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‘Of course. I’ll update you when you come in again.’
‘Thank you. I’m Sam, by the way.’
‘OK, Sam.’ She acknowledged him briefly, and with that he went away. With the nurse’s help, Jade wheeled the child into an available treatment room and made sure that he was hooked up to the monitors. Just as they settled him, though, the little boy started to convulse, and a few seconds later he lost consciousness.
‘I’m not getting a pulse,’ Jade said anxiously. ‘He’s gone into cardiac arrest.’ She worked as fast as she was able to put in an endotracheal airway, and then started chest compressions with the palm of her hand, while the nurse took over with the oxygen.
Jade was desperately afraid that her efforts were to no avail, but after a while the nurse glanced at the monitor and said, ‘He’s back with us.’
Jade was relieved, but she was still feeling apprehensive. The child’s cardiac output was thready, and she swiftly established an intravenous line and gave the child atropine.
It didn’t appear to be having much effect. ‘Helen,’ she said, “we’ll start him on the charcoal. You’ll need to watch him in case of vomiting.’
The nurse nodded. ‘What about blood tests?’
‘I want U and E and blood glucose, a complete blood count and a toxicology screen. We’ll monitor him for pulse, blood pressure and perfusion.’
‘OK.’
A woman came into the treatment room and clutched at Jade’s arm. ‘What’s happening to my little boy? Nobody’s telling me anything. He’s just lying there. Can you do something to help him?’
‘We’re doing everything that we can,’ she told the woman, using a soothing tone. ‘He’s absorbed a lot of his grandmother’s medication, and that has had the effect of slowing down his heart and causing a collapse of his vital functions. We’re working to restore his heart and circulation.’
‘But he’ll be all right, won’t he?’
‘I hope so,’ Jade said gently. ‘We’ll need to admit him for observation, so that we can monitor his condition over the next few hours.’
The woman was near to tears. ‘We had no idea that he’d been searching in his grandmother’s bag. It was up on a high cupboard, and we didn’t think he could reach that far. Then we found out that he had pulled up a chair, and climbed on to it. He thought his grandmother had some sweets for him.’
Jade was sympathetic. ‘I know that it can be hard to watch children every minute,’ she said. ‘He’s at an age, though, where he’s likely to be into everything, and you need to make sure that any tablets and medicines are locked away securely.’
‘I will. I won’t ever let this happen again…if only you can save him…’ She sent Jade a pleading look. ‘I want to stay with him.’
Jade nodded. ‘That’s all right. He seems to be stable for the moment, and the nurse will be here to answer any questions that you might have. I have to go and see to my other patients, but I’ll come back and check on him in a few minutes.’
She was glad that the child’s mother was by his side. Seeing them together made her think of her own mother, lying ill in a hospital bed, and a feeling of sadness overwhelmed her. She had been trying so hard to keep going, to do everything that was necessary, but all the time she was struggling with the knowledge that people she loved were fighting major battles of their own. Just as soon as she had the opportunity, she was going to look in on them. She needed to know that her mother and sister-in-law were going to be all right.
‘How is the child?’ Callum was waiting for her as she left the treatment room. He was looking over the boy’s chart, and she wondered if he was checking to see if there was anything that she had omitted to do.
‘It’s too early to say, just yet. His condition has stabilised for the moment, but he isn’t out of danger just yet. Helen is monitoring him.’
‘All right. Perhaps you could go and look at the patient in treatment room four. He appears to have trodden on a nail.’ He handed her the chart, his hand brushing hers, and a shower of invisible electric sparks shot along the length of her arm, confusing her and rooting her to the spot.
He seemed to hesitate momentarily, and she hardly dared look at him in case he had registered her sudden tension. Perhaps he was waiting for an answer, but her voice seemed to be stuck in her throat. Instead, she simply nodded.
He moved away from her, and she hoped that would be the end of it, but for the rest of the morning she had the nagging feeling that he was keeping an eye on her. He never made it too obvious, but she was aware that he was checking up on her, either by glancing through the tests she had ordered or by inspecting her notes and scrutinising the medications she had prescribed.
By the time her lunch-break came along, she was glad to get away. It was one thing to be supervised, but it was quite another to be under constant surveillance as though he expected her to make some dreadful mistake at any minute.
Keyed up, and thoroughly on edge, she went up to the ward where her mother was being cared for. Her mother was lying propped up in bed, looking frail and lost, her fair hair falling in soft tendrils against her cheeks. Jade could see that her left arm was in a sling.
