by Lucy Clark
‘Good call.’
Virgil continued to assist Clara as they treated Gale’s injuries as best they could, needing to stabilise her before they could transfer her to the stretcher. When they were ready, Clara contacted Senior Sergeant Edelstein via her headset.
‘Edelstein here,’ the police sergeant at the top of the mountain replied tersely.
‘Gale’s medical harness is attached to the ropes. Have your team standing by. We’re almost ready to move the patient to the stretcher below.’
‘Will do.’
‘Virgil, you’ll need to come closer to help me support Gale. We need to keep her as horizontal as we possibly can. Sergeant Edelstein, get ready with the winch on the patient’s ropes.’
‘Standing by for your signal, Dr Lewis,’ the police sergeant reported.
‘Gale,’ said Clara softly. ‘We’re going to move you now.’
Although Clara had administered pain relief, she hoped her patient remained unconscious until she was safely at the top.
‘On three...’ She waited for a moment while Virgil and Geoff came into position, so they could achieve this with as little fuss as possible. ‘One. Two.’ She held her breath and offered up a silent prayer. ‘Three!’
The winch started moving and slowly Gale was hoisted from the car and lowered, through careful and meticulous instruction from Clara, to the waiting stretcher. Once she was there, Virgil’s job began as he ensured Gale’s safety and double-checked her bandages.
‘All clear, Clara,’ he reported. ‘She’s ready to go to the top.’
‘Right. Sergeant Edelstein, the stretcher is ready, so start easing her up slowly. Virgil, you accompany Gale while Geoff and I check Dan’s situation.’
Soon Gale was halfway up the mountain, with Virgil rising steadily beside her.
‘Geoff, I’d like to take a closer look at Dan and check him out.’
‘Be careful, Clara.’
‘I always am, mate.’ She turned and smiled at the RN. ‘Thankfully the car didn’t shift when we moved Gale, and as I’m roughly the same size I should be fine.’
Gingerly, Clara pulled herself slightly up on her rope, so her feet were hanging level with the car’s open windscreen. Keeping her body as still as possible, she began to lower herself through the opening and into the spot Gale had recently vacated.
‘I’m in.’ She exhaled slowly with relief.
Stretching upwards, Clara pressed two fingers to Dan’s carotid pulse and found that it was slightly stronger than Gale’s had been. She reported her findings into her headset. ‘Pupils are constricting.’
Clara took a better look at the way Dan was jammed in and sighed resignedly.
‘The steering wheel is all but sitting in his pelvis and his legs are well and truly jammed. Paraplegia would be my guess, but I sincerely hope I’m wrong. Sergeant Edelstein, I suggest we come up and the CFS crews come down to cut Dan free.’
‘Roger that.’
Once she and Geoff were at the top, she headed over to where Virgil was pulling off a pair of bloodied gloves. ‘How is she?’
‘Almost everything is ruptured,’ Virgil told Clara as Gale’s stretcher was transferred to the ambulance. ‘I found small splinters of wood. I’d say that a roadside fence paling smashed through the windscreen as the car rolled and gashed Gale’s abdomen.’
‘Get to the hospital and do what you do best, Dr Arterton. Save a life.’
Clara held his gaze for a long moment before he climbed into the back of the ambulance. Virgil took the opportunity to put his hand on her arm, his eyes filled with fear and concern.
‘You be careful when you go back down. Don’t get into the vehicle. It’s too unstable.’
‘I’ll make sure the CFS crews recheck the cables before I head down,’ she stated.
‘But—’ He stopped, hesitating over whether or not to continue voicing his concerns. After staring into her eyes for a moment, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips. ‘Please be careful.’
Clara’s heart fused with love for him. She could see he didn’t want her going down, that he was concerned for her own safety, but he knew she had a job to do and he appreciated her skills.
She nodded, unable to find the words to reassure him as her throat had constricted with love for him.
CHAPTER TEN
CLARA AND THE rest of the retrieval team had extracted Dan from the car and got him back to the hospital. There had been one or two complications but they’d managed to prevail in the end. She checked with the theatre clerk and found that Virgil was still in Theatre with Gale. She handed over Dan’s care to the orthopaedic registrar, then sat down to complete her reports, all the while just wanting to go home and sleep.
She was just finishing up the final report when Virgil sauntered towards her, still in scrubs and looking utterly exhausted. ‘How’s Gale?’
‘Stable in Recovery. She’ll need further surgery, but for now I can’t do much more. I’m just waiting for the orthopaedic guys to call me in to do my bit on Dan.’
‘He was in a bad way when we got him out, but I’ve seen worse and people have lived.’
‘Like you?’ Virgil sat beside her, wheeling his chair as close as possible, then leaning forward and pressing a brief kiss on her lips. ‘I’m so glad you’re OK.’
Clara pursed her lips and nodded, not wanting to talk about her accident, not wanting to open those flood doors on emotion, pain and anguish.
‘You are OK, aren’t you?’ Virgil prompted when she didn’t say anything.
