Remote Rescue (7 page)

‘If they haven't shown up by the time your dad is loaded onto the plane and ready to go, I'll contact the RFDS base,' Jen added. ‘They'll have the number for the couple. And if worse comes to worst, I can always drive back to them after your dad's on his way.'

Dawson crossed his arms over his chest and sunk down into the seat, trying hard to quell the butterflies in his stomach.

‘Okay?' she asked quietly.

He nodded, then suddenly sat up straight again. ‘Can I use the phone to ring my mum? I tried before you arrived but got voicemail.'

‘Sure,' said Jen.

Dawson picked up the phone and dialled Mum's number.

‘Hey Mum, it's Sam. Did you get Dawson's messages? We've got more problems. Dad and Dawson are in an ambulance on the way to the airport. Em and I were following in Dad's car, which is being driven by this old guy who's helping us.' Sam saw Burt cringe when she said old, and blustered on. ‘Um. He's really nice. His name's Burt and
he's been really great. Anyway. We've had a flat tyre. We're fixing it now. Then we'll get to the airport. Can you ring as soon as you get –'

Beep!

Sam sighed and handed the phone back to Gwen. ‘Thanks.' She turned to Burt, who was now jacking up the car. ‘Can I help?'

‘It's okay,' said Burt. ‘The old guy's got this.'

Sam went red.

The ambulance passed the turnoff to Leigh Creek and slowed down, swerving left into Leigh Creek Aerodrome Road.

Dawson found it hard to believe that there was a town all the way out here. Leigh Creek was a far cry from his busy home city of Adelaide, but at least it had an airport.

There were fewer than a thousand people
living in this coal mining town. When they'd passed through it a couple of days earlier, Dad had told them that the coal mine was scheduled to be closed in a few years. Dawson wondered if it would become a ghost town like Farina.

The ambulance pulled into a car park close to a cluster of small buildings surrounded by a few trees.

‘We're here,' announced Jen.

As soon as the ambulance came to a stop, Dawson jumped out and ran around to the back. There he stood and bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited, looking around anxiously for the other cars.

Jen came out and joined him, opening the doors. ‘Don't worry,' she said. ‘They'll be here soon enough.'

Dawson stood back as Jen and Bruce slid the stretcher from the ambulance, the legs and wheels extending out.

‘Is he all right?' Dawson demanded. Dad was unconscious.

‘Ya dad's fine,' said Bruce. ‘The painkillers have kicked in and he's sleeping now.'

Dawson noticed that there was a drip attached to the stretcher, with a tube going into Dad's right arm. And there was a splint attached to his injured leg.

Bruce and Jen rolled the stretcher towards the gate in the wire fence that separated them from the runway. Dawson saw a plane waiting out beyond the fence. Just one little plane with a propeller on its nose.

It was the smallest airport Dawson had ever seen. It was just two intersecting runways
surrounded by … nothing. A seemingly endless stretch of desert. It felt like such a lonely place.

As they went through the gate, two people walked out from the main airport building. A woman named Maddy introduced herself as the RFDS nurse. She seemed very businesslike and spoke in what Dad would have called a ‘no-nonsense' way. Her blue uniform was neat and clean. And she had a eucalyptus smell – like her clothes had just come out of the wash. She immediately took Jen's side of the stretcher, leading it to the plane, talking intently with Bruce about Dad's condition.

‘It's a comminuted fracture,' Dawson heard Bruce telling her. ‘It'll need surgery.'

‘What's that?' Dawson called after them nervously.

‘I'll explain later,' Maddy responded, without stopping.

Jen headed into the airport building.

The pilot, a guy named Mark, stopped to talk to Dawson. ‘A comminuted fracture simply means the bone is broken into several pieces,' he said. ‘So it's not a clean break.'

Dawson grimaced as he imagined Dad's leg bone splintering into dozens of tiny bits.

‘Hey kid,' said Mark, as if he'd just remembered something important, ‘I've got a message for you about your sisters.'

Dawson's eyes lit up.

‘A lady called Gwen phoned the airport about twenty minutes ago,' he continued. ‘Said your dad's car had a flat tyre and that they were going to be late showing up. That you should just go with your dad and
she would take care of your sisters until something could be sorted out. Okay?'

Dawson nodded.

‘Come on then.' Mark led the way to the plane, climbing up the steps and disappearing into the cabin.

Meanwhile, Dad and his stretcher were being lifted up into the aircraft on some sort of automatic mechanism through the rear door.

Dawson took a good look at the plane and suddenly felt worried. Not for Dad, but for himself. The plane was small and had only one propeller. He'd never been in anything like this before. He'd only ever flown in large jumbo jets. This plane looked flimsy in comparison – like an oversized toy.

Dawson stopped in front of the steps
leading up to the cabin. Even they didn't look all that sturdy. As the rear door closed behind Dad, Bruce came over to him.

‘Okay, mate,' said Bruce, ‘your dad is in. Maddy will take things from here.'

‘You're not coming?' Dawson asked, a little alarmed.

‘Nah,' said Bruce. ‘Me and the ambulance need to get back to Marree. But it's okay, Maddy's an RFDS nurse and she'll look after ya dad until they get him to Adelaide. There'll be an ambulance at the airport to take him straight to Royal Adelaide Hospital.'

‘Another ambulance,' said Dawson, disappointed. ‘With different people?'

‘I know it seems overwhelming,' said Bruce, doing his best to reassure Dawson,
‘but all these people are experts. They're trained to help ya in these situations. They know what they're doing and they'll take care of ya dad. Promise.'

