Fatal Read Online Free

if she would have chosen to be anyplace in the world at that moment other than where she was.
    “This is the guy who caused all this,” she whispered.
    “I know,” Matt whispered back. “Is he bleeding somewhere?”
    Easterly thrust out her gravid belly and arched her back, trying to relieve some tightness somewhere.
    “Not that I can tell,” she replied, still whispering. “He drove some piece of heavy equipment over two guys. No one knows why. One of them’s dead. The other’s up in the OR right now, and I don’t think he’s going to make it. After he did that, he knocked down some supports and the roof collapsed. He was trapped beneath a load of rock. The rescue guys said his BP was all right on the way in. I think the triage nurse assigned him to me because he looked pretty good when he got here.”
    “Not anymore. Obvious fractures?”
    In addition to the usual sources of hidden blood loss—the chest and abdominal cavities—a fractured leg, or even an arm in some cases, could cause enough bleeding into muscle to throw a victim into shock.
    “None,” Easterly said. “He’s moving all extremities. Joe Terry was just hanging around waiting for the OR to be ready for his case, so I had him put an arterial line in.”
    “Nicely done.”
    Matt meant the compliment, although it was also obvious that except for the arterial line, Easterly hadn’t been nearly aggressive enough with a man this hurt. At the moment she seemed close to tears.
    “You know,” she said, “if I had known I was going to end up with this sort of crunch in the very guy responsible for the disaster, I would have stayed home.”
    “Listen, Judy, why don’t you go ahead home right now,” Matt said. “You’ve got things under reasonable control here, and it looks as if you and the kid could use some rest.”
    Easterly started to protest, then suddenly thanked him.
    “Bloods are off for the usual labs plus six units,” she said rapidly. “I ordered a portable of his chest and abdomen. I really appreciate this.”
    “Just name your kid after me,” Matt said.
    “Matthewina,” Easterly said. “I think she’d like that. Hey, thanks. Good luck.”
    Before Matt could even respond, she was gone. It was just as well. She clearly had other things on her mind and was already hovering between not-much-help and downright dangerous. He glanced again at the monitor and moved into Easterly’s spot at the bedside, across from Jon Lee. Then he stopped short, staring down in disbelief at the man whose insane rage had just killed one and possibly two co-workers. Darryl Teague’s face was covered with fleshy lumps, at least twenty of them, some pea-sized, but some quite a bit larger, and one, just in front of his left ear, approximating a walnut. Almost certainly they were neurofibromas—bundles of nerve tissue mixed with spindly fibrous cells. Cause: unknown. Cure: none known. Darryl Teague was well on his way to becoming an Elephant Man.
    Even more startling to Matt was that Teague was the second case of such a condition he had seen in the past four or five months.
    “Laura, Dr. Hal Sawyer is part of our disaster team. Could you please call him in the lab and ask if he can come over as soon as possible.”
    “You’ve got it.”
    Matt quickly turned his attention to the miner. Teague was conscious and still breathing on his own, but his skin was mottled and his lips were a grayish purple.
    “Jon, anything ordered for his pressure?”
    “Nothing yet, Doctor.” Lee’s tone made it quite clear that he was grateful for the change in medical command.
    “Hang some dopamine, standard drip. Run it wide open until we see what happens. Get a catheter in him and keep his volume up.”
    Laura Williams returned. “Dr. Sawyer will be over shortly,” she said.
    Matt peered up at the EKG monitor. The size of the beats on the tracing appeared much smaller than normal. He filed the information away for the moment and began an efficient exam.