Читать книгу Bush Snipers - Greg Pius - Страница 5

Summer in Australia can be very hot. With daytime temperatures of over forty degrees Celsius in the shade, bush dwellers learn to stay out of the sun when possible. Most locals go to the nearest town and visit their favorite bar. Younger people go to the town swimming pool. Workers on the rural properties swim in the dams. But refugees in the UN camp have no bars, alcohol being forbidden under Sharia law. They have no ice cream milk bars. There are no swimming pools. No refugee is allowed to work on local properties, despite the local farms having severe labour shortages.

The hot days cause many cases of heat stroke, dehydration and heat fatigue. The United Nations camp hospital can be quickly overrun with distressed refugees. This is why the UN had negotiated a deal with the government to allow emergency cases to go to the base hospital. Here there was air conditioning! For more serious cases there was equipment to restore proper hydration and salt levels. Extreme cases would need a hospital bed for forty-eight hours.

All this made Dr. Roman Ruffe's hospital shifts very hard work as the mercury climbed to record heat wave temperatures. He had the day shifts! The older doctor on staff, a local, had cleverly volunteered to do all the night shifts. At first Roman thought he was being given a big concession by his peer. By the middle of summer, Roman knew he had been snookered. His twelve hour shift started at seven in the morning. By that time, summer temperature had shot past thirty degrees Celsius on the hospital indoor thermometer. By the end of his shifts, the temperature had not fallen below forty degrees. Roman was a very young man but by day's end he was still grey in the face from overwork.

Then one day he entered his ward to see three females waiting in emergency. They looked familiar. As he walked up to them, Roman realized that all his prayers had been answered. His opening remarks seemed strange to the day emergency nurse, who was listening to the conversation hoping to pick up some gossip about this new young doctor,

"Senior Nurse Feelgood. Thank goodness you are here, this hospital desperately needs your help."

Only Hera was not surprised by this welcome. Her professionally trained eye had been assessing this base hospital. So far it was failing in all departments. So she replied,

"I bet it does. But what are you doing here Doctor Ruffe?"

Roman was not letting this marvelous woman get away. So he opened up to her completely,

"After that horrific shooting in that city hospital car park, I could not stay one day longer in the city. I went to my family's place in the mountains but realized I was still too close. There were too many painful memories. You see Freya was my lover! We had gone on weekend trips to that mountain lodge. So I resigned my city hospital post. I used that hospital jobs web site to search for out a hospital position as far away from the city as possible."

Now Hannah spoke for the first time,

"Oh you are that Doctor Ruffe. We never met but Freya spoke of you often. She was my best friend at the time of her death. You were the one with her when she died?"

Roman's face got dark as he answered,

"Murdered you mean. Shot by a sniper! Freya saved another life but sacrificed her own life in the process."

Hera could see the breakdown coming so she acted quickly to snap Ruffe out of his dark mood,

"No time for memories now Doctor. My daughter was brought in suffering a life threatening attack. What are you going to do to save her life?"

This was brutal but effective. First Roman just froze and blinked. But professionalism won the battle in his mind. He asked,

"Your daughter? What happened?"

Seeing the focus returning to his eyes, Hera softened her harsh tone to answer,

"Mossy had a bad asthma attack at our stable yards. She is in intensive care on a Ventolin machine. What can you do to help her?'

At once Roman was the complete professional doctor, he reassured Mossy's mother,

"Leave it to me. I have had extensive training in asthma attack treatments. Your Mossy will not die under my care."

Without another word Doctor Ruffe raced into the intensive care ward.

Hera visibly relaxed. So did Hannah. But Nurse Upright was confused. She asked Hera,

"Can we trust such a young doctor? He is very handsome but oh so young."

Hera laughed before reassuring her with these words,

"Doctor Roman Ruffe finished first in his class at our city medical university. In fact he won the University Medal in his final year. That very young doctor is one of the best in his field. This town is lucky to have him. And yes Nanny he will save Mossy for those reasons alone. He has a more immediate need to do his very best because I will not forgive him if Mossy dies."

Nanny Upright still was not convinced. She had pleaded with Hera to take Mosssy to see the local healer. This woman had always known how to save Mary, Hera's mother, when Mary was little. But Hera had said that times had changed and so had hospital treatments.

Still Nanny would not leave it alone. She complained in a worried tone of voice,

"But Hera darling how can you be so calm with Mossy's life in peril?"

