infection | D. Dixon

chapter seven

cadaver

I tied my hair into a pony tail and pulled off my jacket. In my bag I had a scalpel. I've never lost a life when using a scalpel. Amy won't be the first. I slipped on sterile gloves and poked her arm with the scalpel. "Can you feel that?" I asked, readying myself for the cut.

Amy nodded and took a shaky breath. "Just do it." She cried.

I put pressure against the flesh and began making cuts. Amy began to scream. I tried my best to hold her still as I severed her arm, but I knew nothing could be done to ease the pain. We had no time for painkillers.

"Stop! Stop it! You're killing her!" Andrea yelled, but the final cut had been made. I pushed Andrea off of me and rested my knee over the tourniquet. "Someone get me a hammer!" I yelled, grabbing the hot knife off of the ground. I yelped and dropped it, but pulled myself together and grabbed it by the handle.

Andrea held her sister's hand and sobbed, but Amy had already passed out from the pain.

Merle handed me a hammer. "Andrea look away!" I yelled, hitting the bone. It cracked loudly and broke off under the hammer. "Someone help me get her on a table!" I yelled.

Rick and Merle rushed to my side and lifted the girl. They brought her into the center of camp and laid her on a picnic table. "What do you need?" Carol asked, helping take off the girl's shirt.

"I am going to need light. A lot of it. Put on some gloves from my bag. Someone fetch me my medical suitcase!" I ordered, pouring a pouch of saline over the wound to aid my vision.

I examined the parameters of the cut.

"I've got some more bleeding here. Carol get me another shoelace and a stick." I ordered, looking up at the light that Rick had retrieved from the RV. "Hold that still, okay? I'm going to need someone to get me new gloves." I ordered, ripping off my old ones.

I poured sanitizer over my hands and wrists. Daryl looked at my hands. "You're bleeding, too." He said, pushing the glove over my good hand.

"I picked up the knife by the metal." I said, letting someone tie a bandana over my lower face. "Put on the other glove, I can patch myself up after." I said, watching Carol tie the new shoelace.

"Like that?" she asked, looking up at me.

Nodding, I looked up at Lori. "Get me a bucket." I ordered.

Lori obeyed and went to fetch me a bucket. "Can you save her?" Andrea begged, shaking my shoulders.

"Someone get her in the RV with the kids!" I yelled, clamping the bleeding vessels.

Dale escorted her inside, looking pale himself.

"I need to even out this bone. Anyone have a saw?" I asked, pressing a lap pad over the exposed tissue. She began to move slightly under the touch of the tourniquet as it was tied. "Hold her down!" I yelled, taking the handsaw as it was handed to me.

As people started to hold her down Lori appeared with a bucket.

I took off the lap pads and dumped them in the bucket. Daryl assisted me with the saw and we began to even out the bone. Once the saw cut through the bone I removed the clip and poured saline over the wound again.

I dropped the bone in the bucket. "Someone get me a suture kit." I said, holding out my bloodied hand. Carol handed me the sterile kit and moved next to me.

"What next?" Carol asked.

I sighed and set up the needle. "I could be another half an hour making sure the stump is ready to be sewed up. Why doesn't everyone rest and finish up here except someone on light and irrigation?" I said.