Accept This Dandelion
Page 18
Pedro relaxed as the Novocain took effect. Or else he was going into shock.
Keep the patient warm, spoke her internal memorized voice. The temperature hadn’t dipped below eighty for days, not even overnight. These people didn’t have blankets, and if they did, they would be filthy. So much she wanted to teach them, to lift them above this existence.
Camille needed more hands. “Jessica, can you hold the flashlight and the magnifying glass? I need to get suture material together for the artery.”
The teenager, seeing the injury without fainting, leaned closer to manipulate both. Her father Alfredo, the other pilot on the mission, stepped up. He took the heavy flashlight and held a steady beam on the surgery.
Camille laid out materials ready for the doctor’s use.
Sweat streamed down his face. The kit carried no masks or skull caps, so Camille mopped his brow with gauze. If sweat dripped into the wound, the kid would have infection soup directly in his bloodstream. She shivered at the thought.
Dr. Flavio needed a retractor, but their basic supplies were never intended for jungle surgery. He positioned Camille’s gloved index finger to hold back Pedro’s swelling tissue. She shut down normal responses of revulsion and fear. She would be the assistant he needed to save Pedro. Head to head, they worked together without a common language, each complementing the other’s moves.
Nothing was sterilized. Not the loose instruments in the kit, not the surgical field, nothing. God, if you’re going to work a miracle, make it a big one.
Camille gave her germ anxiety to the Lord and concentrated on Pedro’s leg. Together they sutured the torn artery and repaired muscle as much as possible. An intense space of time later, they added antibiotic salve like a sacred blessing and stitched cuts of the skin made by the anaconda’s teeth. Pedro had survived the snake attack, but she feared non-sterile surgery would be just as lethal.
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