Angel of the Night Read Free

taken a nap by the time her shift was complete. A roadside bomb had exploded on the A1A about 15 miles west of Kabul. The bomb blast had wiped out most of a five Hummer convoy that was transporting a group of Canadian troops just off of leave and on their way back to the front. Seven soldiers had been killed instantly, and 15 had been wounded. Of the 15, four died on the way back to Kabul, bringing the total deceased to 10. Wendy worked feverishly at the side of Lt. Major Will Hudspeth who was sharing key surgery duties with Captain McGuire.
    “Retractor, please,” Dr. Hudspeth said to Sophia Nolan-Hart who was assisting alongside Wendy.
    “Certainly, doctor,” Sophia said.
    “Okay, I need you to hold that artery in place while I try to stanch the bleeding that is still going on behind it,” he said to Wendy.”
    As an experienced combat nurse Wendy knew that an audible response was neither necessary nor desired. Extraneous talking was something that all of the newer nurses did because in a domestic hospital setting, it is the norm for there to be a conversation between the healers during surgery. Operating rooms in a war zone are less about chitchat and chatter, partly out of necessity. Domestic operating rooms are quiet and orderly. Battlefield operating theaters tend to be loud and chaotic. The less talk the better. Wendy put it in the back of her mind that she would mention this to Sophia some time when they weren’t wrist deep in a bleeding soldier.
    “Dammit!” Dr Hudspeth said as he nicked the artery that Wendy had attempted to move out of his way. A fresh flow of blood appeared from the nick. Sophia quickly handed the doctor some gel that could be used to stem the new bleed. The gel, called LeGoo, was first developed in 2006 at the Rambam Health Care Campus in Israel, and was more commonly used than surgical gauze to stop a stray bleed that might occur during surgery.
    Dr. Hudspeth quickly shut down the new flow and glanced at Wendy. Just as quickly as he glanced her way, though, he looked away. Dr. Hudspeth went back to working his way behind the artery to the flow that he had been dealing with prior to the accident.
    Wendy could have kicked herself from Kabul to Kingdom Come. She was certain that she had retracted the artery to the point that it wouldn’t be an issue. She didn’t think that she had been distracted by Sophia’s extra commentary, but she supposed that it was possible.
    “Keep your head in the game, Shafer,” she berated herself. “You’re not the head nurse or even Sophia’s supervisor. You have your own job to do, and you had better get it done correctly, or this young man will develop an infection and die!”
    About an hour later the surgery was complete, and the patient had been sent to recovery. Recovery was a bit of a misnomer as the operating theater was too small to have a separate area where the patients could wake up. The patients out of this operating theater were placed behind dividers that might be seen stateside in an office cubicle setting. It was there that the staff could check on them and make sure that post-operative care was given to the best of the staff’s ability.
    Wendy took the patient’s vital signs before handing him over to the care of a post op nurse. His blood pressure was 96 over 49. His pulse was 61. His temperature was 96.9. All of these were considered to be within the standard range for a patient who had been anesthetized for almost four hours in a surgical setting. The body’s natural rhythms are slowed by the anesthetic. Satisfied that the patient, a 19-year old from Winnipeg, Manitoba, was doing as well as could be expected, Wendy left to see if she could find Dr. Hudspeth. She found him outside talking with Sophia Nolan-Hart.
    “That was excellent work, Private Nolan-Hart,” Dr. Hudspeth was saying. “You were quick with the LeGoo, and I just wanted you to know that I appreciated it.”
    Sophia’s face reddened at the compliment. “Thank