Six Feet From Hell: The Lost Chronicles (Book 1) by Joseph A. Coley Page B

was not easily confused with something else. Josh crinkled his nose as he opened the rear door of the extended cab truck. The first man that Josh saw reached for him, the second man was not moving at all, adding a little more of a challenge to the situation. Josh glanced towards the second man, noticing that he was not breathing.
    “Shit! Steve, get over here and get this other dude! I don’t think that he’s breathing!”
    Steve nonchalantly ambled over to the driver’s side, as was his custom. Steve had plenty of run ins with life-and-death situations during his long career. A smart medic did not get too excited after so many years of working, and Steve was definitely one of those kinds of medics. Steve was snapping on his gloves when the second miner started to stir, obviously still alive. Steve shrugged at Josh as he noticed the second miner stirring. Steve looked back at the miner in the passenger’s seat and began to examine him. The miner was not moving very much air in and out of his lungs, which Josh could have mistaken for him not breathing at all. The low, guttural sound that he made was indicative of fluid in his lungs that he was unable to get out. Steve checked his airway, also muddled by blackness and swelling, which appeared to be worse than he originally anticipated. Steve stalked back over to the truck as Josh was getting the first miner out of the truck and helping him into the unit.
    “Looks like we are gonna transport ‘em both. Imma put this guy in the captain’s chair. How is the other one doin’?”
    Steve opened the outside compartment and grabbed a backboard to help get the second miner out. “Well he is breathing, but not for long if we don’t get him intubated soon. I will RSI him, you get some vitals on the other one, and we will try to get this one flown out. I doubt the hospital will want us taking him in intubated, so let’s get a chopper in here before they get covered up with all the other ones they are gonna fly out.”
    “Sounds good. I’ll get big homey here in the captain’s chair and I’ll give you a hand with the other dude.” Josh got the miner to the back of the ambulance and helped him in. Josh grabbed his portable radio and called the Sheriff’s office to request a medevac chopper. The garbled transmission he got back eventually signaled that they had the intended service on the way with a twenty-minute ETA. Josh hauled himself into the truck and sat the injured patient in the captain’s chair and seat belted him in. Josh grabbed the heart monitor and slapped the blood pressure cuff and the pulse oximeter to read his oxygen saturation. The patient’s blood pressure was a little on the high side, but within normal limits. Steve appeared at the back of the truck, grabbed the stretcher from its cradle, and motioned to Josh.
    “This guy is starting to seize on me over here. Gimme a hand and we will get him ready for the chopper. How’s he doin’?”
    Josh was checking the airway of his patient with a penlight and clicked it off as Steve loosed the stretcher from the cradle and pulled it out of the truck. “He’s not good, but I think he will be better off than the other one. What are we gonna do about the driver?”
    “Have him ride shotgun. I don’t think he’s gonna be able to drive before long and the last thing we need is him wrecking out somewhere behind us. Just tell him to leave the truck and we’ll give him a ride to the hospital.”
    Josh nodded and got up to help his partner. He got out of the truck, opened the passenger’s side door, and coaxed the driver into the ambulance. The driver grudgingly obliged and climbed up into the Dodge Ram ambulance. Steve was at the rear of the utility truck and situated the backboard with the stretcher so they could hoist him onto it and get him secured. Josh shut the door on the ambulance and stepped over to Steve as he slid out the semi-conscious miner onto the hard plastic backboard. The patient began to seize