DUNES OF REMORSE

 

From where Angel was standing, the outlook didn't look so good. He had seen somethings in his time overseas, but nothing like this. A young soldier in his late 20's rushed into surgery with a massive shrapnel wound that had cut down to the bone of his left femur. Having good medics in the field had kept the solider alive this long, and it would be up to Angel to take the baton and save his life. 

The nurses prepped his fluids and set him up with a morphine drip as Angel scrubbed in, reciting a verse he always had in the hope for a smooth surgery, and then he slid up to the gurney like it was the bottom of the ninth and his team was down a run. 

Looking at the wound and how the shards and shrapnel had mutilated the flesh, Angel still opted to save the leg. The task would be severe, and there'd be no guarantee that the solider would awake able to walk naturally, yet Angel proceeded on. 

Moment by moment played out, as it should till all of a sudden, the soldier's bp began to drop for no apparent reason. He had lost a lot of blood even though the wound was tied off in the field. Now in surgery, Angel attended to the injury. Still, something was obviously wrong, and Angel scanned the numbers quickly and then inspected the wound more precisely to find another bit of shrapnel hidden and released it and sealed the area off. At that, the bp began to normalize, and Angel continued to sealing the muscle wound all together. 

After a good hour of complicated surgery, the wound, arteries, and muscle had all been repaired and sealed off, and the wound packed with the gaze. With the last stitch made by Dr. Angel, the med crew let out a triumphant roar of "Woo Ha!" for the great teamwork in saving the soldier's life. 

Angel pulled down his mask and pulled off his layers of gloves and sterile surgery gear. Angel ran his hands through his dark curly hair in relief and stepped outside of the room. The solider now moved to the camp ICU unit, and Angel walked off by himself to think and regroup. 

In those moments, he began to think of what he was doing out here in the middle of nowhere, repairing one damaged soldier near death after another. He sat down on the crest of a dune above the camp and looked out at the infinite horizon, thinking about his life back home. Not scheduled to be back till the following year, knowing what he had signed up for, this was the first time he regretted that choice.