The Darkest Corner (Gravediggers #1)(84)

Tess put on a pair of gloves and turned on the bright overhead light so she could get a better look. And then she took a pair of scissors and cut off Colin's pant leg at the thigh. She handed the scissors over to Deacon.

"Go ahead and remove the rest of his clothing and let's get some warming blankets on him."

She was fortunate that the scientific part of mortuary work dealt with the veins. Femoral arteries were how the blood was removed from the body and the embalming solution inputted. She wasn't used to working with the smaller veins, but the principle was basically the same-the needle had to go inside for the solution to be delivered.

She slid the needle beneath the skin and felt the slight resistance as the vein was located. And then she hooked up the tubing to start the saline solution flow. When she looked back up Deacon and Axel had gotten the rest of Colin's clothes off and wrapped the warming blankets around him, leaving his leg exposed.

"You said you could only think of one option," Deacon said.

"Yes, and it's risky," she said. "But I can't think of another way. Or at least another way that I'm capable of being successful at. I once had to embalm a man who'd gotten caught under his tractor. He came to me in five pieces. Both legs, his head, and an arm had all been severed. I still had to embalm him and put all the pieces back together, but the embalming fluid travels through the veins, and theoretically, there should be one point of entry and one exit. With severed limbs and arteries, there are obviously multiple entry and exit points for the embalming solution to go in. So you have to somehow build a bridge and connect the pieces of the vein again, and still have it be functional so the solution can go through."

"So what does that mean?" Deacon asked.

"It means the only thing I can think of to do is build a bridge from the vein in the top part of his thigh to the vein in his calf with catheter tubing. We start the blood transfusion and get circulation going again, and that should buy us the time we need until we can get him to a hospital and someone who knows what the hell they're doing can take over."



       
         
       
        

"No time like the present," Axel said, putting on a pair of gloves for himself.

She'd seen the catheter tubing in a package on one of the shelves and ripped open the paper, setting the thin coil of tubing on the tray with the bandages.

"What's the risk?" Deacon asked.

"I might not be able to get the catheter inserted in time. When the artery is severed the vein retreats into the body. It's going to take me a little time to hunt for it and pull it back out. He'll be bleeding the whole time, and it's a little different working on someone whose blood is still flowing."

Colin stirred on the table, and she looked up to see his dark eyes on her. His upper lip was beaded with sweat and he was pale.

He licked his lips once before speaking. "Je besoin de medicaments," he said in his native tongue, asking for painkillers.

"Pussy," said Elias. "Put a stick between your teeth like a real man."

Tess could see the worry in the other men's faces, but she thought Colin's lips twitched at the comment.

"There's a syringe of propofol in the cabinet," she said. "There's a good stock of drugs. Someone shoot him up."

"Je t'aime," Colin said.

"Hey now," Deacon said, injecting the propofol. "Don't poach."

"I'm not a damned rabbit," Tess said.

"No, you're an enchantress who bewitched me. But you're mine," Deacon whispered against her ear, then checked Colin's pulse. Colin's eyes closed almost immediately and his breathing was steady.

"He's out," she said. "Let's do this."

She hunted for the vein in his other arm to start the blood transfusion, and once she was finished she stood over the wicked-looking knife sticking out of his leg. Her hands wanted to shake, but she wouldn't let them. Once she took the knife out, things would have to happen very quickly.

"On three," she said. "One, two, three." She pulled the knife free and bandages were put in her hand to press against the wound. They were soaked through before she could grab her scalpel to cut him open.

"Keep them changed out and keep pressing down," she ordered Deacon. He grabbed a new set of bandages and took her place compressing the wound. She made a long, quick slice with the scalpel and went hunting for the femoral artery that had retracted into the upper thigh.

She found it with little hassle. Deacon exchanged bandages again, and Axel exchanged the empty pint of blood for a new one, and she very carefully inserted the thin tube of the catheter into the artery, clamping it off for the time being. She wasn't sure how far down the artery had retracted into the lower part of the leg, so she made a cut in his calf a couple of inches down from the knee.