Jade gave her a gentle hug. ‘I can’t believe this has happened,’ she said, ‘but I’m so glad that you’re at least sitting up and able to talk to me.’
‘It was all a bit of a shock,’ her mother said. ‘I thought I’d just fractured my shoulder, but then I started to feel really ill and they all started to rush about doing tests and things. They said that I was bleeding inside, and they didn’t know what was causing it, but in the end they had to send me to Theatre for an operation. I feel much better now, but I’m a bit sore.’
‘I expect you will be for a while,’ Jade said. ‘I had a word with the doctor. He said that they found a small tear in your liver, but they managed to stitch it up. As long as you rest, you should be all right, but they’re going to keep you in here for a few days, just to make sure.’
Her mother looked at her, her green eyes troubled. ‘How are you coping? You’re looking after the children, aren’t you? Is everything working out all right? How are they bearing up?’
‘Everything is fine,’ Jade said. ‘Don’t worry yourself. The children are worried, obviously, but they seem to be taking it all in their stride. Rebeccah is older, so she seems to have more of an inkling about what’s going on, but she’s coping. They were both hoping that Ben would come home, but he’s still in the decompression chamber. I should think he’ll be here as soon as he’s able.’
‘That will make Gemma feel better, I expect.’ Her mother frowned. ‘How is she?’
‘I’m not absolutely sure, but I’m going to see her in a few minutes. As far as I know, they’ve managed to stabilise her pelvis in Theatre. She’s lost a lot of blood, though.’
They talked for a while longer, and then Jade gave her mother a kiss and stood up, ready to go. ‘I brought you some magazines,’ she said. ‘I’ll hunt out a few more for you and bring them along tomorrow. You take care now, and get some rest.’
Her mother smiled. ‘You’re an angel. You always were able to cope, no matter what life threw at you. You always seemed so strong. Look at how you looked after your brother when he was little—I feel so guilty sometimes because of the way I failed you back then, and here you are, going through a similar situation all over again.’ She sent Jade a pensive look. ‘I know this can’t be easy for you, and you must have a lot to contend with just now. You should try to take some time out for yourself.’
‘I will.’ Jade didn’t think there was much chance of that, but it would make her mother happy to think all was going well.
‘You were going to start your new job today, weren’t you? Is everything working out all right?’
‘Yes, it’s turning out just fine,’ Jade lied. She wasn’t going to burden her mother with her problems. ‘At least it means I’m on hand to come up and visit you whenever I get the opportunity.’
She left the room a minute or so later and went in search of Gemma, her half-brother’s wife. Gemma’s condition was much worse than her mother’s, and Jade was shocked when she saw her. The accident and the haemorrhage that followed had taken their toll on her.
Her sister-in-law was almost as white as the bandages that held the dressing in place on her head, and the brown of her hair made a stark contrast to her pale skin. She seemed very weak and tired, and Jade guessed that she was in quite a lot of pain and discomfort.
Even so, Gemma wanted to know about the children. ‘Are they all right? Have they settled in with you?’
‘Yes. They’re doing just fine, and they send their love. I told them that you’ll be staying here for a little while, but that they could come and see you as soon as you were feeling stronger. The doctors don’t think it would be a good idea for them to come in just yet.’
‘I know.’ Gemma was near to tears. ‘Thanks for taking care of them for me. I was hoping that Ben would bring them to me, but I expect he’s still out on the rig. He spends more time there than he does with us, but perhaps that’s how he wants it. Sometimes I wonder if we made a mistake, getting married.’
Jade reached out and touched her hand. ‘You mustn’t think like that. Ben loves you.’
‘I don’t think so—not enough, anyway. Why else would he spend so much time away from us? And I don’t think he cares about the children—why should he after all? They’re not his, so I suppose he can’t be expected to love them the way I do.’ Her voice faded.
‘I’m sure you have it all wrong,’ Jade said. ‘He loves all of you, and he’ll be here just as soon as he can manage it. The last I heard, he was still in the decompression chamber.’
‘Maybe.’ She could see that Gemma wasn’t convinced. ‘It takes something like this to make you take stock of things and realise what’s important in life. At least I have the children.’
‘You have Ben, and me and Mum as well,’ Jade told her. ‘You’re not alone. You mustn’t think like that.’
