Chapter 4: The Hospital Ship

The change in engine sounds woke Jonas from his brief nap and he tried to clear his groggy thoughts.

That catnap was nowhere enough, he mused. Then the thought struck him—how would he find his wife and daughter?

Fighting his almost frantic concern about their safety and how he would be able to find them on the ship; he tried to think of who to contact to locate them. And then his mind cleared. Hospitals have patient wards, even when they are in ships. No problem.

As soon as the aircraft touched down, a number of crewmen ran up and helped the chopper’s passengers out while a CPO checked their IDs. When he got to Jonas, he looked at a clipboard he was carrying and then motioned a hospital corpsman over.

“This here’s Mr Bernard. He has family who came in on the EH. They both went straight to surgery. Can you make sure he’s squared away and knows the gouge?”

Jonas recalled that the word meant “situation.”

The corpsman nodded. “Aye aye, Chief. That’s what they sent me up here for.” The corpsman turned to Jonas. “If you can follow me, sir. Your two ladies are in surgery now and I’m told there’s no immediate problem for them so you can relax as best as you can. I was told to show you to the waiting area,” and then he led Jonas to a lounge-like area. “They said to tell you to try to relax. A lot of patients came in on the EH so it might be an hour or two’s wait. There’s coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and bottled water there. Just down that passageway is the head. The chairs recline so you can sack out if you need.”

Jonas thanked him and sat in a comfortable chair and, despite his anxiety, he quickly fell asleep. The exertion of rescuing his wife and daughter plus the extended time being awake had exhausted him and not even the nagging pain from his leg, with its implanted surgical rod, kept him awake.

A nurse awakened him several hours later.

“Come with me, sir. Your wife and daughter are out of the post-surgery unit and in the patient ward. You may visit with them briefly.”

She led Jonas through several passageways and they entered the ward, brushing back a curtain which surrounded two wheeled hospital beds. There lay Cassandra and Fabienne who, on seeing him, both smiled happily.

“My hero,” Cassandra said as she stretched out an arm to him. “Ouch,” she complained as the movement disturbed her legs, one of which was in a cast.

“Papa,” Fabienne called. “Everything was shaking and Manman screamed for me to get outside, but the doorway fell on my head. It really hurt. We’re going to Miami to fix it. You saved Manman and me.”

Jonas went over to her and hugged her carefully, then kissed her cheek, avoiding touching the large bandage around her head.

The nurse was standing by. “She has a protective cover over her head wound to keep away any further pressure there,” the nurse said.

“I love you, sweetie, and we’ll make sure you’re good as new,” Jonas told Fabienne.

Then he went to Cassandra’s bedside. “You must hurt pretty bad, chérie. Those burns looked nasty.”

He bent over and kissed her.

“Not as bad as they could have been, the doctor here told me. You and Henri must have done the right things for first aid, he told me. Do you know what happened to Robert? There was all that shaking and a ceiling beam must have fallen on us. I was knocked out and woke up when I felt the fire. Then you were there like a lwa, my guardian spirit.”

“Unfortunately the beam hit him full on and he didn’t survive. I’m really sorry.”

Tears welled up in Cassandra’s eyes. “Oh, I’m very sorry to hear. He was a good, decent man.”

“He was. The quake was terrible; Henri and I saw destruction everywhere. Julianna, the family, and their home and shop are okay though, but a lot of Aubry was badly damaged,” Jonas said.

Cassandra nodded. “I would love to be able to take care of my people, but Vanessa...”

“Right. We can’t go back, Fabienne would be in great danger too. We’ll have to go into exile in the States, I guess.”

Cassandra leaned back and closed her eyes. Fabienne had already fallen asleep. The nurse cleared her throat.

“You’ll need to leave now, sir. They need their sleep to recover.”

Jonas yawned. “I do too. I only got maybe two hours’ sleep in the last 32 hours.”

“We’ll get you a berth. You can’t see the surgeon today anyway; he’s been busy with everyone who came in earlier. He told me that he’d see you at 0800 tomorrow. We’re about twelve hours out from port and it’s almost 2000 hours now. When did you eat last?”

“Huh. I guess I am hungry. It’s been too long to remember when, other than a snack and a few energy bars.”

“Let me call a corpsman. He’ll show you to chow and then your berth. Let him know if you need anything for this evening, like toiletries and stuff.”

“I’m good there. I was able to save some personal items from my wrecked home.”

