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Sweet Home Alaska. Beth Carpenter
Читать онлайн.Название Sweet Home Alaska
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9781474097444
Автор произведения Beth Carpenter
Серия A Northern Lights Novel
Издательство HarperCollins
Happy reading!
Beth Carpenter
To the first responders: EMTs, nurses, firefighters, police, pilots and all the others who are there for us when we’re at our most vulnerable. Thank you.
Special thanks to Sarah Smith Ransom, who patiently answered my questions about emergency flight response in Alaska and invited me in for a glimpse of the planes, equipment and facilities they use. She shared a great deal of information about the challenges of handling medical emergencies in a huge state with few roads. Any mistakes in the story are mine.
Also thanks to Kathryn Lye, my editor, for helping make this book the best it can be.
Contents
Note to Readers
IT WAS NEVER a good sign when your normally unflappable pilot suddenly started swearing. Volta looked up from the patient stats she’d been going over with her partner, Bridget, who stared at her in wide-eyed alarm. They peered out the windows. They were still fifteen or twenty minutes from their destination, but the sky ahead was clear. The engines were running smoothly. The wings were still attached. “What’s wrong?” Volta asked Mike through her headset.
“Mount Spurr erupted,” he growled. “Once we land in Sparks, we’re grounded until further notice.”
So, nothing wrong with the plane. That was the good news. The bad news was they had a woman in her thirty-fifth week of pregnancy with dangerously high blood pressure waiting to be transported, and they weren’t going to be able to get her to a hospital. Worse, Volta knew the patient. Lori was the school secretary and also assisted Daniel, the volunteer health aide at the Sparks village clinic. Lori’s husband, Paul, taught secondary school and coached basketball.
Last time Volta had seen Lori was at the hospital in Anchorage when Lori was on her way to an ultrasound. She’d joked to Volta that they’d timed her due date for June 2 so that she and Paul wouldn’t have to miss a day of school. But now Lori’s blood pressure was spiking, a major complication. And on top of that, Lori was expecting twins.
Mike must have been having similar thoughts. “At least that doctor is there.”
“What doctor?” Bridget asked.
“You know. The one who I’m supposed to start flying around with to all the villages next week for some sort of study. He came into Sparks by an air taxi yesterday, and the dispatcher mentioned he’d probably want a ride back with us. Doesn’t look like any of us are getting out today, though.”
“I guess not.” Regardless of why he was there, Volta was glad Lori was under a doctor’s care. Daniel did an excellent job, but preeclampsia was tricky. “What kind of doctor is he?” Hopefully not the academic kind, but Mike did mention a study.
“Something about prenatal care.”
“That sounds promising.” Volta breathed a little easier. “How long do you think we’ll be grounded?”
Mike shrugged. “Depends on how long the volcano keeps blowing, and the direction of the wind. Last time, about twenty years ago, it was two days.”