Matt groaned. ‘I’m going to die. I know I am—’
‘You’re not going to die.’ Seeing Lexi’s horrified look, Jenna spoke firmly, and Ryan gave the boy’s shoulder a quick squeeze.
‘No one is dying on my shift,’ he said easily, and Matt made a sound that was halfway between a sob and a moan.
‘If the pain doesn’t kill me, my mum will.’
Jenna closed her hand over his, checking that Lexi was safely out of the water. ‘Your mum won’t kill you,’ she said huskily. ‘She’s just going to be relieved you’re OK.’
Ryan’s gaze flickered to hers and she read his mind.
Matt was far from OK. He had two fractured femurs and he was still losing blood. Knowing that she had to help, Jenna let go of the boy’s hand and dug into the rucksack, finding what she needed. Thinking clearly now, she ripped open the sterile dressings and talked to her daughter. ‘Lexi? Do you have your digital camera with you?’
‘What?’ Soaked through and shivering, Lexi stared at her mother as though she were mad. ‘Matt’s bleeding half to death here and you want me to take a photo of the view?’
‘He’s not bleeding to death.’ Taking her cue from Ryan, Jenna kept her voice calm. ‘I don’t want you to take the view. I want you to take a picture of Matt’s legs. It will help the ER staff.’
‘Good thinking.’ Ryan injected the Ketamine. ‘Do you have your camera,
Lex?’
‘Yes—yes. But…’ Baffled, Lexi cast a glance at Matt and rose to her feet, holding the rocks so that she didn’t slip. She was wearing jeans, and the denim was dark with seawater. ‘In my jacket pocket. What do you want me to do?’
‘Take several pictures of the wounds. I’ll do it, if you like.’ Jenna was worried about her daughter seeing the extent of the injuries, but Lexi just gritted her teeth and pointed her digital camera. She took several photos and checked them quickly.
‘OK. It’s done.’
‘Good.’ Now that the pictures were taken, Jenna covered the wounds. ‘It saves the receiving team in the hospital from removing the dressings from his legs to see what’s going on.’
‘Oh. I get it.’ Several shades paler than she’d been a moment earlier, Lexi nodded. ‘What else can I do?’
‘Stay out of reach of the waves,’ Ryan said immediately, his hands on Jenna’s as they packed the wound, using a bandage to hold it in place. ‘Any change—tell me. Jen, I’m going to splint both legs together.’
They worked as a team, Jenna following his instructions to the letter. It didn’t matter that she’d never done anything like this before because his commands were clear and precise. Do this. Do that. Put your hands here—
Later, she’d look back on it and wonder how he could have been so sure about everything, but for now she just did as she was told.
Checking the pulse in both Matt’s feet, she nodded to Ryan. ‘His circulation is good in both legs.’
‘Right. Lex, take this for me.’ Ryan passed his radio to Lexi, freeing up his hands. Then he turned back to the boy. ‘Matt, you’ve broken both your legs. I’m going to put a splint on them because that will reduce the bleeding and it will help the pain.’ He looked towards Lexi. ‘Logan should be up there by now. Make contact and tell Nick I need a towel.’
A towel? Glancing at the water around them, Jenna wondered if he’d gone mad, and then reminded himself that everything he’d done so far had been spot-on.
Worried that all this was too much for Lexi, Jenna was about to repeat the instructions but Lexi was already working the radio. Doing everything she’d been asked to do, she talked to Nick and relayed messages back and forth, copying the radio style she’d heard Ryan use.
‘Dr McNeil is there. He wants to know what you need.’
‘I’ll have a Sager splint, if he has one, otherwise any traction splint. And oxygen. And ask Nick if we have an ETA on the helicopter.’
‘Sager?’ Jenna handed him a Venflon and Ryan slid the cannula into the vein in Matt’s arm as smoothly as if he was working in a state-of-the-art emergency unit, not a chasm in the rocks.
‘It’s an American splint. I prefer it.’
‘They’re lowering it down now. I’ll get it.’ One eye on the waves, Lexi picked her way across the slippery rocks like a tightrope walker and reached for the rucksack that had been lowered on the end of a rope.
Watching the boiling cauldron of water lapping angrily at her daughter’s ankles, Jenna prayed that she wouldn’t slip. Pride swelled inside her and she blinked rapidly, forcing herself to concentrate on her part of the rescue. ‘Is it possible to apply a splint in these conditions with just the two of us?’
‘I can do it in two and a half minutes, and it will make it easier to evacuate him by helicopter.’ Ryan took the rucksack Lexi handed him and opened it. Using the towel, he dried Matt’s legs and then opened the bag containing the splint. In a few swift movements he’d removed, unfolded and assembled the splint. ‘OK, that’s ready.’ He positioned it between Matt’s legs, explaining what he was doing.