Читать книгу The Doctor's Family Secret - Joanna Neil - Страница 7

CHAPTER TWO

‘ISN’T that your brother in the waiting room, Laura?’ Sarah Harris, the triage nurse, surveyed the rows of patients who were waiting to be seen. ‘Shall I send him along to see you?’

Laura quickly signed off a patient’s chart and went to look through the treatment-room door to the waiting room beyond.

‘Matthew…here? What on earth can have happened?’ Worriedly, she noticed that four-year-old Connor was with him. ‘I hope nothing’s happened to Connor.’ She filed away the chart and said quietly, ‘It’s all right, Sarah, I’ll go and have a word with him.’

Connor must have seen her already, because he came rushing towards her with a whoop of joy. ‘Aunty Lor,’ he exclaimed, putting his arms up and hugging her around her legs. ‘My daddy’s cut himself. Can you make him better?’ He looked up at her, his little face a mixture of enthusiasm and confident expectation.

‘I promise I’ll do my best, sweetheart,’ she said. ‘Let’s go and talk to him, shall we?’ Lightly ruffling his fair hair, she held his hand and walked back with him towards her brother.

‘Hello, Matthew,’ she said with a slight frown. ‘What are you doing here? What happened?’

Matthew gave her a quick smile. ‘It’s nothing to worry about, really. It was just one of those stupid accidents. I wanted to have a go at fixing the fence back home, and I was cutting through a fence panel when it happened.’

He lowered his voice, turning his head away slightly so that his son wouldn’t hear. ‘I didn’t realise that Connor was right behind me, and when he said something to me, the saw slipped and cut my hand. I don’t think it’s too bad, but I thought perhaps it might need a stitch or two.’ His mouth made a rueful quirk. ‘Catherine’s out on a shopping trip, so I had to bring Connor with me. I wouldn’t normally want him to be hanging around an emergency room.’

‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after him.’ She inspected Matthew’s injured hand and winced. ‘Come on through to the treatment room, and I’ll take a proper look at it.’

Nick was already at work in the treatment room, and as Laura walked in he emerged from a cubicle where he had been examining a woman with an injured hip.

He spoke quietly to the nurse, asking for various tests to be carried out and calling for a surgical consultation. Then he walked towards Laura and said, ‘Tom’s dealing with a burns patient, and I think he might need someone standing by. Would you be able to do that?’

It was an unusual request, and Laura paused before answering. He hadn’t asked her to assist, just to stand by. ‘How urgent is it?’ she queried. ‘I can help, but this is my brother and his son, Connor. I’d like to attend to them myself, if possible.’

He nodded, glancing at dark-haired Matthew and the boy. ‘OK. I’ll get someone else to work with Tom.’

Laura frowned, sensing that there was something more going on than she was being told. ‘Is there a problem?’

He gave Matthew and Connor a fleeting glance, and then said in a low voice, ‘Probably not. It’s just a feeling. Tom was looking a bit off colour this morning.’

‘This probably won’t take me too long,’ Laura said. ‘Matthew’s had a bit of a disagreement with a saw. From the look of things, that hand will need three or four stitches.’

Connor fidgeted. He was looking around, his eyes screwed up in a frown as he took everything in. The unit was busy this morning. Several of the cubicles were occupied, and there was a smell of antiseptic about the place, which added to the austerity of the atmosphere. Laura had the feeling that her young nephew felt uncomfortable amongst all these strangers, who were all so much larger than him.

Nick must have sensed it, too, because he smiled at Connor and said, ‘Perhaps one of the nurses can find you a colouring book and some pencils, or maybe a jigsaw. Would you like that?’

Connor nodded solemnly, but still clung to Laura’s hand. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was staying firmly by her side.

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ Nick promised. Looking at Matthew, he studied his features carefully, and then said in a contemplative tone, ‘I can’t say that I can see much of a likeness between you and your sister.’

His blue-grey eyes travelled over Laura, coming to rest on her wild shoulder-length curls with a curiosity that made Laura’s cheeks flush with heat. Her hair was naturally curly, and she had never been able to make it do what she wanted.

‘Then again,’ he murmured, ‘perhaps you’re glad that you don’t have her flame-coloured hair.’

