“Well, shoot, that’s too bad. I was just thinking about the list of people I might want dolls made of.”
“Sorry. Except not really, because I’m probably on your list.” Chase stepped over to the locked box and pulled out a stethoscope, blood-pressure cuff, and some drugs to bring back to the table. “You’d be amazed by some of the fetishes, though. Hippo’s feet and pig genitalia and even dog and monkey heads.” He grinned. “In bigger towns there are voodoo festivals worth seeing. Drew would probably like all the colorful clothes and dancing.”
“I bet he would. Maybe we could find a day to go to one.” She smiled then looked out the door. Nobody seemed to be heading their way. “So now what? Do you go round people up and bring them in?”
“Round them up?” He smacked his palm against his forehead. “Darn, I forgot my lasso.”
“You know what I mean.” She placed her hand on his thick shoulder and gave him a little shove. “Let them know we’re here.”
Her vision had become used to the low light, and she could see the curve of his lips and the little crinkles in the corners of his eyes before he gave a low laugh.
“I’m sure they saw us.” He reached out to tuck loose strands of her hair behind her ears, of which there were many after their ride. As he curled one strand around his finger, his smile faded, replaced by something in his gaze that sent her heart thumping. “No way they could miss the beautiful blonde as she rode into town.”
His finger travelled down her jaw and she found herself standing motionless, staring into his eyes, holding her breath. His hand dropped to his side and he turned away to briskly finish organizing the supplies.
“As people arrive, you can take care of the children and I’ll look at the adults. I’ll translate when you need me to. I have the records for the kids we’ve immunized here since I’ve been in Benin.”
The shift in his demeanor was startling. What had happened to the Chase of yesterday who doubtless would have taken advantage of them being alone and kissed her breathless? Or, at the very least, continued with the flirting he was so good at?
She’d been sure she didn’t want that from him. But when he’d turned away, suddenly all business, the traitorous part of her that had been thinking about sex during their entire motorcycle ride wanted to grab him and kiss him instead. Wanted to feel that silky skin covering hard muscle she’d been itching to touch the whole time her arms had been wrapped around him.
She mentally thrashed herself and pulled her own supplies from the backpack. Apparently her libido, which had come to life since seeing him again, wasn’t up on the fact that her sensible brain wanted to keep their relationship platonic.
As if by voodoo, the first patients suddenly appeared at the doorway and the next hours were filled with basic examinations and immunizations, distribution of drugs for various problems, medicine to rid children of intestinal worms—which were apparently common here, as they had been in Honduras—and topical or oral antibiotics for the occasional infected wound.
Communicating with the children and their parents was surprisingly easy, with hand gestures working pretty well and Chase translating over his shoulder for the rest.
After being concerned at first that they’d have few patients, Dani couldn’t believe the line of children, standing three and four deep, waiting for their shots. After being so frustrated at the sorry state of the immunization records they had, she was more than pleased at how much she’d be able to add to the database after today.
What a great feeling to know that coming here could make such a difference in the health of these kids. More than once during the day she smiled at Chase and his return smile was filled with a sense of connection, the same understanding of exactly what each was feeling that they’d shared long ago.
By late in the afternoon the line had dwindled to just a few stragglers. The work left Dani feeling both tired and energized at their accomplishments.
“How long do you usually stay?” she asked Chase as she cleaned her hands with antiseptic and looked at the few people remaining outside. “Do you hang around until there’s nobody waiting?”
“It depends. Obviously, at some point you just need to shut it down, especially when it gets dark early. Believe me, you don’t want to be riding home on a motorcycle after the sun sets. It’s not common to be robbed, but it does happen.” He grinned at her. “And the last time I rode on all those rough potholes without being able to see, I was more convinced I might not live another day than the time I walked across a frayed rope bridge over the Amazon in a windstorm.”
Now, there was a image. Dani laughed. “Then let’s be sure to wrap it up before then. We don’t want to orphan Drew.”
The thought squashed her amusement. In her will she’d listed her own mother as guardian to Drew if anything ever happened to her. But her mother was alone, and tremendously busy. Now that Chase was involved in Drew’s life, should they make other arrangements?
“You know, we should talk about that, unlikely as it is, as we figure out our future arrangements with regard to Drew,” she said. “If something happened to me, I figured my mother should take him. But maybe your parents would be a better choice.”
Chase’s expression turned fierce. “No. That’s not a good option. Nothing’s going to happen to us.”
“But we—”
Distraught shouting interrupted her thought as a man pushed his way through the few people standing in line and burst through the doorway.
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHASE STEPPED OVER to him, speaking in an authoritative yet calming voice that seemed to help the man get himself under control. Dani wished she knew what was going on, but it was clearly something that would need their attention. The man spoke fast with frantic gestures, and the frown and concern on Chase’s face grew more pronounced.
