She immediately moved to his side, placing her hand not on his hip, but on his lower abdomen, just above the groin. She pressed down firmly. Sterling cried out, a guttural sound that he couldn’t suppress.
“Rigid,” Sarah muttered to herself. She moved her hand lower, checking the pulse in his left foot. She frowned.
She checked the right foot. Then the left again. “What?” Sterling asked, seeing the change in her demeanor.
“What is it?”
“Your pedal pulse is weak on the left,” Sarah said, her voice clipped and professional. “And your abdomen is guarding. Colonel, when was your last X-ray?”
“Six months ago.
Routine checkup.”
“And the shrapnel? Where exactly was it sitting?”
“Lodged in the ileum. Doctors said it was encapsulated.
Safe.”
“Encapsulated shrapnel doesn’t pulse,” Sarah said grimly. She ripped the Velcro blood pressure cuff off the wall mount and wrapped it around his arm manually, trusting her ears over the machine. She pumped the bulb, listening intently with her stethoscope.
She watched the gauge. Then she released the valve. “BP is dropping,” she announced.
“90 over 60. You were 130 over 85 when you walked in.”
“I feel… tired,” Sterling admitted, his head lolling back against the headrest. The room was starting to swim.
“Just need… a minute.”
Sarah didn’t give him a minute. She spun around and hit the red “Staff Assist” button on the wall. The alarm blared into the hallway, a sharp, rhythmic screech that signaled an emergency.
“Nurse Jenkins?” The young corpsman from the front desk poked his head in, looking terrified by the alarm. “Get a gurney in here, now!” Sarah barked. It wasn’t a request.
It was an order delivered with the volume and authority of a Drill Instructor. “And page Vascular. Tell them we have a suspected iliac artery rupture.
Code Three.”
“Vascular?” the corpsman stammered. “But he’s here for Ortho.”
“Did I stutter, Petty Officer?” Sarah turned on him, her eyes blazing. “Move!”
The corpsman scrambled.
Sterling looked at her, his vision tunneling. “Rupture?” he mumbled. “That sounds… bad.”
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