Hera smiled one of her knowing smiles then answered,

"Nanny dearest, I am not calm. You should know me better than that. But I am certain that this young doctor....alright Nanny this very young doctor, is in that room giving Mossy the benefit of his extensive medical training. Naturally because it is the professional thing to do; but also because he needs me to help him with this hospital."

Now it was Hannah's turn to doubt Hera's wisdom. She exclaimed in a confused tone of voice,

"But Hera what about the family estate? Who is going to make all those decisions?"

Hera shot back at her sister in her strongest supportive tone of voice,

"You are Hannah dear...."

Hannah yells out in a frightened tone of voice,

"ME? Oh Hera I couldn't..."

Hera takes up from where she left off before Hannah's outburst, in a much firmer "big sister" tone of voice,

"Oh stop interrupting. You are capable enough to do all the decision making for the horse ranch. As for the bull stud farm, Frank Simmons is the best manager anyone could have running that place. I am not needed there but I am desperately needed here. You saw what happened when we arrived. If I hadn't started bullying those young nurses, Mossy would already be dead. This hospital is a shambles. People wandering about trying to hide from the responsibility of making decisions. Young nurses flirting with local boys. And just look at their Pharmacy its so under stocked with almost everything. What a terrible thing that would be if Mossy had a fatal attack in the early morning. Remember that time when we was living in our Jacaranda Street apartment. That ambulance driver saved Mossy's life! If there was a real emergency here I doubt that this place could cope without catastrophic outcomes."

Hera saw that Hannah was still not convinced as she watched her little sister have a panic attack. So she quickly moderated her tone of voice,

"Now don't look at me like that Hannah. Mossy needs a competently run hospital to survive out here in the bush. At the moment Nanny's healer would do less harm than this place. No offence Nanny."

Nanny Upright was gracious enough to say in a friendly tone of voice,

"None taken Hera darling. You are right about this hospital. I have never seen it this bad before. Of course all the good doctors have been transferred. We lost our only surgeon just last month. No harbor city specialists will come out this far. Most mothers would have a three hundred kilometer drive to get even simple specialist treatments. With the civil war going on most now drive into the national capital instead. That city hospital has all the best specialists in Australia."

Hera was grateful to Nanny for this information. She watched as Hannah got over her panic attack and started to look around more at the hospital inadequacies. Knowing that Mossy was Hannah's soft spot, Hera seized on this moment to win her sister over to her point of view. The tone of voice that Hera used was one that always worked on her little sister. She said,

" I was seriously considering Nanny's offer before Doctor Ruffe turned up to change my mind. He is a first class physician! Probably Mossy's only chance way out here so far away from any specialist treatment. You heard what Nanny said about all the specialists? Properly managed Ruffe may even become a competent head doctor. Whoever is doing the job now is obviously incompetent to the point of being dangerous. He will have to go."

Hannah still needed some convincing. particularly about her making all the estate decision on her own. So she tried to change her sister's mind one last time by quibbling,

"One doctor, no matter how well trained can't do it all on his own. Hera he will be swamped and then of no use to Mossy."

Hera smiled her winning smile then replied,

"Glad you see it my way Hannah. Without me he hasn't a chance of making this hospital....if it even deserves that name...work properly. If I have to I will sort out that old head doctor. If he stays then he does things my way. I will get specialists to come out here! They all owe me big favors."

Hannah was still tempted to refuse to take on responsibilities she was not sure she could handle. So she said in a doubting tone of voice,

"Meanwhile I will be back at the horse ranch stuffing up and making a fool of myself. No Hera I just can't do it. I'm sorry."

Not even defeated by such a blatant display of a total lack of self confidence from her sister Hera said in a mock tone of resignation,

"Then we will have to go back to the city leaving Dad to fend for himself."

Hannah knew when her big sister had outsmarted her with that rat cunning she seemed to possess. So she reluctantly assented to Hera's plan,

"Okay Hera as usual you win. But you'll regret putting me in charge of such a big family business."

Knowing better than to crow in public, she would save that for later, Hera said in a confident tone of voice,

" My plan of action will have this hospital and those lazy nurses at peak efficiency or my name is not Hera Ermentine Feelgood. No make that Head Nurse Feelgood, no need to give junior nurses any edge in mind games."

Any further debate was forestalled when Doctor Ruffe came back to declare,

"Your daughter is out of danger. You can all see her now."

Three smiling, happy women raced into the intensive care ward.

In the surprisingly suddenly vacant emergency room, poor Doctor Ruffe fretted about how he could convince Nurse Feelgood to help him cope with ever pressing loads of medical demands. He had no idea that Hera had already decided to help make that base hospital the best country hospital in Australia.