Chase spoke to Dani as he shoved some items in his medical bag and flung the strap over his shoulder. “I need to go with him. He lives about half a mile away, so I’m going to take the bike to get there fast. I’ll tell the last in line we’ll come back next week so you can put stuff away and lock up the drugs as quickly as possible. Someone can show you where I am. You’ll have to walk, but I think I might need you there.”
“What’s wrong?”
“His wife’s in labor and something’s not right. She’s bleeding and in abnormal, extereme pain—the midwife doesn’t know what to do. Assuming we have a live infant, your expertise may help.”
He spoke quickly to a man in line, who nodded. “This man will show you where she is.”
“Okay.” She’d barely uttered the words before Chase left with the worried husband, and the sound of the motorcycle engine came to her just moments later.
Dani quickly stashed the medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in the lock box then followed the man Chase had asked to guide her through the village.
A rusty bike leaned against the wall of the clinic building and to her surprise he gestured for her to get on it. While it would be great to get there faster than it would take to walk, it wouldn’t help to ride it if she had no idea where she was going.
The man cleared up that question when he straddled the bike himself while still gesturing for her to get on the battered seat. Precariously perching herself on it, she placed her hands on the man’s shoulders and he pedaled off.
At first their wobbling movement was so slow she ground her teeth in frustration. They’d never get there at this rate, and an increasingly disturbing feeling fluttered in her stomach that the situation just might be dire.
Thankfully, the guy seemed to get the hang of pedaling standing up with her weight behind him, as they picked up speed on the bumpy dirt path, passing a hodgepodge of straw huts and mud houses.
The sound of a woman’s moans and cries made the skin over her skull tighten and the bike stopped outside a hut that seemed
larger than several others nearby.
She jumped off the bike. “Chase?”
“In here.”
She followed his grim voice and stopped just inside the doorway, stunned at the scene. The writhing and moaning woman in labor lay on a pad on the floor that had at one time been some yellowish color but was now stained red with the blood that was literally everywhere. All over the poor woman’s lower body. The dirt floor. The midwife, crouched beside her and holding her hand. Chase.
“What’s wrong?” Her heart tripped in her chest. “What can I do?”
“Placental abruption. You can see the pain she’s in, and her abdomen is rock-hard.” He finished swabbing the woman’s belly with antiseptic wipes and drew some drug into a needle. “Got to do an emergency C-section. I’m about to give her a local anesthetic, which is the best I can do here. Then we’ve got to get that baby out.”
She crouched next to him. “Tell me what to do.”
“Get my knife out of my bag. The ball suction to clear the baby’s mouth and nose. The ambu-bag. Then get ready, because when I pull the baby out I’m handing it to you and praying like hell.”
She grabbed the bag and went through its contents to find what he needed. She snapped on a pair of gloves and grabbed some antiseptic wipes to clean the knife.
Chase injected the woman’s stomach in multiple locations until there was nothing left in the syringe, then tossed it aside to take the knife from Dani.
“Are you going to do a low, transverse incision?” She had a feeling the usual C-section standard wouldn’t apply here in this hut, with the poor woman likely bleeding to death.
“No. We’ll be damned lucky if a vertical gets the baby out in time.”
With a steady hand Chase made a single, smooth slice through the skin beginning at the woman’s umbilicus down to her pelvis, exposing the hard, enlarged uterus within the cavity. Chase looked briefly at Dani, his jaw tense. “Ready?”
She nodded and prepared herself for fast action. Adrenaline surged through her veins as she knew the infant had probably lost its oxygen connection to its mother and would need immediate help to breathe on its own. If it was still alive.
Chase began the second incision through the uterus itself, exposing the infant. He reached into the womb and carefully lifted the baby out, using his fingers to wipe the baby boy’s tiny face and body gently to remove the tangle of clotted-off blood vessels that had torn and lead to the abruption.
“Here.” He passed the motionless baby to Dani and began scooping out the loosened placenta from the mother’s uterus. “I’ve got to get her bleeding stopped or we’ll lose her.”
The infant was dark purple, his lips nearly black from lack of oxygen. Dani quickly used the bulb suction to clear the amniotic fluid, mucus, and black meconium from his mouth, nose, and throat, but he still didn’t breathe.
Heart pounding, she attached the smallest mask to the ambu-bag then placed the mask over the baby’s nose and mouth. She slowly and evenly squeezed the bulb, praying the air would inflate the baby’s lungs.
After what seemed an eternity a shudder finally shook his tiny body. He coughed and drew in several gasping breaths before weakly crying out. His little arms and legs started jerking around and as his cries grew stronger, Dani sagged with relief.
She grabbed one of the stacked cloths the midwife must have put by the mother and quickly wiped the baby down. Getting him dryer and warmer was critical to keeping him from going into shock.
Satisfied that he was now warm enough, she grasped the umbilical cord and milked it gently, trying to get every drop of the cord blood into the baby’s body. She then cut the cord and clamped it off.
Looking into the baby’s little face, she saw he was no longer crying, his eyes wide as he saw the world for the first time, and it filled her heart with elation. “We did it! We did it!” she said, turning to Chase.
