2020-02-25 - Between Life & Death

It feels like a bit of an out of body experience being in and out of consciousness for Stephanie. She can hear the voices and struggles to stay awake, to keep her eyes open. She can hear their voices. She knows that they are fighting to save her life, they are racing to get her the help she needs.

She tries to make them understand. But she's weakening.

"Kill it...Protect...please. Don't let it get away."

She begs and she pleads but no one seems to respond. They're still focused on their task to get her the help she needs. She feels something just beyond the pain, the heartache of a second failure on repeat as she struggles to fight for her life and drifts in and out of consciousness.

The emergency department doctors all know her. She's been a Paramedic for nearly a decade and she's met everyone, as well as those who came before them. That's what happens when you spend your entire life in Gray Harbor, you know who's been around. She can hear Devlin speaking to one of the doctors who has been around the longest as she is being wheeled off into the emergency room.

"31 year old female, GCS 10, Eyes 3, Verbal 3, Motor 4. Severe chest trauma. Second and third ribs are broken, the sternum detached from the ribcage. Possible collapsed lung from the rib puncturing her chest wall. She's got blood and air in her plural cavity and internal bleeding that requires intervention."

"Wait, is that Stephanie? Why are you the one bringing her in on your day off? What happened?"

"She was taking over a shift for someone else when I found her. I thought I would drive the truck back."

"She's going to need surgery. I'll go make sure she's taken care of."

When Stephanie is wheeled to the emergency room and they're finally ready to assess her, the trauma team springs into action.

"Let's get an updated set of vitals and see what we're dealing with."

She lets out a pained moan as the voices start to meld in her mind. She can't keep her eyes open but she still tries to will them to open every time they start to close. It's exhausting to drift in and out of consciousness...she's just so tired.

"She's down to a 2 in Verbal. She's fading. We need to do a thoracotomy to see what's happening with her lung."

"Needle decompression, let’s get that chest tube in then we crack her chest open to see what's going on."

She's struggling to breathe, just like she's drowning again. But when the relief comes in the form of a needle decompression, it's not just air that comes out but blood.

"Okay, that's a bad sign. Let's do a clamshell and get to the bottom of this..."

It takes hours to control the bleeding and repair her collapsed lung, it takes hours for metal plates to be installed to hold her broken ribs and cracked sternum in place. But at least, she's now in intensive care, heavily sedated, being monitored for potential complications. She has yet to open her eyes but the damage has been repaired.