Lizzy turned her head off my shoulder, but looking at Yinet, not Remy. She made several gestures, pointing to Remy. “Deep sleep, no pain. He can’t feel what they’re doing.” She knelt down to touch some of the gel spilled onto the bottom layer of leaves. “Hmmm, kind of feels like the… ow, ow, ow…”
She quickly wiped her fingers off on her pant leg. “Yeah, that’s what they gave me for my feet, but a thousand times stronger…damn.” She flicked her fingers. “Totally numb, like they’ve been cut off.”
“Really?” The medic reached to sample it for himself, but the old woman made a clucking noise at him. “Okay. Guess I better not.” He looked at the bed of gel and at Remy. “They’re going to wrap him up in that stuff. It heals?”
“The diluted stuff did for me, real quick too.” Lizzy asked Yinet, their talking accompanied by hand signals. Their hands flew through motions, Lizzy giving the briefest of interpretations, busy jumping to the next question in her head.
Finally she nodded and looked at the old woman still looking over Remy. “Yeah. They’re going to wrap him up, but mostly keep him in a coma type state, since it’s the pain that is stealing his soul… ability to fight. Then you can do whatever repairs you have to.”
The medic nodded. “Okay, I get most of that. Can I help? I know human anatomy better than they do. We need to work something out to deliver medications and oxygen. His lungs are burned by the toxic fumes. And I need to realign his broken bones, as best as possible.”
He spoke to Lizzy, but did his best to mimic what he wanted, what was wrong internally with Remy. The old woman was watching him, listening as Yinet translated what both he and Lizzy were saying. She waved a hand over Remy, stopping where bones erupted through his thigh. She gave a twist of her hand, pointing to the medic.
“She says yes, put the bones where they belong.” Lizzy tipped her head. “His clothes need to be removed.”
“Yeah, we didn’t get them all in triage.” The medic pulled out a pair of surgical scissors and started cutting at the burned rags, having to peel singed fabric out of wounds.” He barely glanced over his shoulder. “Kev, need you over here.”
Lizzy wrapped her hand over my arm. “How you doing?”
“Can’t answer that, but as long as he’s still alive...” I wrapped my fingers in hers. “As long as I get him back. I have to get him back. She never wanted this… I never…”
“I know, honey. No one could have seen this happening.” Lizzy wrapped her arms around me. “Just hang in there. Yinet won’t let him die.”
The other medic crept into the circle, frowning. “What are you doing, Jonas? He’s a red tag. We have other wounded coming in right now.”
Jonas looked over his shoulder and shook his head. “Kev, you’re standing next to Mrs. Batista… Sorry about that, ma’am.” He jerked his head at Kev. “Get your ass over here.”
Kev bowed his head to me as he went to Jonas’ side. “What are we doing?” He pulled out his own scissors and started removing cloth and flesh from Remy’s other leg.
“The woman here is their doctor. We’re getting Mr. Batista ready for some type of medical stasis. They already got him in a near coma.” He jerked his head over to the leaves, the males meticulously adding more layers of gel. “We’re going to learn some native medicine.”
Kev looked over at the Parredet. “Okay, if you say so.” He finished with the few strips left on Remy’s leg.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jonas checked Remy’s pulse for the tenth time. “Go get me the LO kit. We’ll fill up his lungs. That will keep his blood oxygenated… oh, and a tissue extraction kit.”
“You’ll explain more when I get back?” Kev was already getting up.
“Yeah, hurry. He still has a pulse, but I’m seeing more hypoxia.” The old woman gave him a curious look. He pointed to his own lips, taking in a deep breath, then to Remy’s as he mimicked trouble breathing.
“Wow, you’re good at that.” Lizzy sounded a bit jealous.
“Had to learn when I was a kid.” He moved to kneel over Remy’s head, tipping his head back as Kev returned.
Kev ripped open an intubation kit, leaning over with the tube while Jonas kept the airway open. “There’s a lot of damage, but whatever they gave him seems to… yeah…”
He shifted his eyes away from Remy to a computer screen in the kit’s lid. “Lots of damage, but the cords are relaxed. Going for the right lung first.”
I didn’t want to look, but had to, watching the inside of Remy’s airway through a camera on the end of the tube. It should have been pink and red, but there were black smudges and blisters. In some places it looked like the tube couldn’t get through, but it did.
Through the tube he inserted two smaller tubes, passing down until they appeared in the camera. The thinner one he worked deeper into the lung, the other he left near the camera.
“Okay, we can administer the LO.” He reached over to the kit and activated the process. A blue fluid flowed through one of the tubes and into Remy.
It only took a minute before bubbles started flowing back up the airway. Kev activated the other tube and they were sucked into the tube. The color got darker, brackish. “Yeah, that’s definitely not good. I’m upping saturation.”
Jonas looked at me. “We’re replacing the fluids already built up in his lungs with liquid oxygen. That will keep his blood oxygenated. We can also start delivering medication internally, try to keep infections from setting in.”
His hands moved, explaining as best as possible
