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Stand Out Fit In
Josh came through the back entrance and the smell hit first. Raw meat and copper.
The floor behind the prep counter was red. Someone was saying “oh god” from a doorway to his left. He stepped over the blood and knelt next to Tonya.
“Arterial. Josh, pressure. Here.”
The guy’s forearm was open from wrist to mid-forearm, deep enough to show things that were supposed to stay inside.
He grabbed gauze from the jump bag and packed the wound. The blood soaked through the first layer before he got the second one down. He added a third and held firm. The gauze went warm and heavy under his palms.
The guy was staring at his own arm.
“Hey. Don’t look at that. Look at me. What’s your name?”
“J-Jeff.”
“Jeff. What were you cutting?”
“W-what?”
“On the slicer. What were you cutting?”
“Prosciutto. For the—the deli case.”
“The pre-sliced stuff or the fancy kind?”
“The good kind. San Daniele.”
“Sounds expensive. Your boss gonna be mad about that?”
The trauma team met them at the doors. Josh kept pace with the gurney.
“Jeff Palmer, twenty-six. Industrial meat slicer, left forearm, wrist to mid-forearm. Arterial involvement. Hemorrhage controlled with direct pressure on scene. Large-bore IV, normal saline running. Pulse was 118 on scene, down to 102 on arrival. He’s been conscious and talking the whole ride.”
They moved Jeff onto the table.
“Page hand surgery. Let’s get a distal pulse check and imaging.”
Josh wheeled the empty stretcher out. Clean handoff. His first.
“Not bad,” Sean said on their way back to 412. “Rookies don’t normally run handoffs on my rig.”
“Could get used to it,” Josh said.
“Your rig?” Tonya scoffed. “Most people freeze on their first arterial. You didn’t.”
“Sized you up wrong,” Sean said. “You come up through fire? Military?”
“Nope. My mentor was a retired firefighter. His idea of teaching was the worst calls of his career over coffee.”
Josh wondered if they really knew Matt, but he’d promised to keep Ben invisible. Vague it was.
“Sounds about right. Fire guys are all wired wrong.”
“As if we’re not,” Tonya said. “We’re just crazy with better hours.”
A nurse came out to the bay. “Surgery wants to know. Was the slicer still running when you got there? And what kind of blade?”
“Rotary blade,” Sean said. “Coworkers hit the shutoff before we got there.”
“At least he had it on the thin setting,” Josh said before he could stop himself.
The nurse stared at him.
“Damn, rookie,” Tonya said. “Sharp.”
Sean was laughing. “That firefighter sure trained you right.”
He would not be telling Matt about this.
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