Chapter 120
The sting of bullets hitting him did little to slow him down as Jamie sprinted to his post. He slowed only slightly as he entered the hospital yard. Already, he could see streams of people being brought in on gurneys or whatever they could find. Some appeared to be sailors from the ships in the harbor, others civilians or those who had been ashore sleeping on an early Sunday morning, some who had been preparing to attend church. The Japanese were as indiscriminate about their victims as dysentery or the Bubonic plague. Immediately, Jamie pulled on the gloves he always kept with him and began to triage patients. The airplanes overhead began to fire into the people standing outside, and Jamie watched in horror as some of the medical staff were shot directly in front of the hospital. It occurred to him that there were no US planes in the air, and if none of the Navy birds could get off of the ground, he had no idea how they could possibly survive this attack.
Jamie began to give orders, and while it did seem that the Japanese were not intentionally bombing the hospital, he had no idea how safe the people standing outside might be should there be another rain of bullets, or worse, a bomb. He began to direct everyone to get inside, and then began to treat the worst of the wounded.
Quickly, Jamie fell into treating those who had a chance at survival. At first, they were mostly gunshot wounds, but then, perhaps an hour after the attack began, sailors began to come in with burns. The skies quieted for a while, allowing more of the injured to be brought into the hospital, before a second wave of attacks began, and another barrage of bombs fell from the sky.
Eventually, Jamie realized the sounds of war had been replaced with screaming. Whether it was coming from the shipyard or was only present in his own soul, he wasn’t sure, but the burn victims, those covered in oil, those missing limbs and parts of their faces, large wafts of skin missing from sections of their bodies, they began to fill the hospital. Jamie worked as quickly as he could, helping as many as possible, and while he was tempted a few times to take off his gloves to save a life, he knew he’d be depleted the second his hands came into contact with any of these poor, unsuspecting souls who never had a chance to defend themselves against the surprise attack. He may save one life that way, but he’d miss the chance to help others if he was no longer able to stand, so the gloves stayed on, and he continued to work.
In the back of his mind, his thoughts stayed on Ellie. He hoped her house was far enough away from the harbor that she hadn’t even seen a single airplane, but he knew he wouldn’t rest until he saw her face. Amongst the wounded, he looked for Tommy and was relieved that he never saw the Petty Officer.
He had just finished amputating the arm of a soldier who otherwise wouldn’t have made it when Hildy caught up to him in the hallway. “Dr. Joplin, there’s some people out front waiting to see you. I told them they’d have to wait, that you were busy, but they’re pretty persistent.”
Thinking it had to be Ellie and her family, Jamie thanked her and went in the direction she’d indicated only to see Ellie’s parents, Roger and Lois Whitfield, standing in the middle of a waiting room full of the injured and dying. He rushed over to them. “Where’s Ellie?” he asked before they could even get a word out.
“We don’t know,” Mr. Whitfield replied. “We were hoping you did.”
“She left the house this morning as soon as the first planes flew over,” her mother continued, her expression one of agony. “She took the car, so we couldn’t go looking for her until we caught a ride from a neighbor.”
Panicked, Jamie said, “Well, she couldn’t have gone far.” He remembered how the Buick had been ground to a halt by gunfire and prayed that hadn’t happened to Ellie. “Have you found the car.”
“Yes, but she wasn’t in it.” Roger looked every bit as upset as Jamie felt. “There were… bullet holes... everywhere.”
“All right. Calm down,” Jamie said, but the words were meant for himself every bit as much as they were for the couple before him. “Maybe… she… got out and found shelter somewhere.”
“Dr. Joplin?” Jamie heard a colleague saying his name behind him, but he was too consumed in his own thoughts for it to fully register. Assuming they just wanted him back in surgery, he ignored it.
“We’ll have a look around the hospital. It’s possible she’s jumped in to help.” It seemed like something Ellie would do.
“Dr. Joplin?”
“She could be outside as well, or helping move the wounded out of the shipyard.” The parents were nodding, but tears were streaming down Lois’s face.
There was a sharp tug on Jamie’s elbow. “Dr. Joplin!”
He turned to see Dr. Sidney Cooper, one of his most trusted colleagues, a profoundly morose look upon his face. “Dr. Joplin, Jamie, come with me.”
Jamie could tell by Dr. Cooper’s expression that something was seriously wrong, and his breath caught in his chest. His heart rate increased, and he had to steel himself to keep from panicking. “Dr. Cooper?” he asked, and the doctor shifted his eyes to the ground and indicated with his head that Jamie should follow.
Turning to Ellie’s parents, he said, “I’ll be right back.” Somehow acknowledging that they would also need to know whatever it was Dr. Cooper was wanting to show him would mean something Jamie wasn’t yet willing to recognize.
They wound in-between the wounded on the floor, in chairs, leaning against the wall. “We moved triage into the waiting room down this hall a couple of hours ago, leaving those who couldn’t be helped. I was just double checking we hadn’t missed anyone,” Dr. Cooper explained. “That’s when I noticed….”
“Dr. Cooper?” Jamie said, running to get even with him. “What is it?”
There was no answer.
“Sid, is it Ellie?”
They had reached the room he had indicated, and Sid stepped over a few prostrate bodies. It was clear to Jamie that anyone who was going to need treatment had already been moved out of this room.
