You are working overnight as the H2 doc based at Butler County Regional Airport.  It’s bitter cold out (for Ohio that is).  Its only 11 PM and already the temperature has dropped to 9 degrees fahrenheit on its way to a low of 0.  You are in the lounge refamiliarizing yourself with the contents of the critical care cells when the tones go off: “Scene: stab wound – Hamilton Ohio”

You and the nurse grab your equipment, the blood cooler, and head to the helicopter.  You put the critical care cells back in their spot in the rear of the helicopter and then buckle in for the short flight to the scene.

Your patient is a 23 year-old female who was in an argument with her boyfriend earlier in the evening.  The verbal argument quickly escalated, her boyfrienf pulling a knife and stabbing her multiple times in the right arm and right chest.  He fled the scene and she managed to call 911.  The first responders found the patient with significant active bleeding from her arm as well as chest.  She was initially responsive, but is now only awake to painful stimuli.

You meet the EMS crew in the back of the squad truck and assess the patient from the head of the bed.