Matthew smiled wryly. ‘That’s true enough. It looks good on Laura, though. People say much the same about Connor and me because he’s fair and I’m dark. He takes after his mother.’

Laura interrupted gently. ‘I really think we should see to your hand now, Matthew, don’t you? It must be very sore. We should at least get you cleaned up.’

Nick moved away to attend to his own patients, and Laura led Matthew to a cubicle, making sure that Connor was seated where he wouldn’t be able to follow proceedings too closely.

After a moment or two a young nurse put her head round the screen and brought the jigsaws and colouring materials Nick had promised. ‘There you are, young man,’ she said lightly. ‘These should keep you occupied for a while.’

‘Thanks, Amy,’ Laura said. At least while Connor was busy she could concentrate better on Matthew’s hand. The gash was quite deep and rough around the edges, but she cleaned it up and injected a local anaesthetic, before suturing the wound.

‘You’ll need to keep it clean,’ she told him. ‘I’m putting a dressing on it, but you might need to pop into the GP’s surgery and get that changed after a day or so. The stitches can come out in about ten days. I’ll do that for you at home, if you like.’

‘Thanks, Laura. I’m glad that you were on duty today. I feel foolish enough about landing myself in this situation as it is. I’d sooner keep it in the family.’

She grinned at him. ‘Perhaps this will teach you to be a bit more wary. I thought it was common knowledge that when you have a four-year-old around you need eyes in the back of your head.’

He laughed. ‘Just wait till you’ve got one of your own.’

Laura gave him a crooked smile. That wasn’t likely to happen any time in the near future, was it? Up to now she hadn’t met anyone that she wanted to spend her life with, and even when she did meet a man who was halfway decent, she always felt that some element was missing.

It probably wasn’t the men who were at fault. She sometimes wondered if there was something within herself that was acting as a barrier to finding happiness and fulfilment. But she didn’t have time to dwell on that right now. She had work to do, and that at least provided her with deep satisfaction.

She saw Matthew and Connor out a few minutes later. ‘Perhaps I’ll see you both at home later?’ she said, waving them goodbye. Catherine’s shopping trips usually went on for longer than an hour or so, which gave Matthew an excuse to come and visit.

Laura went in search of Tom, to find out whether he still needed help.

Nick was attending to Tom’s burns patient, a young man, and Laura wondered where the consultant had gone.

‘We’ll get you transferred to the burns unit within the next hour,’ Nick was saying. ‘For the moment we’ll keep the area moist and make sure that there’s no danger of infection setting in. Just ask the nurse if you need more pain medication.’

He spoke quietly to the nurse, and then turned to Laura. Moving away from the cubicle, he said, ‘I take it that your brother’s gone home?’

‘Yes. It didn’t take long to fix him up.’ She glanced around. ‘Where’s Tom?’

‘He went to have a word with the patient’s relatives. He’d done all that was necessary for his patient, but the family were anxious and needed reassurance.’

‘He was coping all right, then? From what you said earlier, I thought there might be a problem looming.’

Nick shrugged. ‘I guess I was wrong.’

Laura gave him a sideways glance. It wasn’t like him to admit a mistake…or to make one, for that matter. ‘It was thoughtful of you to send those jigsaws for Connor,’ she murmured. ‘They kept him amused for quite a while.’

His jaw moved in a faint grimace. ‘Well, you know my feelings about this place and children. It isn’t a good environment for them, and if I can brighten up the experience for them in any way, that’s what I try to do. It’s something I’ve mentioned to your father.’

‘You could try approaching the Friends of the Hospital for funds. I’m sure if you put your case in a suitable fashion they would want to help in any way they could.’

‘I think my plans would take more financing than they would be willing to provide. Besides, I believe that your father, being in administration, is the man who holds the key to unlock the funds. You’d think that since he was a consultant himself in A and E, he would know what needed to be done and he would have some sympathy for the changes I’m suggesting.’

Laura bridled at his tone. ‘I’m sure that he does. After all, he was the one who set aside separate cubicles with resuscitation equipment especially for paediatric patients. When he was in charge there wasn’t the money to do any more than that. Besides, he spearheaded the drive to get the public to donate funds for the MRI machine that the hospital has now. That took a lot of effort and persuasion and years of hard work. You don’t give him enough credit for what he has done.’