‘Yeah, I’m good.’ She returned her attention to the computer.
‘It’s just that after seeing Gale’s injuries, and still waiting to comprehend how bad Dan’s are, it’s made me realise I really don’t know all that much about your accident except that you sustained a pelvic fracture and were in hospital and rehab for the better part of a year. For you to be incapacitated for such a long time can only mean your injuries really were extensive.’
Clara saved her work on the computer, then turned to face him, needing to ensure her professional mask was in place before she spoke. ‘Yes, it was bad. No, I don’t want to discuss it—especially not now.’ She could feel her skin starting to get clammy and rubbed her hands together to combat it.
‘Did tonight’s retrieval bring back memories?’
‘Retrievals always bring it back—especially when the team and I are trying to save a patient’s life and I’m harnessed in and the only way to free the patient is to climb into the wreckage.’
‘You went back in? I asked you not to.’ Virgil straightened up and spread his arms wide.
‘It was a judgement call. I discussed it with my team. Everyone was safe, and when the car shifted, all I sustained was a bruise on my arm—for which I’ve just finished filling out an incident report.’
‘It shifted! Clara!’ He stood and glared down at her. ‘You could have been killed.’
‘But I wasn’t. Calm down.’ She glanced around the ED and noticed that some of the staff were looking their way. ‘Shh. You’re making a scene and disturbing the patients.’
Virgil shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the ground, counting to ten. She’d seen him in this mood several times in the past, and even though she felt highly self-conscious right now, thanks to his outburst, she was impressed with the way he was really controlling that temper of his.
‘Let me see your arm.’
‘It’s fine.’
‘Please?’
Rolling her eyes, she showed him the enormous bruise on her upper arm, noting that it was already changing colour, dark purples starting to appear. ‘There. Satisfied?’
The phone on the desk rang and Clara instantly snatched it up, eager to look away from Virgil’s concerned eyes. ‘Emergency De
partment.’ She glanced across at Virgil. ‘Yes, he’s here. I’ll tell him.’ She hung up the receiver.
‘Theatre?’
She nodded. ‘Go work your magic and help save Dan’s life.’
She smiled encouragingly but knew it wasn’t a heartfelt smile. The strain of the night was starting to take its toll and all she wanted was to head home, take a shower and crawl into bed.
Virgil stood where he was, watching her closely. ‘It’ll probably be time for breakfast when I get out of Theatre. Mind if I pop round?’
‘If you want to check up on me, then just say so.’ She lifted her chin with defiance, calling his bluff.
‘OK, then. I want to check up on you, to make sure you’re all right, and that you don’t have any physical or emotional repercussions from tonight’s retrieval.’
‘You don’t have to, Virgil. I’m fi—’
‘I want to, and I’m going to. I’ll be round when I’m out of Theatre. Until then, try and get some sleep.’ He leaned forward and pressed a concerned kiss to her lips. ‘I love you, Clara.’
With that, he turned on his heel and headed off to do his job.
* * *
She was driving along. She was in a car and she didn’t feel sick. This was a good thing. Wasn’t it? But, wait, things around her were changing. She was now standing in the middle of Melbourne General’s cafeteria and everyone was pointing and laughing at her.
‘He left you.’
‘He broke your heart and he doesn’t care about you.’
‘You’ll never find love.’
Clara looked around at the people, some dressed in scrubs, some wearing white coats, some with stethoscopes around their necks.
‘Why are you saying this?’ she asked, but the only answer she received was a roaring round of people laughing.
Their laughing changed to shrieking, and then it wasn’t laughter. It was the sound of tyres squealing on the bitumen road. It was the sound of crunching metal.
She was being spun around and around and around. She was back in the car, trying to clutch the steering wheel, trying to focus on the song on the radio, but the warbling noise made no sense. Nothing made any sense. Pain pierced her legs and metal seemed to fold in around her.
Clara tried to drag in a breath, tried to fill her lungs with air so she could scream, so she could alert the authorities to let them know that she’d been hurt. Where was the ambulance? Where were the doctors?
‘Code Blue. Code Blue,’ she kept trying to say, but her lungs refused to fill with air and she was unable to speak.
Gasping for breath, she felt a pulse of dread shoot through her, twisting her neck into a very uncomfortable angle.
She tried to look around her, but all she could see was the outside of the car she was in, hurtling through the darkened streets like a small ball in a pinball machine. The car went one way and hit a lamp post, the impact almost folding the metal giant in two. Then the car hurtled back the other way, smashing into some parked cars.
Clara blinked. She was still inside the car, but the large spacious inside cabin was now reduced to the side of a small cube, as though the car had been put through one of those giant compactors used in scrap metal yards. She needed to contort herself if she was going to fit, if she was going to survive this ordeal.
But did she want to survive?
Images of Virgil swam into her vision and once again she was back in the hospital cafeteria, with people pointing and laughing at her, telling her she’d never find true love ever again.
He’d left her.
He’d told her she wasn’t important in his life, that his career would come first and he’d left her.
