broken bones, he’d kept hearing her desperation.
I can’t do this any more.
As long as he lived he would hear the sadness, the anguish in her voice on that day. His darling Vicki believed he had let her down.
He had.
She’d been gutted over losing their baby. Her distress had vibrated through the ether to him. She’d needed him with her, not helping strangers. She’d needed him to talk about their loss. How had she got through those days and weeks afterwards? By talking to Julie? Her parents? Molly and Nathan? Hopefully, she’d had someone’s support, otherwise there was still a lot of pain to be worked through. Not that it would’ve disappeared anyway, merely eased a little. He knew, because he held his own knot of pain deep inside. It would’ve been better for both of them if he hadn’t been in another country at the time.
Never again. From now on he’d always be there for her.
If only she would give him a second chance to show how much he meant it. How much he loved her.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘I HOPE BILL makes it.’ Vicki strode out alongside Cole as they headed back to her parents’ house, aware that he didn’t move as freely as he used to, despite saying he was fine.
He limped, ran, limped, ran. ‘I can’t lie. That head injury is a worry,’ he agreed.
Quite likely Cole was still in pain from those fractures, especially when trying to run, as the impact when his foot hit the pavement would be sharper than when he was walking. She slowed a little, trying not to be obvious, ignoring the rain. There were plenty of dry clothes in the house. ‘I can’t believe he climbed a ladder in this weather.’ Vicki let out a long, regretful breath. ‘Actually, that’s not true. He’s a stubborn old man by all accounts, and apparently since his wife died last year he often says there’s no reason to keep himself safe any more.’