Nick’s eyes darkened. ‘I accept that he did a good thing where the MRI machine was concerned. It’s what he plans to do now that concerns me.’

‘Whatever he does, it will be with the best of intentions,’ she said sharply. ‘If my father is cautious, you should realise that it’s because he sees both sides of the coin.’

‘You mean that he has to toe the management line. He’s forgotten what it was like to be at the cutting edge of things.’

‘That’s unfair.’

‘Is it?’

Laura’s opened her mouth, ready to speak her mind, but just then Jenny hurried towards them.

‘You have to come quickly, both of you,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s Tom—I think he’s having a bad angina attack. He’s in the doctors’ lounge. I’ve tried giving him his usual medication, but it’s not working.’

‘We’re on our way.’ Nick was already moving towards the door, and Laura was at his heels.

Tom Edwards was in his early sixties, a tall, thin man, with greying hair. Now he was slumped on the floor, beads of perspiration on his forehead and his face ashen.

‘I left him in the chair while I went to get help,’ Jenny said. ‘The attack must have worsened while I was coming to find you. I’ve already given him aspirin.’

‘Good thinking.’ Nick was loosening Tom’s tie and then he positioned him so that his upper body was elevated. Laura grabbed some cushions to help support him.

‘Tom, can you hear me?’ Nick spoke in a low, urgent voice and Tom made a faint movement of his head in acknowledgement.

‘You’ll be all right. We’ll take care of you,’ Nick said, beginning to make a swift examination. ‘Are you in pain?’

Again, Tom managed to nod faintly. ‘Chest. Bad.’ He began to choke, and Nick said quickly, ‘Don’t try to talk. We’ll take care of you now.’

Tom subsided, and Nick turned swiftly to Laura. ‘I’ll intubate. Let’s get him hooked up to oxygen quickly.’ Glancing at Jenny, he said, ‘We’ll give him glycerine trinitrate sublingually to expand the arteries, and set up an infusion of isosorbide dinitrate. You had better do an ECG, and keep an eye on his blood pressure.’

‘Will do.’

Laura was already starting an intravenous line. Tom looked to be in a bad way, and she was afraid that if they didn’t work fast he would go into cardiac arrest. ‘Are we giving beta-blockers and morphine?’

He nodded, working swiftly as he answered. ‘I’ll make arrangements for him to be admitted.’

Laura taped the IV line in place, and for the next few minutes they worked as a team to resuscitate their consultant.

‘If he’s not pain-free in forty-eight hours, they’ll probably want to do coronary angiography. Given his condition over the last few months, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up having bypass surgery. It’s been a wonder to me that he’s coped for this long.’ His mouth tightened as he spoke, and Laura frowned.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I guessed this would happen one day,’ Nick said under his breath. ‘I’ve been telling him for a long time now that he should have opted for early retirement on health grounds, but he wouldn’t listen.’

‘Can you blame him for that? He’s worked hard all his life to get where he is, and no one would lightly throw it all away.’

His mouth twisted. ‘That’s what your father said. They’re great friends, aren’t they, he and Tom? He went out of his way to defend his actions.’

‘Because he believed the medication was working.’

Nick shook his head. ‘It’s clear that it wasn’t. I told Tom that he shouldn’t be treating patients while he was ill, but he always said that we work as a team and that there would be enough warning of an impending attack for him to be able to hand over to someone else.’

Laura sent Tom a swift, anxious glance, but it was doubtful that their patient could hear what they were saying.

‘That’s true, though, isn’t it?’ she murmured. ‘He put himself at risk by carrying on, but not his patients.’

‘Like your father, you’ll believe what you want to believe.’

Frowning, she looked up at Nick. Was he right? No matter what her reservations were about him, she had to respect him as a doctor. He was doing everything in his power to save Tom. He worked quickly and efficiently and he was very clear thinking. But, then, as he’d said, he’d seen this coming, hadn’t he?

She said quietly, ‘What about fibrinolytics?’

