Posh Doc, Society Wedding by Joanna Neil Page B

facewas pale, and etched with pain, and when Izzy carefully examined her she could see that on her injured side the leg was shorter than the other one, with the toes pointing out.
    She glanced at Ross. ‘I think she has a pelvic fracture,’ she said softly.
    He nodded. ‘I agree with you.’ He checked the woman’s pulse and respiration as Izzy began to open up her medical bag. ‘Her heart-rate is very fast, and so is her breathing,’ he said in a low voice. ‘I suspect she’s going into shock because of internal bleeding.’
    That was bad news. Untreated shock meant that the patient’s condition could deteriorate very rapidly. ‘Okay. We’ll give her oxygen and put in an intravenous line so that we can give her fluids to replace the blood loss.’ She spoke gently to her patient. ‘Sarah, I believe you have a broken bone in your pelvis. I’m going to give you an injection for the pain. It should make you feel much more comfortable.’
    As soon as they had completed those procedures, and Sarah’s pain had retreated, Izzy worked with Ross to immobilise the injury by means of a splint. He was calm and efficient, capable in everything he did, and above all he was caring and considerate towards the woman.
    Izzy turned to the other members of the rescue team. ‘We need to lift her onto the stretcher,’ she said, ‘keeping her as still as possible.’
    ‘No problem,’ Finn said. ‘Between us we can do that.’
    They all worked together to transfer Sarah to the stretcher, covering her with a blanket and fastening the straps securely to prevent her from slipping and coming to any more harm. After that it was a question of carrying her back down the slope.
    ‘I’ve called the emergency services and asked them to have an ambulance waiting for us,’ Izzy said.
    Two members of the team came forward to take hold of the stretcher, while Finn stayed with the woman’s friend, keeping her company as they started back down the slope. Izzy took a moment to gaze around, looking down across the valley to the distant loch. Mist was rolling in over the mountains and the smooth silver surface of the water, signifying the close of the afternoon and a cooling temperature.
    ‘I was really glad of your help back there,’ she told Ross. ‘It meant that we could treat her much more quickly and get her on her way. Time is the enemy here, isn’t it?’
    ‘It is when it’s a bad injury like that one. The sooner we get her to hospital the better.’
    They moved as swiftly as possible, all of them anxious to reach safe ground before nightfall. Other members of the team took over the stretcher-bearing, to give the first two a rest. Eventually they reached the forest once more, and Izzy paused to check on the status of her patient. ‘It’s all right, we can keep moving,’ she told the rest of the team. ‘She seems to be holding up well enough.’
    When they finally reached the place where they had parked the rescue team’s van, Izzy watched over the transfer of her patient to the ambulance and helped Sarah’s friend to settle in beside her while Ross went to speak to the paramedics.
    Satisfied that Sarah was comfortable, Izzy climbed down from the vehicle. Finn came to meet her. ‘A job well done, I think. We’ve a good group of people here, and with you and Ross on call the people around here can rest easy.’
    ‘Do you think he’ll decide to join the Mountain Rescue team?’ she asked. ‘I gather this was something of a trial run for him.’
    ‘I hope he will. I remember some years ago he used to do all sorts of outdoor activities—hill-walking, climbing, abseiling, to name just a few. Of course then he went off to do his medical training, and there was all that business with Alice.’ Finn spoke in a low voice. ‘It was a bad time all round when his brother stole her away from him. There was a breakdown of trust, if you like…not that they had ever been one hundred percent on brotherly love. Robert loved the estate,