“Oh god, you gotta help us!” one of the terrified young men shouts.
“It’s okay. You’re going to be fine, but you have to stop moving so much. Every time you move, this scaffolding gets more and more unstable. All right?” I say in my calmest but most stern voice.
“My friend. He’s stuck!”
I glance past the man to see the second guy not moving nearly as much. Briefly, I see a thick rope entangled around his waist and leg.
Turning back to the first man. “You’re going to have to jump, okay? I can’t bring the ladder any closer.”
“I-I can’t!”
“Yes you can. Take my hand.” I stretch my hand out to meet his. “On the count of three. One … two … three!” I pull him by the arm as he leaps from the scaffolding onto the ladder.
The ladder shakes and shifts a little, startling the young man.
“It’s okay, I got you.”
He’s fine. I look down to see Don.
“You got him?” I yell.
“Yeah.” Don grabs the kid and begins helping him down the ladder.
I look back to the second guy who I know isn’t going to be as easy as his friend to rescue. Again, the second guy isn’t yelling for help or moving much at all, which in this case isn’t a good sign. I can see blood marks on his ripped blue jeans.
“Fuck!” I curse when I trace the cause of the blood to a cut on his leg. “What happened?” I question.
“C-Cut myself trying t-to get out of the r-rope,” he stammers while holding up a pocket knife.
Doing a quick assessment, I realize that he probably got his leg entangled in the ropes of the scaffolding and tried to free himself using the knife in his hand but only made matters worse by cutting himself.Shit,I swear to myself when I see the amount of blood he’s losing. He could’ve cut his femoral artery. That rope around his leg might be the only thing keeping him from bleeding out.
“Shit!” I grunt.
Don has just passed off the first guy to Carter who helps to lower him to the awaiting paramedics.
Don peers up at me, expecting the second young man to be coming down. He doesn’t know the situation up here it dire.
“I have to go get him,” I yell down.
“What? No!” Don retorts as he begins running up the ladder.
I don’t have time to wait or to waste. I can’t reach all of the way over from the ladder to pull the kid off, and he can’t jump in his condition. I have to go get him. I don’t think about how secure the scaffolding might be. I ensure that my harness is firmly secured to the ladder, but just as I’m about to leap, Don grabs onto my turnout gear.
“What the hell are you doing?” he growls.
“He’s stuck on there.” I point to the kid’s leg. “He’s bleeding out and can’t move.”
Don does a quick assessment of the situation, seeing what I’ve already seen.
“Fine, I’m right here,” he says.
I nod, actually feeling safer knowing that he’s not moving but also not standing in the way of my doing what I need to do.
I move quickly, reaching for the scaffolding and trying to assess how secure this thing is. Unfortunately, I find that it’s not secure at all.
I turn to Don. “This isn’t gonna work. You’ll need to hang onto me while I cut him out.”
He nods.
