started relating everything back to his own family. He took it all so personally, and it was getting worse.
Victoria had, on several occasions, warned Glen that he would soon be on stress leave if he carried on like this and had suggested that he speak to someone.
Glen insisted that he was fine and that everyone had their Achilles’ heel, and then he had turned it into a joke. ‘Except for you, Victoria.’
That had given her pause, for while Glen’s stress levels worried her, Victoria knew that she went the other way and stuffed down her feelings so that no one, not even her trusted colleague, could guess what went on inside her head.
Perhaps Glen was right and his responses were more normal, Victoria had reasoned, for there was a part of her that was perhaps a little jealous.
Not just of Glen and his ability to show emotion, but that he was part of a loving family and thought about them all the time, just as they all thought of him. Throughout the day Hayley would call and at night before the children went to bed, if able to, Glen would find the time to call and say goodnight.
‘Let’s just hope they’re all out,’ Victoria said as they got their first good look at the scene.
There was smoke billowing into the air, thick and black, as they were waved through the cordons. Some parents were being physically held back, not understanding the chaos they would create if let past.
They were guided to park behind the fire engines and they carried out their stretcher and equipment.
On a playground there were firefighters breathing in oxygen, and lines of children stood crying on a nearby playing field, clearly shocked and scared.
But they were alive and safe.
Some of the more seriously injured children were being treated on the playing field and it was then that she saw Dominic and two paramedics working on a child and draping the little body in saline sheets.
There were constant headcounts of the children taking place by the teachers but, Victoria and Glen were told, it was estimated that there were still two children in the building.
As the burnt child was being moved onto the stretcher a call went up for them to urgently move.
‘Stay back.’ A fire officer was pushing back the emergency personnel. ‘One of the internal structures is about to collapse.’
They were told that the next casualty, be it child, staff member or firefighter, would be for Victoria and Glen to treat and that for now all they could do was watch and wait.
There was the violent sound of an explosion followed by a deadly silence. And Dominic, who was loading one of the burn victims into an ambulance, turned and looked at the building.
There weren’t just children in there; there were firefighters too.
Dominic dealt with trauma daily.
He was trained to the hilt for this and, seeing the child into safe hands, he moved fast to get back to the changing situation.
But as he ran towards the line of emergency personnel, he saw a firefighter emerge, and then, too far to do anything to halt her, he watched as Victoria started to run.
Fury ripped through him at her blatant flaunting of the rules, for it was not only Dominic that called out to her to get back.
But no, she and Glen were moving towards the firefighter and child.
With good reason though.
Victoria took safety very seriously.
They were still being told to stay back, as another explosion could often follow the first, but as practical as she was, Victoria was in the business of saving lives and she could see that this little life was ebbing fast.
The firefighter was struggling, and as Victoria approached he dropped to his knees. She could see that he, too, was injured and had given all he had to get the child out. Victoria knew help was close for him but for now she was more concerned with the child.
It was a little boy and he was bleeding profusely from a neck wound and, as he was laid on the playground, Victoria knew that time was of the essence or he would soon bleed to death. She applied pressure to the wound with her gloved fingers as Glen, who had also ignored the orders to stay back, opened a pack. He passed her some swabs but, though she tried, Victoria could not stop the bleeding. But then she found the spot and Victoria let out a long breath of relief that the bleeding had stopped.
She looked up and saw that Dominic was running over and as he approached he let rip.
‘What the hell are you guys doing running forward, when the order was to stay back?’
Victoria shot him a look that said she was a bit too busy to row right now. Dominic dropped down to his knees and his silence agreed to the same as he examined the child.
‘It’s venous blood,’ Victoria said, not moving her fingers. If it had been an artery he would have been dead before the firefighter could get him out but, even so, he was practically exsanguinated.
Glen put oxygen onto the child and Dominic inserted an IV and took blood for cross-matching. He pushed through some IV fluids while calling to Karen to run through the O-negative blood that the Mobile Emergency Unit had brought with them.
It was the most precious commodity in a major incident; O negative is the universal donor and can be given to all without cross-matching. It was used sparingly and Dominic was now grateful for a couple of earlier decisions he had made to withhold some of this most precious resource, believing those patients could wait till they got to the hospital.
This child could not wait.
‘We need to get him to Paddington’s,’ Dominic said. ‘Now.’
They were working on him on the playground and Victoria looked up to a colleague. ‘Can you bring the vehicle in closer?’
Just as she looked up, Victoria saw that another child was being carried out in the arms of a firefighter. The child had red hair. That was all she could make out—and that the child was limp in the firefighter’s arms. Another crew was available to take care of them and so her focus went back to her own patient.
A teacher came over and identified the child that they were working on as Lewis Evans. ‘His mother’s here. She’s frantic.’
‘Get the police to take her to the hospital,’ Dominic said. ‘I’ll speak with her there.’
Dominic could see the redheaded child receiving care from a Rapid Response team and a doctor, and his decision was made to leave the scene and escort this patient.
It was a very difficult manoeuvre into the vehicle. Even lifting little Lewis onto the stretcher caused Victoria to lose the pressure point for a few seconds.
It was enough to know that it could not happen again.
Through the streets the ambulance blue-lighted them towards the hospital. The police had the traffic under control now and streets had been closed off so that their return journey was thankfully far speedier.
Victoria’s arms ached as she knelt on the floor, and Dominic was calling ahead to Paddington’s and explaining he needed a theatre held and the head-and-neck surgeon to meet them in there, when she saw Lewis’s eyes flicker.
The blood and oxygen were starting to work.
‘Hey, Lewis, you need to stay very still,’ Victoria said. ‘You’re in an ambulance and we’re taking you to Paddington Children’s Hospital.’
Lewis didn’t answer but she spoke on as if he could hear her and her voice was calm and reassuring.
‘I’m Victoria,’ she told him. ‘You’re doing so well. I know you are scared and in pain but you’re going to be okay. I just need you to stay very still.’
And then she looked up and arched her neck and Dominic offered her some water.
She