Still - h.s (au)

Chapter 2

Grace

This last night felt like it was a never-ending one. Soldiers arrived at around six last evening and now it was five in the morning and things were still chaotic. The sun was still hours away from rising which made this night seem even longer. Soldiers kept arriving through the night and many have died over the last few hours. The one hundred soldiers we were first expecting turned into two hundred and the hospital was on the verge of a breakdown. 

But nothing was going to stop us from saving lives.

I hadn't slept a single minute and I have been awake for almost twenty-four hours now,  but felt awake as if I had slept the whole night on my comfortable bed. I hadn't left this patient for more than five minutes and only left him because I was needed somewhere else. But every time I left, I was afraid that he might pass away during those short minutes. I had successfully managed to lower his fever but every two hours it raised again drastically which was concerning me.

"You did a great job tonight." I tell him even if he can't hear me because he is sleeping soundly. It is probably due to the medicine I gave him a few hours ago for the pain, and he should remain asleep for the next hour or so. "Thank you for keeping yourself alive." Maybe any other patient hadn't survived but he was strong, I could tell.

Right now I was applying a bandage on his now sewed wound on the side of his head near his forehead, making sure it is tight enough to protect it and stop the bleeding. I had also managed to clean him as better as I could with a sponge and water, changing him to a clean hospital gown with the help of another nurse. He must have been under the ground for a while because he was covered in dirt from head to toes.

My eyes scan the room and all I see are the tired faces of my colleagues trying their best to save lives. I quickly find Martha who is feeding a soldier looking exhausted. I hesitate before leaving this soldier but I will only be away for a few minutes. I close the curtains around his bed and make my way across the room to where Martha is and gently touch her shoulder. "Oh it's you." She jumps when I touch her.

"I'm sorry... How are you?" I sit down next to her.

"Tired... A man died in my arms yesterday." I sigh when she tells me this, it was the worst thing that could happen on our first day of real work. "And I think I have seen at least four men losing their legs tonight." Most of the men here would loose either an arm or a leg, and they would have to return home because they would be unfit to fight anymore. Sometimes I think they would rather die than to lose a leg or an arm. But we must everything to save them. "What about you?"

"I spent all night with that patient." I point out to him even though we cannot see him because I have closed the curtains to give him some privacy. "He keeps having high fevers and has some pretty bad wounds. I hope he doesn't have to amputate one of his legs." If the infection continued I'm sure the doctors wouldn't hesitate to cut off his leg to make sure he survives. "He is alive but struggling."

"Nothing prepared us for this." I can see her hand shaking while she feeds the soldier. He doesn't have one arm and his eyes are closed but he keeps eating anyway.

Before I could say anything else the chief nurse enters the room and the first thing I notice is her uniform covered in blood. Miss Flinch also looks exhausted but her day had just begun. The nurse in charge of this room hands her the patient files and she beings her round to check on everyone. I return to the patient on bed number four waiting for her to come.

The soldier is still sleeping and I stand by the bed hoping that I have done everything alright. Miss Flinch finally gets to this bed and before she says anything she begins to inspect the wounds that I have cleaned and bandaged. "How is he alive?" She removes the bandage from the wound in his torso, which is the worst one. It is just under his heart which means that it could have caused harm to his lungs or his liver. We will only know the severity of his injuries once he wakes up. Once the infection passes we will be able to close the wound but now it would cause more harm than good.