Free Rescue Nights by Nina Hamilton Page B

wall.
    ‘You wouldn’t want to in this company,’ said Kate, giving her voice a note of finality that indicated the time for confidences was over.
    Kate drained her cup of the final dregs of tea as she watched Andrew run his hand over his close-cropped hair. She wished he wouldn’t do that. It made her palms itch to find out whether the blond strands were bristly or soft.
    Before she could make the final move back into the hall, she heard someone call her name with urgency.
    ‘Thank god, I was starting to get worried that you two had left,’ said Patrice, as she appeared at the door.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ Kate asked. She was concerned to see the normally stoic woman looking rattled, with her cheeks tinged a flustered red.
    ‘It could be nothing, but Mr Rafferty started looking unwell, is short of breath and has pain in his left arm.’
    As Deputy Commander, Patrice had obviously done enough first aid classes to know what those symptoms could mean.
    ‘Did you call the ambulance?’ Andrew interjected.
    ‘Ten to fifteen minutes away,’ Patrice replied.
    ‘They’ll be fast,’ Kate added. ‘Hell, some of them are our members and they’ll recognise that we aren’t the sorts to send up a false alarm.’
    As they had been talking, Kate, Patrice and Andrew had already started moving back into the hall. A cluster gathered at one end of the room told them where the action was. Luckily, a room full of rescue volunteers meant there was limited panic. However, the concern on everyone’s faces was genuine.
    Andrew moved with such energy that the crowd around Mr Rafferty parted.
    Seeing the man’s colour, Kate raised her voice. ‘Can someone grab the med kit out of the rescue vehicle?’
    Knowing this group, Kate didn’t even have to double check that her instructions were being followed. She followed Andrew and got on her knees beside him and Mr Rafferty. Andrew’s hand was on Mr Rafferty’s wrist and he was counting while watching his watch.
    ‘130 beats per minute.’ Kate wrote the obs on the back of a ripped up form as Andrew verbalized them.
    Andrew patiently asked questions, getting the complete focus of the distressed elderly man. Looking at him, Kate realized she no longer believed that he was running from a hideous malpractice suit that he had somehow hidden from the Queensland Rescue interview panel. With each patient, he was meticulous, diligent and skilful.
    From Kate’s left, an SES branded med kit was thrust forward. A stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff and an oxygen mask were the equipment Andrew was going to need, so Kate quickly unpacked those essentials.
    Andrew had his hand out, ready to use the equipment. However, at the same time he was reassuring the man in front of him. ‘Mr Rafferty. You could have only beaten this place by a hospital as the preferred location to take any sort of turn.’
    When he had finished the basics and had his patient sitting with the mask pumping oxygen into his lungs, Andrew motioned Kate for a consult. They moved a little away from the patient and ignored the questions of the onlookers.
    ‘All Queensland ambulances have a defib machine, right?’ Andrew asked.
    ‘Absolutely,’ Kate replied. Good equipment distribution was one of the benefits of strong health funding.
    ‘Then we’ll wait for the ambos,’ Andrew decided. ‘They are better equipped than we are to transport him, especially if his heart stops. If anything happens before they get here we’ll have to be ready to jump into manual CPR.’
    Going back to their patient, Andrew kept up a quiet stream of reassurances and a close watch. Kate, meanwhile, organized some men to stand by the door and direct the coming ambulance officers.
    ‘The rest of the cavalry have arrived,’ announced a volunteer from the door, not three minutes later.
    A short while later, Mr Rafferty had been packed and transported in an ambulance. The only evidence of the emergency was the med bag that Kate was repacking and the