Jade stayed with Gemma until her sister-in-law’s mood had lifted a little. She knew something of what Gemma was going through…she was feeling lost and alone. Her own childhood experiences had left her feeling much the same way, making her reluctant to believe that she could rely on anyone.
Her lunch-break came to an end and she hurried back to A and E. The little boy who had taken the propranolol was showing signs of recovery, and she was pleased about that. She checked him over, and left the treatment room feeling glad that at least something was going right.
‘He was fortunate,’ Callum said, coming over to sign her chart and allow her to pass the boy over to admissions. ‘If his family had left it much longer before they realised what he had done, things could have been far worse.’
She nodded. ‘It’s easy to be wise after the event, I suppose. Children will always get up to mischief of some sort, but I expect his family will keep medicines securely locked away from now on.’
He gave her a long look, those blue eyes lancing into her. ‘I imagine that’s something you know a lot about—the mischief, I mean.’
She managed a hollow smile. ‘That reminds me—about this morning,’ she began. ‘I didn’t know that the children had come to you, asking for milk. I was in the shower, and I didn’t realise that they had left the house.’
‘I guessed as much, and it sort of went along with what I’ve come to expect. You don’t have to explain.’
‘No…but I want to. You see, under normal circumstances I would have had enough milk to keep us going, but then we took in a stray kitten, and he seems to have guzzled all I had.’
‘I noticed him yesterday. As for your breakfast problems, I take it that your husband is no good at helping out in that kind of situation? I’d have thought that with two of you in the house, one or other of you could manage to keep an eye on things.’
‘I’m not married,’ she told him.
‘Ah…I see.’
‘I don’t think you do.’
She was about to explain the situation to him, but before she could get her act together he said, ‘Well, let’s just say that it all makes some kind of sense now. No wonder you’re struggling, if you’re on your own.’
He gave her an assessing glance, and then added, ‘I’m afraid I didn’t really have time to say very much to the children this morning—I planned on getting into work early, and they caught me on the hop, so to speak.’
She frowned. ‘I’m sorry that they came and disturbed you. They shouldn’t have done that.’
‘It’s not a problem,’ he said. ‘I realise that you’re having trouble keeping it all together, but I guess you’re not alone. A lot of single parents seem to find it difficult to manage.’
He signed her chart while she was still staring at him open-mouthed, and he didn’t give her the opportunity to set things straight. He didn’t stay around to talk any longer, but strode away to treat a patient who was being rushed into the emergency room.
Jade was kept busy for the rest of the afternoon. She was a bit out of her depth, but she tried to get by without asking for help as far as she was able, because she didn’t want to give Callum any more reasons for regretting that she was on his team.
Despite her anxieties, for the most part things went well. She even managed to have a laugh with the paramedic, Sam, who came in to see how little Dean was doing.
‘Hi,’ he said, coming across the room to her just as she finished a coffee-break. ‘How is the little fellow? Did he pull through all right?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, he’s doing much better now. We’re going to keep him in hospital for a day or so, but it’s more of a precaution than anything else. I think he’ll be fine from now on.’
‘That’s good.’ Sam smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he studied her. ‘I expect we’ll run into each other quite a lot if you’re going to be working here from now on. It seems as though my visits to the hospital are suddenly going to be much brighter than I could have hoped for.’ He looked her over. ‘Things are definitely looking up. You’re by far the best-looking doctor I’ve seen around here in a long while.’
Jade gave him an answering smile. ‘And you’re a smooth-tongued Casanova if ever I heard one,’ she said. ‘I bet you’ve had plenty of practice charming the girls.’ He was a good-looking young man, with dark hair that fell softly over his forehead and grey eyes that were full of dancing lights.
‘Not nearly as much as you’d think.’ He moved a little closer to her. ‘I’d really like to get to know you better. How about we take off from here when you finish work and go and get ourselves something to eat? I know a good place not too far from here.’
‘Sorry, but I can’t,’ she said. Even if she had wanted to, there were two small reasons why assignations of any kind were out of the question right now. Rebeccah and Connor would be taking up most of her free time for the foreseeable future.
Sam frowned, but just as she thought of trying to soften the blow, a shadow came between them.
‘Perhaps you two should continue your cosy little chat later,’ Callum said. ‘There are patients waiting to be seen.’ He looked at Jade, his jaw set in a firm line. ‘I think it would be a good idea if you were to go and attend to them.’ Then he turned a fraction, his gaze shooting warning sparks in Sam’s direction.