“So sorry about that, sir; I hope things go better for you going forward.”

“Thanks.”

The corpsman led Jonas to the ship’s mess where he had a quick meal. As a hospital ship, food was kept prepared and was available the entire day. Then a crew member brought him to a compartment and showed him a berth there.

Jonas woke at 0600; his military training wouldn’t let him sleep if there was a mission to be done, and saving his family was his current mission. He showered and went to the mess area. After eating, he found his way back to the ward where his family was located but a corpsman stopped him.

“You’re not supposed to be here, sir,” the corpsman began.

“My family is in there,” Jonas responded.

“Ah. The Bernards? Okay. Your wife is having her burns treated now and your daughter is getting a CT to follow up on any possible further internal bleeding. They should be fine, though. Wait over there; a nurse will get you when the surgeon is ready to talk to you.”

After an hour passed—a long tense hour—a nurse appeared and brought Jonas to a small office cabin just as a doctor wearing surgical scrubs appeared at the door.

“Colonel Haskins, this is Jonas Bernard,” the nurse spoke to the doctor.

“Hello, Mr Bernard,” he nodded to Jonas, “and have a seat and relax. Your wife’s burns are being treated now and she’s doing okay. She obviously had top notch first aid and that helped enormously. We expect that she’ll recover with hardly any scarring. Your daughter’s injuries are somewhat more serious; she has a skull fracture which I hear you know about. That caused bleeding under the membrane lining the inside of the skull. The medical term is ‘subdural hematoma.’”

“But how is she ... can you fix it?”

“She’s stable now and her first CT shows that the bleeding’s stopped and the one we did this morning looks okay too. But we don’t have the facilities on board for the delicate neurological surgery she needs to repair it, to look for any remaining blood vessel damage, and remove the pooled blood. There might be too much for the body to absorb it all. I’ll be arranging a medevac flight to Miami for her; we have about a dozen other seriously injured patients, three U.S. citizens, scheduled for that flight.”

“Um, sir, I’m a citizen and so is Fabienne.”

“I heard that, but is your wife?” Haskins asked.

“No, but...”

“Not a problem. I’ll get my master chief in here to talk to you about that. He’s had some experience with mixed U.S. and foreign dependents.”

Haskins punched a number into the desk phone. “Master Chief? Got a patient with a citizenship waiver issue. Need you in 2043 ... roger.” He turned to Jonas. “Be just a minute.”

“Thanks, sir ... ah, you’re a colonel? This is a Navy ship so I thought only Navy docs...?”

Haskins chuckled. “Army light colonel. I’m in the reserve and on TDY from the University of Florida medical school for this disaster relief effort. The Army, Air Force, and Navy have doctors.”

“Ah, I think I knew that. Army docs in Germany rebuilt my leg. I’m Marine; medical retired; wounded in Afghanistan...” Jonas began, and then the cabin door opened and a big man in a Navy corpsman’s uniform appeared.

The newcomer glanced at Jonas and then did a double-take, his eyes widening and jaw dropping. Jonas looked at the man and gasped.

They both spoke at once: “ ... Jo ... Jonas? What...?”... “Bert? Damn! Is it you?”

Haskins looked from one to the other. “You guys know each other?”

The two men approached each other for a man-hug.

The man referred to as “Bert” looked at the colonel. “Yes, sir; this jarhead saved my sorry ass in A-stan. Jeez ... must be fourteen years now. I was attached to his company and we saw a lot of combat together. This guy was damned good; really took care of his squad and even helped me treat some Marines when they got hit. He learned about giving field first aid like a sponge.”

Haskins grinned. “So I guess introductions are not in order, but for the sake of protocol, Mr Jonas Bernard, this is Master Chief Gilbert Bronson.”

Jonas looked at Bronson’s insignia, three chevrons, arc above, with a superimposed eagle. “You’ve come up in the world, man. Made a master CPO? Two stars above the eagle is a master chief, right?”

Bronson chuckled. “Hey, they think I’m good, so they promoted me a bunch, but it’s probably because the higher I went, the less damage I could cause. Aye, I’m a master chief hospital corpsman now. How come you’re on shipboard here? And how’s that leg? Give you any problems?”

“The earthquake. I live in Haiti and my family got hurt. Yeah, the leg. I set off the airport alarms when I flew. And I can forecast rain all the time too. But it’s okay; only when I’m tired, I feel it and limp a bit.”