‘That’s probably a good idea,’ he said in a low voice. ‘We’ll get the test results first, but there’s no history of ulcer or recent surgery so they’re probably advisable in this instance. We need to do whatever we can to unclog these arteries.’

As soon as they had Tom stabilised, Nick arranged for him to be transferred to the cardiac unit. Laura watched Tom being wheeled away a little later, and hoped fervently that he would be all right.

‘At least we were on hand to treat him,’ Nick said. ‘If he had been on his own, I doubt whether he would have survived. As it is, he’s in the best place.’

She had the feeling that he was trying to comfort her. ‘I know. I haven’t known him for very long but, even so, I get on very well with him. He’s so kind and thoughtful, and he always has time for other people. He was very good to me when I started here.’

‘He’s good to everyone. His problem has always been that he works too hard, and doesn’t pay enough attention to his own health. If he had done, he might have heeded some of the signs that things were going wrong. Perhaps now he will begin to listen.’

Laura bit her lip. She felt as though she was losing a friend and ally. In the few months that she had known him, Tom had always been steadfast in his concern for his colleagues and his patients, and now he was the one who needed support. What had happened to him this morning was serious and life-threatening, and now he must be feeling vulnerable and frightened.

‘He’s in good hands. Our cardiac unit is one of the best in the country.’

She nodded. ‘I know. We deal with these kinds of incidents all the time, and that should make it easier for us to cope, but Tom is one of our own. He’s not all that much older than my father. It sort of brings things home to you, and makes you think of how these things affect families.’

‘That’s true.’ He was silent for a moment, then said in a musing tone, ‘Talking of families, that was a nasty gash your brother had. Is he keen on DIY?’

‘Not especially, but it makes a change from sitting behind a desk all day. He likes to dabble in all sorts of things that involve keeping busy, like gardening, decorating, sport.’

‘What work does he do?’

‘He works in a bank. He enjoys what he does, but he says that having a desk job means he doesn’t get enough exercise.’

‘Then he wasn’t interested in following family tradition and going into medicine?’

‘No, not really.’

‘He’s very much like your father, physically. Has his lack of interest in medicine caused any friction? I know that David was particularly pleased when you decided to go to medical school.’

‘Perhaps he was, but all he really wants is for us to be happy, whatever we decide to do.’

Nick looked at her curiously. ‘I still think it’s strange that you and your brother are so very different in appearance. I met your mother once, when she came to a function at the hospital, but you don’t seem to take after her either.’

Laura gave a faint, wry smile. She had to give him full points for observation. ‘You’re perfectly right,’ she said softly. ‘The truth is, Matthew is their natural son, but I was adopted. It doesn’t matter to me, because I don’t really remember it being any other way. I love my father dearly, and I miss my mother more than words can say.’

She lowered her head slightly, remembering her adoptive mother. ‘It was a great shock to all of us when she died.’

Nick frowned. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.’

She lifted her head and braced herself. ‘That’s all right, I’m fine. I’ve had more than a few years to get over the fact that she’s gone. It’s just that it was so unexpected. She was a good driver, but it was a foggy night and there were patches of ice on the road. That particular bend in the road was an accident black spot. At least now they’ve made it safer by putting warning signs up.’

‘She would have been proud to know that you passed your medical exams, and that you became a fully fledged doctor.’

‘Yes, I believe she would…even though I may still have a lot to learn.’ Remembering his comments on her junior status from a few days ago, she threw him a hooded glance, and perhaps her gibe hit home because his mouth twisted at the corners.

He didn’t follow it up, though, because an emergency admission dragged them both back to work.

The thought still rankled in her mind, though. Whenever she was on duty at the same time as Nick, she felt that he was keeping an eye on her, and she often wondered if he was expecting her to fall flat on her face. A and E was a challenging speciality, and she was doing her level best to master it. You never knew what to expect, but she wanted to do her utmost for her patients, and she knew that she would go on learning for quite some time. She just didn’t need Nick to remind her of that.

When she went back home that evening, Matthew was there with Connor. Her father was showing Connor how to colour pictures on the computer, and he looked up and smiled as she walked into the living room.

‘Matthew tells me that you had to stitch his hand for him this morning. You’d think a doctor’s son would be more careful, wouldn’t you?’