Sam took the warning on board and began to make a strategic exit, but he managed to mouth, ‘Be seeing you,’ to Jade as he went.
Jade sent Callum a guarded look. ‘I was on my way back from a break,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I was being remiss in any way. I was just about to head for the treatment room.’
‘I hope you were,’ he said. ‘Break’s over.’ He moved off in the direction of the reception desk, and Jade stared after him.
She sighed inwardly. It wasn’t going to be easy working with Callum Beresford, that was for sure, and the fact that he was her neighbour and landlord only served to make things doubly difficult.
Was she going to be able to find a way to get along with him? At the moment, that seemed highly unlikely.
CHAPTER THREE
‘HOW long have you been having these headaches, Stephen?’ Jade needed some clues as to what was causing her patient’s problems, but so far she had little to go on. There was scant previous medical history where this man was concerned.
‘They started a couple of weeks ago, but they’re getting much worse. This one today is really bad. I didn’t think I would make it to my GP’s surgery, so I came here instead. I’ve been vomiting, and I still feel very nauseous.’
Jade debated with herself about what to do. She was already feeling under pressure because Callum had made it clear that he wanted a swift throughput of patients and she knew that he was still monitoring her progress from a distance, as he had the previous day. Even now, she could feel his gaze fixed on her from across the room.
She wasn’t quite sure what to make of this patient, though. On the face of it, his problems could possibly be put down to migraine, but she was wary of making such a quick diagnosis and sending him on his way. Looking at him, she could see that although he looked unwell right now, he was a generally fit man in his late thirties.
‘Is there anything you’ve noticed that starts them off?’
‘No. Nothing that I can think of.’
She examined him, checking his neurological responses and his sensitivity to light. Perhaps the fact that he was in such good shape was making her extra-cautious—after all, he wasn’t in the habit of seeking medical help, and that in itself gave her reason to think that there might be something more to his case than met the eye.
‘I think, Stephen, to be on the safe side, I’m going to send you for a CT scan. That might give me a more of an idea about what’s going on. In the meantime, I’ll give you an analgesic for the pain and something to stop you from vomiting.’
‘Am I going to have the scan today? I don’t want to have to keep coming back here. I really want to get this sorted out now. I have a business to run, and I can’t think straight with this terrible headache. I can’t afford to take time off, but I’m useless like this—I feel as though I just want to go and lie down somewhere until the pain goes away.’
‘I’ll send you to get it done right away, and I think it might be as well for me to get someone to go with you, just in case you feel sick again. I’ll see if I can get hold of a nurse and a wheelchair.’ She didn’t want him to suffer from an attack of dizziness and perhaps fall, especially while he was under her care.
Jade set things in motion, and when he was on his way she went to see to her other patients, aware that Callum was still following her progress from afar, even though he was attending to a patient of his own.
Katie passed her a chart. ‘A little boy, five years old, with breathing difficulties.’
‘Thanks.’ Jade went to find him, and introduced herself to his mother, who was holding him on her lap.
‘Let’s see if we can find out what the problem is, shall we?’ Jade murmured, smiling at the little boy. ‘Can I listen to your chest with my stethoscope? Do you want to try it first?’
The child nodded, and listened through the earpieces, his eyes widening and a hint of a smile touching his lips. He was suffering from a chest infection, Jade discovered, and she was concerned that he might be having a problem with his ears as well. In order to check that out, she needed to take a close look at his eardrums, but when she searched in the pockets of her white jacket for her auriscope, she couldn’t find it.
She grimaced, remembering that she had mislaid it earlier. Rebeccah and Connor had been helping her to tidy up her medical case last night at the cottage, and perhaps they had moved it.
She glanced at the child’s mother and said, ‘Will you excuse me for just a moment? Perhaps, while I’m gone, you could tell the nurse about the nature of the chest infections Taylor has suffered from before this. I think we may need to do some further investigations. I’ll be back very shortly.’
She left them with Katie, instructing her to give the boy oxygen to help his breathing, and hurried over to the doctors’ lounge, where she took her handbag out of her locker. There was just the faintest possibility that the children might have put the instrument in there. Just as she was rummaging through the contents of her bag, though, Callum walked into the room.
Jade turned, giving him a look of startled apprehension and he said, frowning, ‘What’s the matter? Have you lost something? I thought I saw you going through your medical case earlier. Didn’t you find what you were looking for?’
