The Nurse's Christmas Wish (The Cornish Consultants)

tting through the darkness. The snow was falling heavily now and the temperature was dropping. ‘Louisa.’ His breath clouded the air as he glanced over her shoulder, his expression urgent. ‘I need a stronger torch and some blankets. And the bag from my boot. Quickly.’

She stood frozen to the spot in horror, staring at the mangled wreckage of the car and the teenage boy in the driver’s seat who was clearly seriously injured.

‘Oh, God, they’re kids, Mac,’ she whispered. ‘Just kids.’

‘Old enough to drive a car,’ Mac said steadily. ‘I need that bag.’

Quickly she turned and scrambled back up the bank on shaking legs and slithered across the road to the car. She fumbled with the door, tugged it open and rummaged around in the boot until she found what he needed. Then she slithered back across the road and down the bank to the wreckage.

Mac had prised open the driver’s door and was half inside the car, talking to one of the boys.

Louisa flicked on the torch and directed the beam towards him. ‘I’ve got your bag.’

‘Good girl.’ He turned and took it from her, wedging it on the dashboard so that the interior of the car was illuminated. ‘Right, this guy is unconscious and from the little I can see with this totally useless torch he has extensive bruising to his chest from the steering-wheel. He’s got asymmetrical chest movement and a deviated trachea. I need to immobilise his neck and treat the pneumothorax.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Go round to the passenger,’ Mac ordered, adjusting the angle of the torch. ‘He’s conscious and talking but there’s blood coming from somewhere and the light isn’t good enough to see where.’

Louisa scrambled round the car and tugged at the door. ‘It’s stuck, Mac.’

‘Pull harder.’

She gritted her teeth and tugged hard but the door was totally jammed. ‘There’s no getting in this way.’

‘Well, I’m not moving the driver until we can support his spine. We’re going to need the fire brigade. Which emergency service did you ask for?’

‘All of them,’ Louisa muttered, shifting her coat out of the way, ‘just to be on the safe side.’

‘Good girl.’

Louisa tried the rear door of the car. ‘Mac, I could climb into the back seat—I might be able to get to him between the seats.’

‘Go for it.’ Mac was still dealing with the driver. ‘But watch yourself.’

Louisa hitched her long dress up to her waist and slithered onto the back seat. The smell of alcohol hit her and she screwed up her face. They’d been drinking.

Reminding herself that it wasn’t the right time to moralise, she focused on her patient. ‘Hello. Everything is going to be fine.’ Why did people say that, she wondered to herself, when clearly things were anything but fine? ‘Can you tell me what hurts?’

‘My arm.’ The boy’s voice was so weak it was barely audible. ‘My arm is agony.’

‘All right.’ Louisa shifted her position and yanked at her dress as it caught in her heel. There was a tearing sound that made her wince. So much for the dress. ‘I’m going to try and take a look at what’s happening.’

Mac glanced across, his face barely visible in the shadows. ‘Be careful. There’s broken glass everywhere. Don’t cut yourself.’

Louisa wondered how she was supposed to not cut herself when she had no room to manoeuvre and could barely see in the darkness.

She dragged on a pair of gloves, which she found in her pocket, ripped open some dressing pads from Mac’s bag and then leaned forward to find where the bleeding was coming from. ‘Mac.’ Her voice shook slightly and she just hated herself for sounding so pathetic, ‘There’s blood everywhere—I can’t get close enough to apply pressure.’

But the boy was cold, she could feel that much.

Without thinking, she struggled out of her coat and covered the injured passenger.

‘Just do your best,’ Mac said grimly. ‘I’ll be with you in a minute.’

Twisting her body slightly, Louisa managed to wriggle between the seats and move the teenager’s sleeve. Blood spurted into the air. ‘It’s an artery.’ She slammed a pad down on the pumping wound and felt her hands start to shake. ‘He’s hit an artery.’

Her fingers slithered and slipped on the wound and she gritted her teeth and reached behind her for more pads with her free hand. To her relief, she could hear sirens and see flashing lights.