Читать книгу Nurse In A Million - Jennifer Taylor, Jennifer Taylor - Страница 6

‘INCOMING wounded. Stand clear!’

Michael James Rafferty sighed as he tossed the paper towel he’d been using into the waste sack. He’d been in Theatre since five that morning and he was far too tired to appreciate all these stupid games. Snapping on a fresh pair of gloves, he turned to the newcomer.

‘We’re not starring in an episode of M.A.S.H. here, Sandy, so just tell me what’s wrong with the patient and leave out the rest.’

‘Oh, um, yes, right. Sorry.’

The younger man looked abashed as he wheeled the trolley into the tent and Rafferty sighed again. It was Sandy Baxendale’s first mission with Worlds Together, a leading international medical aid agency, so it was little wonder that he tended to get carried away by the drama of it all. Rafferty made a note not to be too hard on him in future but with over two dozen missions to his credit, he found it difficult to remember when he’d felt the same kind of excitement. Oh, there was still a certain satisfaction when he managed to save a life under the most arduous conditions, but there was no longer that buzz to the job there’d been once upon a time.

Maybe it was the fact that Natalie was no longer working with them that had made all the difference, he mused, then blanked out the thought. There was no point going down that route again.

‘OK, so what have we got?’ He ran a critical eye over the young woman on the trolley. ‘A bit of a mess, isn’t she? Where was she found?’

‘One of the search-and-rescue teams found her buried under the remains of the maternity unit,’ Sandy explained. ‘They’ve no idea if she’s a patient or a member of the staff.’

‘Did they find anyone else there alive?’ Rafferty asked as he started to examine her. He gently palpated her abdomen but there were no obvious signs that she’d given birth in the days preceding the mudslide which had engulfed a large area of Guatemala. The Worlds Together team had flown out to the region as soon as the Guatemalan government had declared it a national disaster. That had been four days ago and he knew the chances of them finding many more survivors were decreasing by the hour.

‘Two babies. They were still in their cots and that’s probably what saved their lives, according to the search-and-rescue guys. They think the cots must have floated when the mud started to fill up the nursery.’ Sandy shook his head in amazement. ‘It’s incredible that anyone survived when you see the state of the place. The whole area has been literally swamped by mud.’

‘It’s been a bad incident,’ Rafferty agreed, gently feeling his way down the girl’s body and adding a fractured pelvis to the growing list of her injuries.

‘It’s far worse than I imagined it would be,’ the young male nurse admitted. ‘I know we were told to expect the worst but I was really shocked when I saw the extent of the damage.’

‘It’s always hard to take it all in,’ Rafferty said soberly. ‘That’s why some people find it difficult to cope with this type of work. We lose a lot of new recruits because they can’t handle the sheer scale of a disaster like this.’

‘Oh, I can handle it all right,’ Sandy hastily assured him. ‘It just took a day or so to get my head round it all. Even in the busiest accident-and-emergency department, you don’t get such a concentration of severely injured as we’ve dealt with here.’

Rafferty nodded as he moved around the trolley. A fractured ankle was duly noted this time. ‘It’s the same for all of us, if it’s any consolation.’

‘Really?’ Sandy exclaimed. ‘You mean that you still find it a bit overwhelming at times?’

‘Yes. You certainly shouldn’t let yourself become blasé about the job because that’s when you could find yourself in real trouble.’

‘That’s what Miss Palmer said at my interview. She told me that the minute you feel as though it’s just routine is the time you should stop.’ The younger man frowned. ‘I wasn’t sure what she meant but I think I understand now. You can’t afford to grow complacent because you might forget about the dangers.’

‘That’s right,’ Rafferty said shortly because this second reminder of Natalie, coming on top of the other, had pushed a few internal buttons. He breathed deeply to quell feelings that had been lying dormant for some time. It really wasn’t the right moment to start thinking about how much he missed her.

‘Right, we’ll take her straight to Theatre and do the X-rays there,’ he said briskly. ‘There’s bound to be extensive soft-tissue damage and I don’t want to waste any time. Can you tell Ben that I’ll need him to do the anaesthetic, and let Patsy know that I’d like her to assist me.’

‘Patsy was in Theatre all last night,’ Sandy told him. ‘She’s trying to catch up on her sleep so do you want me to wake her up?’

Rafferty frowned. ‘Better not. What about Lauren?’

‘She’s in Theatre Two with Liam. I’m not sure how long they’ll be yet.’

‘Then it looks like it’s you and me. I know you don’t have a lot of experience in Theatre so do you think you can cope?’

‘Of course,’ Sandy assured him, but Rafferty could tell that he wasn’t nearly as confident as he was pretending to be.

‘OK. Scrub up once you’ve told Ben that I need him.’

He didn’t say anything else because it would serve no purpose to undermine Sandy’s confidence. However, it was worrying to have to rely on staff who lacked the necessary skills. He quickly unzipped the flap and let himself into the scrub area. Each of the theatre tents was really three tents set one inside the other. The first section was where the patients were examined, the second was the scrub area and the third and final section was the actual operating theatre.

Conditions in there were kept sterile thanks to an expensive air-filtration system bought for them by their main sponsor, Palmer Pharmaceuticals. Palmer’s had also paid for the state-of-the-art operating tables and the high-tech lighting equipment that ran off generators. If it weren’t for the company’s generosity, Rafferty knew that Worlds Together wouldn’t be able to carry out its work so effectively. Palmer’s provided most of the money they needed, and that was what lay at the heart of his own problems.

Natalie Palmer, the woman he loved more than life itself, was heiress to the Palmer fortune. Was it any wonder their relationship had faltered?

Three hours later, Rafferty left Theatre. Tossing his gown into a sack, he went straight outside. It was just gone six and the camp was quiet for once. The rest of the team were having dinner and he knew he should join them but he wasn’t hungry. Although he’d done all he could, he hadn’t been able to save the girl and her loss weighed heavily on him.

‘I’m really sorry. I did my best but I just wasn’t up to the job.’

He looked round when Sandy followed him outside. The young nurse’s lack of experience had been very apparent and several times Rafferty had had to tell him what to do. It hadn’t been an ideal situation, by any means, but it hadn’t been Sandy’s fault the girl had died and Rafferty took immediate steps to tell him that.

He sighed as he watched the younger man heading towards the mess tent a short time later. His pep talk might have had the desired effect but it wasn’t right that people should start blaming themselves because they lacked the necessary skills. Ever since Natalie had left the team, they’d had problems finding a suitable replacement and it was galling to know that she was wasting her talents, sitting behind a desk in London. She was a nurse, not a businesswoman, for heaven’s sake!

Rafferty’s expression was grim as he swung round and strode across the compound. It was high time that someone told her that.