A stitch in time - 2

Hearing Caroline's rude remarks, Benjamin was about to respond, but Morpheous interrupted. "I am sorry that we didn't have a proper introduction or a great start, and I am sorry that I wore these clothes. I will return them."

Lowering her tone a bit, she replied, "It's OK. You can keep the one that you are wearing."

"He is a good man Carol. A good Christian should support someone in need. He doesn't even have a place to stay." And suddenly, an idea popped into Benjamin's mind. Looking towards Morpheous, he said, "You know what, you can stay at our outhouse. You can use it until you find a place for yourself as we are not using it anyway."

"Are you nuts, Gramps! Sleep here? But why? To me, he is a stranger, and maybe he is here to rob us. Who knows!" She blurted as if her last thread of patience had snapped.

"Caroline! Fear the church. Fear the Lord. Do not speak such words in haste!" Benjamin's voice was heavy this time.

Taking a deep breath, Caroline looked at both of them and finally conceded, "Fine! I will drop him off at a motel if he needs a place to live. But he will not stay in our house. That's all. We are not having any further discussion on this."

She huffed and walked towards the foyer and picked up the car keys.

Morpheus looked at Benjamin apologetically for a second and then followed her, a part of him cursing himself for troubling the old man.

After driving just a block, she turned toward him and asked, "Who are you? I mean, for real. Are you really a homeless person? Is your story real? I mean, whatever, you have spun around my grandfather?"

"Yes," Morpheus nodded, lowering his head, his hands restlessly clenching his knee.

"Please consider me for the assistant's job. I will do anything that you need me to do. I am really  good with Chinese medicine."

And suddenly, that made Caroline burst into a peal of laughter.

"Chinese Medicine! Huh!" Her voice was sarcastic.

"I deal with people who are sometimes almost on the verge of death. Your twigs and leaves don't work then. We need operative procedures and medicines that are precise and potent. Plus, as an assistant, you have to deal with medical representatives and take care of my research work as well. So no, you are not cut out for it."

She spoke in haste but later realized that his face had dampened because of her statement.

"But you know what, you can try for some other jobs. One of my grandfather's friends is…"

"Screeechhhhh....."

She slammed the brake hard, and the car came to a screeching halt.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Caroline cursed and immediately got down from the car. There had been a major accident, two cars ahead of her.

Because of some signal glitch at the junction, two cars had collided. The driver of one car was already dead, but his wife, who was pregnant, was still alive. The other car driver was lucky and escaped from the mouth of death with just minor injuries.

Her eyes scanned that woman for injuries.

Because of the impact from the airbag, two ribs of the pregnant woman had been broken, and she was bleeding profusely.

"Has anyone called 911?" She yelled and knelt next to the woman.

"I have," replied a man, "But because of the signal glitch, two other junctions are also affected. The ambulance will take time to reach here. There is a massive jam in between."

"Ugghhh…" she groaned and quickly checked her pulse, and it was barely there. Turning back, she threw the car keys towards Morpheous and yelled, "Get the emergency kit from my boot!"

She had to keep that woman alive at any cost till the ambulance arrived.

The bones of her rib had already punctured her chest. She couldn't even do chest compressions, for it could do more harm than good for her. As soon as Morpheous came back with the emergency kit, she immediately opened it, but before she could pick up the Ambu bag, he picked it up and fit it snugly over that woman's mouth and nose and gently started compressing it at regular intervals.

She was amazed at how calmly he was handling the scene and the fact that he knew how to use Ambu Bag. But then a person screamed, "She is bleeding from down!"

Given the size of her sac, Caroline guessed that she was almost 35-37 weeks pregnant and that bleeding was not an ominous sign.

"You need to deliver the baby now!" Morpheous said, looking at her. She heard his words, but instead of replying, she silently gauged that woman's situation.

"I cannot. She might die. She already had a lot of blood loss. A C-section can be done only at the hospital."

"But you have a scalpel and a needle holder!" suggested Morpheous.

Caroline looked at him, annoyed, for this was no joke. She could die from the septic shock itself.

"How long for the ambulance?" she asked, looking at the person in touch with 911.

"Another one hour."

"Damn it. She won't make it!" Caroline muttered and checked her pulse again, and it had deteriorated further.

Tension pneumothorax!

Aiming to draw out air from her chest cavity, she picked up a 16 gauge needle in her hand and carefully tried to find the right spot on her chest. Even though she was experienced, without any imaging information, it was like trying to hit the bull's eye but with her eyes closed. But having no other option, she decided to go for it, but just when she was about to insert the needle,

"Just a bit towards the left, I think."

She looked at him, annoyed, for how could a shrink tell her what to do, but the look that he had on his face made her double-check the spot, and she moved two millimeters to the left and pushed the needle.

And soon after Caroline pulled the needle out, her pulse improved.

With a sigh of relief, she looked at Morpheous, who mouthed. "You need to do it!"

After a momentary pause, she nodded and turned to her side yelling at the people who had circled around them like mock spectators, "Please switch on your headlights and help us with gauze and cotton."