“Good. Give him to the midwife and get me another clamp.”
His tone and expression were tight, controlled as he worked to sew the woman’s uterus, and Dani’s jubilation faded as she switched her focus from the infant to his mother.
The woman was speaking between moans, looking at her baby, but blood still flowed from her body. Such a frightening quantity that Dani knew they had very little time.
She quickly stood to pass the baby to the midwife then grabbed a clamp from his bag. She kneeled next to him again, heart racing. Why was the woman still bleeding? It looked like he’d already tied off the big uterine veins and stitched the uterus itself.
“What’s wrong, Chase?”
He shook his head. “Uterus can’t seem to naturally clamp down and stop the flow. Check her pulse.”
Dani pressed her fingers to the woman’s wrist and stared at her watch. “One-forty,” she said, dismayed. Clearly, the woman’s pulse was rocketing to compensate for her blood volume loss.
He worked several more minutes in silence. “Damn it!” Fiercely intense, he turned to look at Dani. “Get me the garbage bag that’s in the motorcycle box and the sponges and gauze in there. Hurry.”
She ran to grab what he asked for, wondering what he could possibly have planned but not about to ask with the situation so dire. As she hurried back into the hut she heard him barking orders and the few other women in the room ran off.
Blood literally dripping from his hands and arms, he grimly took the garbage bag from Dani. He slipped his hands inside the bag and began to ease it into the woman’s belly cavity.
“What in the world are you doing?” In her astonishment the question just burst from her lips.
“Packing the belly. Like a big internal bandage. It’s her only chance. I’ll stuff it with the sponges and strips of cloth the women are getting. Tamp it down and apply pressure to stop the bleeding. Pray like hell.”
He grabbed the sponges and gauze and stuffed them inside the garbage bag. Then he yanked off his own bloody shirt and rapidly tore it into small strips before stuffing them, too, into the bag. The women returned with cloth strips and he shoved them inside before pressing on it all with his hands.
He kept the pressure on the woman’s belly for long minutes before lifting his gaze to Dani. With blood spattered across his face and naked torso, his eyes looked harshly intense. “Check her vitals again.”
She quickly took the woman’s pulse, and her heart tripped. “One-fifteen. It’s working!”
She doubted they’d get it down to a normal reading of seventy, but at least it was heading in the right direction.
“Call Spud. Tell him to get a car here stat to take her to our hospital. We can’t transfuse there, but if we pump her with fluids, it should be enough.”
She stepped outside the hut to call Spud, and when she returned she saw that Chase was stitching the woman’s belly closed with the filled garbage bag still inside.
“So, you leave it in there until she clots well enough? Then take it out?” Dani had never seen such a thing. Never even heard of it. Amazement and awe swept through her at Chase’s incredible knowledge and skill.
“Belly-packing is battlefield medicine.” He continued his steady, even stitches to completely close the incision except for the very top of the garbage bag, which was still exposed. The plastic extended outside the woman’s body as he stitched around it. “Eventually, we’ll be able to pull the sponges and cloth out piece by piece, then the empty bag, and hopefully not have to open her up again.”
The woman started speaking again in barely a whisper. In spite of what she’d been through, she extended her arms towards the midwife. Holding her new, tiny son close to her breast, she kissed his head and managed a weak smile.
Dani’s throat filled and tears stung her eyes. Chase had done this. He’d somehow, miraculously, saved this woman’s life. Her baby hadn’t lost his mother.
Chase spo
ke to the women who’d fetched the strips of cloth, and they brought several pads and put them beneath the patient’s legs. Obviously, Chase was concerned about her going into shock before they got her to the hospital.
The women brought some water and, silently, Chase stripped off his gloves and washed the blood off his chest and arms as best he could, with Dani following suit. Spud arrived with a nurse from the hospital, and they carried the woman and her baby to the car and drove off.
Other than quick instructions to Spud and the nurse, Chase had barely spoken for fifteen minutes. Standing next to the motorcycle after they’d packed everything up, Dani touched his arm.
“That was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. You should be very proud of what you did today.”
He didn’t respond, just looked at her. She couldn’t decipher the emotion on his face exactly but it definitely wasn’t triumph, which was what she thought he’d be feeling. It seemed more like despair.
He reached for her, grasping her shoulders, and slowly pulled her against his bare chest, which was still sprinkled with dried blood. His lips touched her forehead, lingered, until he stepped back to mount the bike.
Chase was quiet the entire ride back to the GPC compound. Not that there could be much conversation over the loud engine, but on the way to the village he’d managed to throw the occasional comment or observation over his shoulder. Probably the low light made it even more important that he concentrate on avoiding precarious ruts and potholes.
This time her arms were wrapped around a naked torso, and she had to control the constant urge to press her palms to his skin, slide them across the soft hair on his chest, down to the hard corrugated muscle of his stomach. Distracting him while driving in the near dark was definitely not a good idea.
Changed by His Son's Smile Page 8