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| 11. Deal or No Deal? |
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Jimbo Ferguson's right arm really was broken; it didn't take the most gifted doctor in all of Ireland to see that. It was bleeding quite badly too, and it was completely the wrong shape. But was anything else damaged that wasn't so obvious?
The professor got Ben Madigan to hold Jimbo's head steady, so he couldn't turn it, just in case he might damage his neck. Thankfully he'd been wearing a helmet and his friends hadn't tried to take it off.
Jimbo was moaning, complaining about the pain. Even Ben realised that was a good sign, because it meant he was breathing; there was no need to remove the helmet before the paramedics got there. THEY would have a special way to take it off safely.
Professor Dunlambert rummaged in her bag and found a clean bandage. She set it gently on the arm wound and put a little pressure on it - just as much pressure as Jimbo could take without making him hurt any more than he already did.
'Now, without moving your head or neck,' she told Jimbo, 'tell me exactly what happened.'
'We'd made it all the way from the top of that hill,' Jimbo began, pointing with his left hand, 'to the very bottom.'
His friends were worried about him. They tried to help explain what had happened. They reckoned it might be easier for Jimbo if THEY told the professor how it happened.
'Hold on boys,' Ben interrupted. 'It's important the professor finds out how much Jimbo actually remembers about it. When he's finished, you can fill her in on any missing bits. Deal?'
'Deal, Mister Banker!' the boys laughed.
'We were on our way back up,' Jimbo continued, 'when my back wheel went from underneath me in the stream. I tumbled back this far and smashed my arm on the tree.'
'Did you bang your head on the way down?'
'No.'
'Are you sure? Could you have banged it on any rocks or even on your bike?'
'No, definitely not,' Jimbo insisted. 'Just my arm, and it's so sore!' he groaned.
'Do you have any pain in your neck or your back?' Professor Dunlambert went on.
'No, they're both fine.'
The professor checked him all over, as much as she could without moving him an inch. Everywhere she touched him, he could feel. He had no pain anywhere other than his right arm.
It was too badly broken for her to do anything to help. Anyway, there was no point in messing around with it; the paramedics would make it much more comfortable than she could. And leaving it alone for now was the safest thing to do.
She did manage to get the bleeding stopped with the bandage, though. And that was much more important.
They heard the sirens in the distance.
'When it's broken...it's broken!' the professor announced to her audience. 'Leave it alone and it won't get any more broken. But bleeding? Well that's a different matter entirely...
IF YOU LEAVE BLEEDING ALONE, IT WILL GET WORSE. So you have to get it stopped! Deal?'
'DEAL Mrs Banker!' the boys laughed again. But they understood exactly what the professor meant.
Ben was impressed by how calm she was.
She knew Jimbo would come to no further harm. She checked his eyes with her pink penlight; they were fine. She took his blood pressure with her matching pink stethoscope; fine as well...the emergency was over. All they had to do now was wait for help.
The sirens were getting closer and closer.
It was just a pity Fergus hadn't been able to make it; she would deal with that little problem later.
'Aha!' a familiar voice shouted from among the trees. 'The prof's here already. I thought I knew that yellow Beetle in the car park!'
The professor recognised Pete's voice immediately; one of the paramedics who'd been at the castle the day she'd passed out.
'The panic's over then, I assume?' he suggested.
'But of course, gentlemen!' my niece smiled.
Ben Madigan continued holding Jimbo's head still while the professor gave Pete and his partner Sean a complete report; what had happened, how it had happened, and how long ago it had happened; what she'd found, and very importantly, what she'd done about that in the meantime.
'You're a very lucky boy, Jimbo,' said Pete.
'How do you work that one out?' Jimbo moaned, still in agony.
'You've had the pleasure of being treated by the most gifted doctor in all of Ireland. We don't often get to see her outside her castle, you know.'
'Well that,' the professor added, 'is a bit of a long story.' She wondered if Fergus had made it back to ground level yet.
The paramedics carefully removed Jimbo's hemet the way it SHOULD be done. They eased him onto a special board, just in case he'd damaged his neck or back. It would take x-rays at the hospital to prove it one way or another.
As the ambulance pulled slowly and carefully out of the car park, Professor Dunlambert thanked Jimbo's friends for their help. She praised them for how calm they'd been under pressure. And of course, how clever they'd all been for wearing helmets while cycling.
Minutes later, the Beetle was heading back downhill. Ben and the professor could just about make out Stepminder Castle in the distance. It was time for lunch; Ben needed his sugar levels boosted. The professor needed to tidy that old doctor's case out once and for all. They could both do with changing into clean, dry clothes.
And as they got closer to the castle, it was clear there was something else they needed to do: persuade Fergus the Goose to come down from that flagpole...
*
Fergus clung on tightly. Shivering.
The professor wasn't allowed to climb heights, because of her epilepsy. She glanced at Ben.
'Don't look at me!' he snapped. 'I'm terrified of heights.'
She rushed to the phone.
Andy and John Carlisle were old friends of mine who used to be trapeze artists in a travelling circus. They arrived at the castle in no time at all.
It didn't take long for Andy to reach Fergus. Even less time to persuade the goose that he knew exactly what he was doing. And less than five minutes later, both were back on the ground.
It was no big deal to Andy, but Fergus staggered about the courtyard like a dizzy wreck. Fit for nothing but his bed.
Professor Dunlambert invited the two gentlemen in for lunch. They were curious about Fergus, but my niece was desperate to keep her little friend under wraps for as long as possible. She swore the Carlisle brothers to secrecy. Not a word about a goose in a paramedic uniform. Not a word about the flagpole.
But how to stop it happening again...now THERE was a whole new dilemma!
Watch out for the next BLOG...coming soon.
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