Help! - Conclusion

While the assistant started the process of getting Robbie on an I.V., the doctor was called to his office to attend to a phone call.  A woman’s voice pierced through the earphone, illegible and confused.  The doctor calmed her and after listening to the problem he rushed to her house.

Aari, the woman’s husband lay flat on the ground by the door of his house, unconscious.  The doctor had arrived just in time to resuscitate him, but his clinic was not equipped for further treatment.  While the doctor pondered on his new patient’s dilemma, he received an anxious call from his clinic.  Apparently, they had run out of their stock of I.V. fluids and the boy remained delirious on the exam table.  To add to the doctor’s dilemma, the assistant informed him of another patient who had been brought in with possible blood poisoning.

Lena’s minor incident on the beach had turned out to be life threatening.  Her foot had swollen and turned blue, purple and several shades in between under the bandages her husband had applied.  She had started to become delirious as well, babbling about a rusted piece of metal, rocks, waves, germs, tetanus shot,…

The doctor returned to the clinic with Aari on a stretcher and worked hard to keep his patients comfortable and alive.  But he knew that all three needed to get treatment in a hospital in the mainland if they were to survive the night.  The problem was that the only airport on the island had no lights so the patients could not be flown out until the morning.  And that will be too late.

The assistant empathized with the patients and their families, understood the doctor’s dilemma, but remained equally helpless.  When the phone rang as he was pondering on a way to help these patients, he absently answered.  It was his brother and the assistant blurted out the predicament at the clinic without giving his brother a chance to say anything.  The brother hung up and immediately called up his friend at the radio station.  Soon the grave situation of the clinic was being broadcasted all over the island and the clinic was receiving calls on offers of help.  Yacht owners offered rides to the mainland and several other suggestions and offers of help poured in.  One idea appealed to the doctor and soon all were in motion.

The patients were prepared and rushed to the airport.  All the taxis of the island showed up at the airport one by one.  They lined up on the runway with their headlights blaring and provided a well-lit path for the plane to take off.

Lena, Robbie and Aari made it to the hospital in time and recovered completely.  The island had come together as a family does to support, and do what must be done to take care of their own.  They had found a way to make possible that had seemed impossible.

THE END