Tuesday, April 7, 9:38 A.M. Lynn had been the one to insert the chest tube using local anesthetic. Michael had watched. It was far easier than when they had inserted the needle thoracotomy, because Hank, a third-year emergency medicine resident, had been the instructor and stayed with them through the procedure. It went without a hitch and both Lynn and Michael felt reasonably confident they were much better equipped to handle the emergency care of chest trauma cases in the future. After Clark Weston had been stabilized, Lynn and Michael went back out into the ER proper to see if they could lend a hand with any other patients. To their surprise, what they found was that the emergency situation was essentially over. While they had been seeing to Clark Weston’s needs, the rest of the patients from the accident had been taken to the MUSC Medical Center while the ones that had arrived at Mason-Dixon had all been seen and were in the process of being treated.
