The Falling Man

Chapter 5

Ethel rubs the sleep out of her eyes. It's her second day in France. Last night, there was a count of around 1,300 soldiers that got brought into camp. To say it was bad was an understatement. It was the complete opposite of the calmness at midday. There weren't near enough beds for any of the men being brought in and the camp was overrun. It was the worst night she's had since she enlisted to be a nurse in the war. Her head didn't hit her pillow until 4 in the morning; now at 6 she's up again. It's safe to say she's completely exhausted and the silence of the nurses on their way to work the following morning made a lot of sense now.

If there was one good thing about yesterday it was talking to Thomas Shelby. Ethel has had one serious boyfriend before, they met when she was 19 and had dated right up until the war; around a year. They broke up because he hadn't wanted Ethel to be holding onto the hope of him coming home. She was heartbroken and cried for two days straight. His name was Raymond Lytal but everyone called him Ray. He was Hungarian/Irish with blue eyes and a really full head of brown hair. He would sing her to sleep and take her out to dance all the time. She really fell in love with him. She sometimes wonders if he's still alive but decided a long time ago to put him behind her.

Tommy made her feel the same feeling she felt after talking to Ray for the first time; but she hadn't flirted with Ray right away like she did with Tommy. She couldn't help herself. She was saying things she didn't even mean or believe like "I'm better than everyone". Just to be immediately contradicted. How embarrassing. If she had time last night she would've beaten herself up for that relentlessly. She liked how he contradicted her though. She liked men that could outsmart and outwit her. She also liked the idea that he was watching her that day. The thought of possibly seeing Tommy today excited her but she pushed to the thought to the side. She knew it was stupid to get excited about a man that will be sent back to war very soon and that she would most likely never see again.

She starts her walk to her early morning meeting with the hut 5 medical team to come up with a plan of action on how to tackle the day ahead of them. During the meeting all of the nurses and doctors stated their names to eachother as most people when they start here are thrown into chaos a lot of them don't know eachother. The goal with this was to increase the team work aspect of hut 5 after last night catastrophe. The meeting actually went pretty well everyone was very tired and delirious so it was actually quite entertaining. They even shared some laughs together which in this time in the world, laughing is a miracle. They come up with a game plan for tackling the day and set off to work.

-Ethel POV-

We got word that there were going to be more men coming in soon. Great! I thought. There already wasn't enough room for the men they have and now more men are coming in. I rushed off to get prepared for the new soldiers arrival. As there isn't any more available hospital beds, cots and blankets are thrown on the ground and had been placed all around the surrounding areas of camp and outside the medical huts. It was quite the horryfying sight to see; as a lot of the men were in terrible condition.

Before I get another moment to think, a military vehicle pulls up outside of hut 5 with yells for immediate CPR. I immediatly rush over to the men that are being layed lifelessly on the ground beside the truck and start performing CPR on one of them. Men are being rushed around on stretchers all around me. I pause my pulses on the man's chest momentarily and stick my ear down to the man's mouth and can hear faint breathing. I quickly grab scissors and a Murphy drip and cut his pants off before flipping the man over and inserting the drip into his rectum to provide his body with fluids. I next grab a mask with an air pump to hopefully give the man some more oxygen. I pump the air into him and closely examine to make sure he's still breathing. I decide it's a good idea to strap a neck brace around his neck as a precaution so he doesn't cause any further damage to himself if he wakes up as I am unaware at the moment if his spine is damaged. "I need to move this man!" I shout not really to any one in particular but hoping to get some help to move him to some sort of an area besides laying in the dirt. Four soldiers rush over to help me move him onto an abandoned stretcher. They carry him into the hut and place him on a newly available bed. I notice weirdly this is the bed Tommy was in yesterday. I don't have the time to give it a second thought though. "Is he alive?" One of the soldiers asks me. He must know him, I think in my head. "They said he was dead." He continues. I look down at the unconscious man and pull the sheet over his genitals to give him some dignity. He has blood on his one side and arm. "What happened?" I ask the man quickly. Deciding not to give the man unnecessary hope that his friend would make it. "The truck he was in crashed I don't know how." I grab a stethoscope quickly to try to get a read on the man's pulse. "Any idea of how long he was pronounced dead for?" "No." The man shakes his head and then is ushered out of the hut by another nurse. I continue to search for a pulse but can't find one. He had stopped breathing again. I begin the second round of CPR. I look up briefly to see Frances rushing towards me. "Frances! Need epinephrine now! Frances! Epinephrine please!" I yell to her in a panic. I continue pushing on the man's chest while briefly looking up to see another soldier being brought in. I watch the soldier be carried on a stretcher past me and what I see I wasn't prepared for in the slightest. It was my older brother Robert laying lifeless. I could tell it was him from the recognizable tattoo on his arm. Immediately I start sobbing but continue CPR on the man I'm working on. Frances comes back and immediately injects the Epinephrine into the man's thigh. "I can't do this!" I yell to her while crying. "My brothers over there!" My voice cracking. "My brother! Robert!" I yell at her. "Ethel! Shh! Listen to me! Calm down. He's in good hands. They will take care of him. Calm down it's okay." I go back to pumping air in the man's mouth with tears streaming down my cheeks. While Frances tries to find his pulse. She tells me there's not one so I put down the air pump mask. "He's been through three rounds of CPR, one in the back of the truck, two with me" I state about the man we are working on while sniffling "how long has it been since that first truck came in?" I ask Frances. "About 20 to 30 minutes." She states calmly. "He was breathing about 30 minutes ago. So it's not an airway issue. Let's go ahead and call this gentleman. Alright? Please take note of his tags. I'm gonna go help save my brother." I say before rushing to the side of the hut I saw my brother being taken. When I arrive to where he is I see nurses and a doctor continuing CPR on him. I freeze. The man I just pronounced dead is already being moved off the hospital bed and past me on a stretcher with the sheet I had covered him with over his head now. I watch helplessly as the nurse pumps on Robert's chest. No no no this can't be happening no. "Please save him please." I state to myself or god I don't know. I watch as the other nurse goes to check his pulse. "We have a pulse!" She states. I immediately start sobbing again and crumble to my knees this time out of happiness. He was alive. Robert was alive. Maybe God was real I thought.