The slosh of water in a pail, the heat of it dabbed across his skin by a cloth immersed in its contents, bathing his face, his neck, to clean away the bile as other hands freed him from the discomfort of too long damp trousers. More cleaning, more touching, the examination of injuries, the tending of cuts and abrasions, burns and tears, the pricks of long spines injecting the mending plasts at the site of every cracked and broken bone.
It was a floating place, gentle and tender, until the oxygen mask was strapped over his mouth and nose. Hands pressed down upon his chest, his good shoulder…to be followed by a rending pop of bone and ligament that elicited an involuntary cry of temporary, blinding pain into the muffling breathing apparatus.
The jolt gave way to blackness.