Bruce stuck out his hand. Dawson shook it tentatively. He wasn't used to grown-ups shaking his hand. Bruce then patted him on the shoulder and headed off.

Dawson looked back at the plane and hesitated. ‘The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia' was printed above the five little passenger windows.

‘It's a PC-12,' said Mark, sticking his head out of the cabin door and looking down at Dawson. ‘I've been flying these for years and never had a problem.'

‘Oh,' said Dawson. ‘Okay.'

‘It's just that you look a little concerned,'
said Mark. ‘And we're all ready to go. Just waiting on you to get aboard.'

Dawson nodded, took a deep breath and climbed up. The steps creaked beneath his feet.

His eyes widened as he stepped into the cabin. It looked more like a mini-hospital room than an aeroplane. Dad was on his stretcher, strapped into place against the wall at the head of the cabin, IV drip hanging next to him, monitoring equipment near his head. A second empty stretcher was also strapped to the wall, at the foot of the cabin. The nurse was taking his blood pressure.

Mark indicated the seat opposite the empty stretcher. Dawson sat down and fumbled with his seatbelt.

As Mark headed for the cockpit, Maddy
finished checking on Dad and then sat down in the passenger seat opposite him, giving Dawson a quick smile.

A very businesslike smile
, thought Dawson. He wished that Bruce was coming along instead.

Dawson glanced out of the window. Bruce and Jen were by the carpark, waving. He waved back, although he wasn't sure they'd be able to see him through the little panel.

The engine started and the plane moved along the runway. As it built up speed, the aircraft rattled. The way his seat shook made Dawson think of the massage chairs they have in department stores. Whenever he went shopping with Mum, he liked sitting
in them and switching all the settings to maximum. He wasn't sure he'd ever do that again.

The aircraft was a lot louder than Dawson expected – the rattling combined with the sound of the engine.
That little propeller engine makes an awful lot of noise,
he thought.

His stomach dropped with the sudden leap into the air. The rattling eased, but the thrum of the engine remained constant.

He looked through the window to see Leigh Creek Aerodrome falling away. As the aeroplane climbed higher, he noticed two cars on the highway below. He wondered if that was his sisters along with Burt and Gwen.

Sam looked out of the car window to see a plane in the sky. ‘Are we nearly there?' she asked.

‘Yep,' answered Burt. ‘We're just passing the exit to the town of Leigh Creek, so the airport's not far off.'

‘Then that's probably Dad and Daws up above.' She pointed through the window.

‘Where? Where?' iPad suddenly discarded, Em looked eagerly out of her window. ‘I can't see.'

‘On this side,' said Sam.

Em unbuckled her belt and threw herself to where Sam was sitting, straining. ‘Where are they? I want to see them!'

‘Oi, seatbelt back on or I stop the car,' demanded Burt.

Em reluctantly returned to her seat.

A few minutes later they pulled into the airport car park, the Land Rover parking beside them.

Gwen was out of the Land Rover and opening their door in seconds. ‘I've had a couple of calls on the satellite phone.' She waved her hands about excitedly as she spoke. ‘But the reception was so bad I couldn't make anything out before it cut off. It sounded like a female voice. Might have been your mum. We should get into the airport and make a landline call to her.'

Dad groaned in pain.

Maddy was bent over him checking his leg and adjusting the IV drip. Then she grabbed the headphone and mic off the hook on the wall and put them on. She looked worried. Dawson tried to listen in over the sound of the engine.

‘We've got a problem, Mark.' Maddy's voice was raised. ‘Looks like the patient might have acute compartment syndrome. It's vital he goes into surgery ASAP. Can you radio ahead to make sure the ambulance is waiting and that the hospital is ready?' She paused to hear the answer. ‘Thanks.' Maddy adjusted the IV again and sank into her seat, keeping the headphones on.

Dawson leaned forward. ‘What's going
on?' He had to talk loudly to make himself heard over the engine noise.

Maddy took a deep breath before pulling the headphones off one ear and answering. ‘Looks like there might be a complication with your dad. Sometimes with a broken bone, the sharp ends can cause additional damage. A build up of pressure in a fascial compartment.'

Dawson looked blankly at the nurse.

‘Sorry.' She leaned forward and raised her voice a little more. ‘Basically, it means that not enough blood is getting through to some of the muscles and nerves in his leg. This can cause permanent damage. So we need to get him into surgery as quickly as we can.' She paused a moment. ‘Now, I'm not one hundred percent sure that's what it
is. I'm just saying it's a possibility due to the fact that your dad seems to be suffering some increased pain and there is bruising around the area where the broken bone is pushing against the skin. It might be nothing. But I think it's better if we get him looked at by a surgeon as quickly as possible … just to make sure.'

Dawson could feel his hands starting to sweat and shake. Permanent damage? What exactly did that mean? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

He looked at Dad, lying on the stretcher. He looked so helpless.

Dawson leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

‘I switched on my mobile and there were all these messages. I tried calling your dad, but his phone's switched off.'

‘His phone broke when he fell,' said Sam.

She was at Leigh Creek airport, talking to Mum on the phone in the manager's office. It was so good to hear her voice.

‘Well, at least I'm speaking to you now. You don't have to worry about anything. I've arranged it all.'

Sam noticed how Mum's voice was calm and controlled – too controlled. Her voice was normally quite relaxed, but she was obviously in her full-on Mum Damage-Control Mode. This is how she sounded whenever there were problems at work. It was like some sort of switch had been
flipped and Mum was taking charge of everything and fixing it all herself.