Laura chuckled. ‘You would, but this is Matthew we’re talking about. He’s always been slightly accident-prone. He gets absorbed in what he’s doing, to the exclusion of everything else.’ She sent Matthew a smiling glance. ‘I take it that Catherine’s not back from her shopping trip yet?’

He nodded. ‘She phoned to say that she met up with a friend, and they’re having a meal together to celebrate the friend’s birthday. She’ll be back later on this evening.’

‘Would you like to stay for dinner with us?’

‘That would be great. I’m sure Connor will enjoy spending some more time with both of you.’

Over dinner, she told her father what had happened to Tom.

‘I heard about it,’ her father said. ‘It’s a bad business. I like Tom. We’ve worked together for years, and he’s always been a good friend to me.’

Matthew frowned. ‘Is this the same Tom who goes fishing with you in the summer?’

‘That’s right. I’m sorry to see him brought down by something like this.’ He sent Laura a quick glance. ‘I’m glad that you and Nick were there to take care of him.’

‘I think Nick was expecting it, to be honest. I knew that Tom had been unwell for some time, but I didn’t know how bad it was.’

‘Nick’s more observant than most, I’ll give him that. He’s a very clear-headed young man, but he’s very forthright in his views, too. He doesn’t pull his punches, and he forgets that there is more than one side to most situations.’ He frowned, his mouth tightening in a spasm of anger. ‘We’ve had more than a few arguments over this very subject. He didn’t think Tom should have still been working in A and E.’

‘I know.’

‘Sometimes it seems as though Nick is totally insensitive to what other people are going through. I can understand how Tom must have felt, faced with the thought of giving up his work. I know what it’s like to have to give up a career in medicine. It isn’t an easy thing to accept that your way of life, everything that you’ve worked for, has to come to an end. It can be a brutal blow, but Nick will never appreciate that.’ There was a bitter edge to his words. ‘For him it seems like a simple enough decision, but for Tom it was something he couldn’t even bear to consider.’

‘It’s been forced on him now.’

‘Yes. He’ll have a lot of thinking to do over these next few months while he recovers his strength.’

He reached for the coffee-pot and filled his cup. ‘Actually, I called in to see Tom before I came home this evening. He said that you’d been in to see him, too, and I think it’s made him feel a lot more cheerful to know that he’s surrounded by friends. He seemed resigned to the fact that he’s not going to be able to avoid surgery.’

‘A triple bypass would give him a new lease of life.’

‘That’s true enough.’ He shook his head in grim reflection. ‘It’s a sad fact, but I can’t see him being able to come back to work. He’s only a year or so off retirement, and I think in the end he’ll come around to the fact that he will have to accept his limitations.’

‘That’s probably true, but at least he’ll have his family around him. That will be something for him to look forward to.’

Her father nodded. ‘I’m sure he’ll be glad of their support.’ His expression was sombre. ‘On the other hand, as far as we’re concerned, this whole sorry business leaves us with something of a predicament.’

Laura looked at him curiously. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean that the A and E department has been left with no consultant in charge.’

‘Yes, I had thought of that. I suppose, if Tom is ill for any length of time, which seems likely, the hospital will have to appoint an acting consultant, a locum perhaps.’

‘I don’t imagine it will be easy to get someone suitable as a matter of urgency. What’s most likely to happen is that Nick will be asked to stand in temporarily.’ His features darkened. ‘I expect he’ll be glad enough to step into Tom’s shoes. With nobody standing in his way, he’ll have free rein, won’t he? What is there to stop him from going after what he wants?’

Laura’s eyes widened. ‘You mean that he will be in charge?’

‘Unfortunately, I think that’s a strong possibility.’

Laura struggled to absorb that. Nick, in charge? While she respected him as a doctor, there was no way she would be happy for him to have overall control of her daily work situation. It was bad enough at the moment, when there seemed to be constant friction between them. She was forever having to bite her tongue when their sometimes heated disagreements threatened to get out of control. How would it be when he was the acting consultant?

And that was without even beginning to consider the damaging effect his sudden promotion would have on his working relationship with her father. The result would be calamitous and didn’t bear thinking about.