It was like a switch flipped inside you as all your medical training and experience resurface. This wasn’t your first mass casualty incident but you knew not to treat every single case the same way. You were on full alert, first analyzing the safety of the area, was there a car leaking gas, any hazard. You open the door of the first car you approach. Thankfully it wasn’t jammed and opened up easily. An elderly couple were at the front and they were both groaning but more or less conscious.

“Ma’am? Sir? I’m Kang Seulgi, EMT. Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, just dizzy. The car caught our tail end and we spun.” The elderly man spoke up then touches his wife’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” His wife just nods and opens her door to get out to which her husband also follows.

“Stop worrying about me.” The wife scolds. “You’re the asthmatic one.” Her husband just chuckles as they walk together.

You usher them to a spot safe from the road. For now it was okay to leave them, it didn’t seem like they needed urgent medical care. You rush back into the crash zone and notice Joohyun also ushering a man clutching his arm to the same area you brought the elderly couple.

She eyes you and gives you a firm nod, you nod back and continue looking through the other cars. You arrive at a car farther behind and open the driver’s door where a middle-aged woman sat clutching her head that was slightly bleeding. 

“Ma’am are you okay?”

“Yes, yes I’m okay but-“ She frantically turns around to look at the back seat and you follow her gaze. A toddler was seated but was strapped under a seatbelt without a child seat. You immediately go into the back compartment to check on the little girl. 

She was limp and looked too pale. You check her pulse and find it though it was faint. You quickly unstrap her and check under her shirt. You clench your jaw as you notice the seatbelt mark on her abdomen. This was bad, she needed to be operated on ASAP. 

The sound of sirens grab your attention, the response team has arrived. You go out to call for a team to help out. A familiar blonde comes jogging into your direction quickly with two medical jump kits on hand. You couldn’t express how thankful you were right now for them. This area was fortunately under your team’s designated response zone and they came just in time.

“What do we have?” Wendy instantly asks as she approached you.

“Pedia with a possible seatbelt injury. Seatbelt marks on her abdomen. She’s unconscious with a weak pulse.”

“Got it, I’ll take care of this. Continue triaging with doctor Bae.” She orders and gives you the extra jump kit to use. You nod and accept the bag before heading to the second to the last car.

Joohyun follows behind and joins you in checking the car. “Visual on two passengers in front.” The car obviously looked expensive and only had some bumps and scrapes in front.

You open the driver’s door and Joohyun opens the passenger’s. You almost reeled back with the intense whiff of alcohol coming from both inside. You clicked your tongue already guessing who caused the entire accident. You look up to see Joohyun with a look of annoyance on her face probably thinking the same thing.

The intoxicated passengers were both groaning. “Sir, wake up.” You nudge the driver’s shoulder and he just whines at being disturbed and even slaps your hand away. “Okay that is it-“

“Yah!” Joohyun yells at the other side and the two passengers jolt awake and direct their dazed eyes at the brunette doctor. “Do you guys have any idea what’s going on outside right now? Drinking under the influence? What the hell were you two thinking?!” 

“Stop, pretty ladies shouldn’t be shouting.” The driver speaks up and you just wanted to punch the daylights out of him right now but you knew how to keep your head cool, now wasn’t the time.

A junior EMT approaches you and Joohyun. “Could you give me a syringe and a light green tap please?” Joohyun asks your junior EMT and he quickly grabs what she asked for. Joohyun crosses in front of the car and goes beside you as she addresses the driver. “Sir I’m going to need to take a blood sample from you for alcohol testing, do you agree?“ She says in the coldest manner ever that you had to take a gulp even though she wasn’t asking you.

The driver wasn’t fazed still, idiot. “Better a pretty woman like you than any other.” He was smirking at Joohyun and you just wanted to wipe that stupid flirting look on his face.

Joohyun doesn’t even bother rolling her eyes, you already felt it. She grabs his arm and wraps the rubber tourniquet around it before inserting the needle without warning and withdrawing blood. The driver winces and you chuckle silently because you knew Joohyun meant to make it painful for him even though she was perfectly capable of making it the opposite. 

She hands the tap filled with blood to the junior EMT. “Prepare this for labs, I’m betting his ethanol levels in it would be off the charts.” The EMT nods and takes over the two dimwit patients. Little did they know what kind of trouble they caused. 

You and Joohyun move on to the last car. This one was in the worst condition as the front was entirely crumpled. You could visualize one passenger in front at the driver’s seat. He wasn’t moving, you try to open the door but it wouldn’t budge. Joohyun opens the back door and moves inside to check on the patient.

“He’s got a pulse but we’ll need to extricate him, both his legs are stuck.” Joohyun informs you and you quickly call for the extrication team who arrived just a few minutes ago. 

You take out an x-collar from the jump kit Wendy handed you and applied it around the patient’s neck as the extrication team prepared the necessary equipment to get him out. You check his vital signs, pulse was faster than normal and his blood pressure was dropping. The patient was still out cold, you stop the bleeding on his head and wrap it with a bandage. Unfortunately you would only be able to treat his legs after he gets freed from the metal contraption.

He was probably losing a lot of blood due to the crushing of his legs. Time was an important factor right now. The rescue team starts to do the necessary procedures and you prepare everything else needed after they take the patient out, splints, tourniquet, bandages.

“We may need to give him fluids.” Joohyun prepares an IV set as well. “Diagnosis?”

“Possible shock, crush syndrome. He’s tachycardic and his blood pressure’s too low.”

“Good call. We need to get him out in less than fifteen minutes.” 

This was a risky move, removing the metal that was currently crushing the patient’s legs. His condition would get worse if extrication wasn’t completed in less than ten to fifteen minutes. If his vitals would get worse, you’d have to apply a tourniquet and if worse comes to worse, do a field amputation.

Thankfully, the extrication team only took about five minutes to safely get the patient out. As you suspected, his legs were as crumpled as much as the car. He gets loaded into the ambulance and you and Joohyun hop in with him. You two work seamlessly like this wasn’t the first time when in reality it was.

In the hospital, you two had work boundaries but here in the ambulance, you two have transformed into true teammates. It wasn’t hard to work with her, she knew what to do ahead of time that it was like you two could read each other’s minds. She assists you in splinting the patient’s legs