Second Chance with His Army Doc

‘I’m going back,’ he barked. ‘Get a shower before I go on that MERT shout later.’

‘Kane...’

But he didn’t wait. He couldn’t afford to. They were a good few miles out from the hospital accommodation and, out here alone with Mattie, he feared he might be prepared to tell her anything.

Everything.

But he couldn’t. Because right now she already knew that he had betrayed her. She didn’t need to know he’d dragged her father—and ultimately Hayden—into the lie, too. So, instead, Kane concentrated on the run. The pounding impact of his body racing over the harsh terrain.

Cracking out a crushing pace was just what he needed to get his head back in order.

* * *

‘Everyone has their job, don’t they?’ Kane yelled as the helicopter landed near the simulated blast site.

Mattie duly glanced at each member of the Medical Emergency Response Team.

She’d made a conscious decision to put the morning’s odd run behind them. She wanted to pretend it was for the good of the exercise—and there was certainly an element of that to it—but deep down there was also the fear that if she pressed Kane on whatever this morning had been about, he would only back off from her all the more.

And it was pointless trying to tell herself that she didn’t care. Clearly, she did.

Even though she shouldn’t.

So, instead, she focused on his question, and the task in hand

.

‘Yeah, everyone knows their role. One of the paramedics will be charged with tourniquets, field dressings, logroll. The nurse will be monitoring, so we know pulse rates, saturations, rhythms. Could be radial, femoral or carotid depending on degree of sickness.

‘The doctor will be doing the ABCs, and the second paramedic will be putting in cannulas for fluids or bloods. So, yeah, everyone has their designated jobs.’

This time it might be a simulation scenario, but it was all too familiar to her. Over the last decade she had done this for real on multiple tours of duty, just as the four medics she was assessing today had done. However, she’d never worked with any of them before, which made today’s simulation all the more important.

And the fact that Kane was on board, so very close to her, only complicated things that little bit more. Not that she couldn’t handle the pressure, of course. More that it was incredibly draining having her body on full alert almost every minute of the day. Attuned to his presence whether she wanted to be or not.

Surely this mini-exercise would be something she could get stuck into, and it would help her to clear Kane from her thoughts, even a little while.

‘Okay, Sergeant Cole,’ she shouted above the roar of the rotor blades, ‘I’m designating you as the liaison for this shout. I’ll be accompanying you on the ground but I’m there to observe only, so just continue as though you were alone.’

The sergeant confirmed her understanding, then they both covered their mouths as the helicopter descended, raising huge swathes of dusty air in its wake.

She’d be looking to see how well the sergeant liaised with the medics on the ground. The simulation was a bomb blast near the FIBUA, so Mattie was also keen to see how the medics on the ground had carried out their own medical procedures.

‘I don’t need to remind you that the point of the MERT crew is to essentially move the field hospital to the patient. As the doctor and medical staff on board you have the knowledge to treat, anaesthetise, even operate on the patient in-flight.’

She glanced around the group, hoping all of them could hear her—or at least read her lips—over the noise of the engines.

‘But for the MERT crew to do a good job, the soldiers on site must have done their basics properly, which means applying combat application tourniquets in good time and tying them off tightly, getting the field dressings on, administering morphine, and ensuring they are ready with really accurate MIST handovers. That means we they need to have really identified the Mechansim of Injury, the Injury pattern, the Signs or observations, and the Treatment given. And that’s what today is all about. Not us saving this guy, but us seeing if the lads out there, in the thick of the fighting, have done the best job they can do for their buddies, under the most intense circumstances.’

As the helicopter landed, Mattie followed the sergeant off so that she could continue assessing. Kane was only feet away.

‘Okay, what have we got?’

‘Patient one is a double amputee, mechanism of injury IED. Due to the loss of limbs there was no radial pulse, so we put a sternal IO into his chest to push fluids through.’

Which would have meant manually forcing the fluids through the injured soldier’s sternum, an incredible painful procedure. Mattie continued to assess.

‘Patient two was hit by an IED whilst travelling in a vehicle. The vehicle overturned and impaled him on some rebar. Although the rebar has been left in place, it was too long and had to be cut down. A field dressing was used to staunch the bleeding.