As she pressed a dressing against his head and began winding a bandage around to keep it in place, Lucas’s eyes opened. He shot out an arm and gripped her hand.
“My head feels like it’s been split open by an axe. How does it look?” He wriggled as he spoke, trying to stand up.
Frankie lay a hand on his chest. “Stop moving. Your legs are trapped under rubble. You can’t move until we’ve taken a look to see what’s going on.”
“I can feel them and it hurts like…”
“I can give you something for that, but then I’ve got to leave you, Lucas. I’ve got to…”
He squeezed her hand and gave her a shaky smile. “I know what you’ve got to do. I can’t believe I’m stuck here when you guys need me most. How are Pete and Jeremy doing?”
“Pete…Pete is...” Frankie looked away. She closed her eyes for a moment, summoning the strength she needed. “Pete’s gone. Jeremy and I are working with the other nurses to see to everyone.”
“But outside.” Lucas voiced the fear that Frankie had already considered. “There’s relatively few people here in the hospital. Outside there will be hundreds more that need us.”
“We’ll manage.” Frankie hoped some of the positivity of her words would rub off, and she’d feel more capable of dealing with another influx of casualties when the hospital wasn’t up to the job and could completely collapse at any moment.
Lucas slammed his fist into the floor in frustration. “Get me up and I can help. Get that stuff off me and get me up!”
She pushed his hair back from the bandage around his head and ran her hand down his cheek. “You know I can’t do that, Lucas. You’re conscious, responding, you’re no longer a priority…”
“I’m a doctor!”
Frankie shook her head. “Actually, Lucas, you’re a patient right now. It doesn’t matter what your profession is. You’re a casualty with a possible broken leg. Or two. That makes you a yellow. You get to stay where you are.”
She leant forward and dropped a discrete kiss onto his forehead. “I’m sorry, Lucas, but I’ll be back. I promise.”
Lucas closed his eyes and tried again to pull his legs free. A wave of pain washed over him, making him feel nauseous. Or that could be the pain medication Frankie had administered before she left. He didn’t know.
Being trapped and unable to move brought back memories that were all-too-fresh in his memory after the nightmare he’d had the night before. Instead of being stuck in a foreign land under a pile of masonry, he was back home in England.
Twelve years old, he was flat on his back, half-trapped under the back of a car that had dragged him along harsh tarmac. Out of his reach but off to his side was his brother. Even at such a young age, Lucas knew his brother was dead long before the medics arrived and officially pronounced it.
The only difference was that the accident and Lewis’s death had been his own fault. Right then, as the morphine Frankie had given him kicked in, he couldn’t help but feel that he was still being punished for his childhood impulsivity.
Chapter Nine
“I can’t do it.” Frankie’s voice wobbled with barely suppressed hysteria.
Lucas put out a hand and gripped hers. “You can do it. I’ll talk you through it. You’ll be fine.”
“I can’t take any more. Lucas—”
“I trust you, Frankie—bring the patient over here and I’ll guide you. You can definitely do it.”
Frankie helped the patient nearer to Lucas. Clearing a space, they sat down. “This is Ben. He’s having some trouble breathing. Oxygen has helped some, but no real improvement.”
“Describe your symptoms.” Lucas turned his gaze onto the patient and away from Frankie.
“Stabbing pain in my chest after the earthquake hit. Something fell on me. I’m struggling to catch my breath.”
“Certainly sounds like a pneumothorax. Maybe caused by a punctured lung, but I don’t suppose we’ve any chance at all of a chest x-ray?”
“None.” Frankie shook her head. “Most of the machines are out. We’ve got power in some parts of the room but everything is so unstable we daren’t use the electrics at all.”
“Probably for the best we don’t mess with electricity.” He smiled at Frankie. She felt the confidence begin to return. She could do this. After all, she’d done so many other things this last week she never thought she’d have the ability to do. “Listen to Ben’s chest. Tell me what you hear.”
Frankie lay a stethoscope against Ben’s chest and tried to block out the noise around her. She didn’t want to make a mistake and perform a procedure that wasn’t necessary. Neither did she want to use a skill she wasn’t proficient at if she didn’t really need to.
“I can hear breath sounds on the left, but they are very faint,” she reported.
“Okay, Ben, we’re going to insert a needle into your chest to release the air that’s trapped. This will make your breathing much easier.”