It was clear by his actions that she hadn’t meant as much to him as he’d meant to her.
Virgil had been her one true love. Her friend for such a long time, her confidant, her study support. Now he wasn’t here. He’d left her and he wouldn’t be able to help her contort herself enough to fit into the tiny space which was now left inside the car.
Darkness threatened to engulf her—darkness at being all alone. She felt as though she were suspended in mid-air, in a sort of sling, trying to reach out to the people around her, trying to attract their attention, but no one seemed to be hearing her cries for help.
‘It’s because their careers are more important than you.’
Virgil’s words swam into her mind and she looked around for him.
‘Virgil? Virgil?’
She tried to call, but once again her lungs refused to fill with air and wouldn’t co-operate with her vocal cords in making any sort of noise.
Why couldn’t he hear her? Why had he left her? Why hadn’t he loved her?
The next thing she knew she was sitting in a hospital bed, unable to move her lower limbs. Her pelvis was fractured in several places, her legs were broken, her toes crushed. Doctors were talking to her, telling her she’d been in Theatre for a long time and would still need several more operations, but they were hopeful she’d walk again.
‘Unfortunately,’ her doctors were saying, ‘there was also a lot of damage to your internal organs. Your bladder was ruptured and your womb was damaged beyond repair.’
Damaged beyond repair.
They wanted to remove it, or they had removed it, or something else had happened. But her womb was gone. The bladder was fixed but she’d have to retrain it. One of her kidneys had also been damaged, but they were hopeful about that, too.
Clara looked behind the doctors to see her father holding her mother close, her mother weeping. Arthur stood next to his parents, patting his mother on the back, then he shifted and was standing next to the surgeons, nodding sadly and reading her charts as though he needed to recheck the information for himself.
Then everyone disappeared and she was left there. In traction. Unable to move. Suspended. Hanging there like a puppet whose strings were all tangled and its limbs in a mess.
She closed her eyes, wanting to have it all stop. She wanted it to stop. She wanted her world to just—stop!
* * *
Clara sat bolt upright in bed, her body bathed in sweat and trembling with fear. Gasping for air, she clutched a hand to her chest and stared unseeingly at her surroundings. The pictures on the wall. The light fixture on the ceiling. She was in her bedroom. She was safe. She was OK.
Slowly, she managed to calm her breathing as she climbed from the sheets and walked out into the kitchen to get a cool glass of water. The clock indicated it was almost six a.m. Sitting down at her kitchen table, she concentrated on deep breathing exercises. It had been years since she’d had a terrible nightmare about her car accident, but perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised, considering the retrieval she’d just been through.
Clara had been trapped for almost seven hours before they’d finally managed to cut her free and transfer her to the Melbourne General Hospital emergency department—her department, at the place where she worked. Thankfully, the specialists had taken great care of her, but being a patient in the hospital where she had trained and worked had been an eye-opening experience.
Virgil had gone. Left her for his career. He’d left her and gone to start a new life for himself in Canada.
‘Should I call him? Tell him?’ Arthur had asked as he’d sat by her hospital bed in the intensive care unit.
Clara had been hooked up to several machines to monitor her vital signs, and she’d been in traction after several hours of surgery. Arthur, being the wonderful sibling he was, had told her she looked as though she’d gone several rounds against a champion boxer—and won!
Clara hadn’t been sure she wanted Virgil knowing anything about her life now. He was the one who had chosen to leave, who had betrayed her. The real question which had nestled deep within her heart had been would he come back to be with her if he did know
? Clara had been through too much heartbreak to risk him not bothering to return.
‘Why?’
Her voice had been raspy and dry. Arthur had immediately given her a spoonful of ice chips.
‘He clearly doesn’t love me. If he did, he would have accepted me for who I am.’
To speak the words out loud had nearly caused as much emotional damage as the accident had caused physical damage.
Clara had had to come to terms with a lot in those first few days—especially the news that her womb and one of her ovaries had been removed.
‘I’ll never be able to have children, Mum,’ Clara had wailed, and together she and her mother had wept, their tears somehow binding them closer together.
Her parents and Arthur had been wonderful, caring for her while she’d been an inpatient in hospital and looking after her life outside the hospital.
‘The doctors say you’re going to need a lot of rehabilitation once all your surgeries are done,’ her father had said. ‘And...er...’ He’d looked across at her mother, who had nodded encouragingly. ‘We wanted you to come and live with us when you get out.’
It was then that Clara had realised she was still paying rent on an empty apartment, and although she’d had accident insurance, there was only so far that would stretch. Her parents had helped her make some difficult decisions—namely breaking her lease and putting her furniture and belongings into storage.
Clara had been cut off from the outside world. Her new world had consisted of one medical appointment after another. Doctors, lawyers, physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists—the list had gone on and on, and once Clara had been finally released from the rehabilitation hospital, nearly eight months later, she had gone home with her parents.
Her family had been incredible, and the accident had most definitely brought them all closer together.