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

CHAPTER THREE

LAURA wiped yet another name from the board. That was one more patient she had treated and discharged that night. How many more were there likely to be before her shift ended? It seemed as though she had already dealt with hundreds. Flexing her tired muscles, she reached for another treatment chart.

Wayne Golding was waiting in cubicle number four, and she went there now, drawing back the curtains.

‘Hello, Mr Golding,’ she greeted him. ‘I’m Dr Brett.’ She glanced at the chart, and added, ‘I understand you’ve had a nasty gash to your hand. Perhaps I could have a look at it.’

‘Oh, so you’re finally ready for me, are you?’ he snarled disagreeably. ‘How long does it take for you doctors to get around to looking at your patients around here? I could have bled to death by now.’

Taken aback, Laura viewed him warily. He was a big man in his forties, with ruddy cheeks and nose in a well-worn face that made him look as though he had lived life to the full. He also reeked of alcohol.

‘I’m sorry that you’ve been kept waiting. We’ve been very busy dealing with emergency patients elsewhere in the department.’

He glared at her, his body stiff and threatening, so that she surreptitiously looked towards the alarm button. ‘I haven’t seen any emergency activity around here. I think you’re just making excuses. I’ve got better things to do than sit around for hours on end.’

‘I’m sure you have,’ Laura said, hanging onto her patience by a thin thread. ‘No one enjoys having to wait, but I can assure you that if we had made our road accident patients wait, they certainly wouldn’t have lived to see the day out.’ Her chin lifted in a determined and businesslike way. ‘Perhaps if you let me take a look at your hand I’ll be able to see what needs to be done and send you on your way.’

He thrust his hand towards her face so that she took a step backwards. ‘It’s obvious what needs to be done, isn’t it?’ He spoke to her as though he thought she was an idiot. ‘It needs stitching up.’

She inspected the wound. His knuckles were lacerated, the skin split in several places. She probed gently, searching for any injury to the underlying tendons and ligaments. Growling, he pulled his hand away.

‘Watch what you’re doing. You don’t need to maul it like that,’ he snarled. ‘For all you know, it could be broken.’

‘I’m sorry if I hurt you,’ Laura said quietly. ‘Have you been in a fight?’

‘Someone came at me and I let him have it. If my hand’s broken, he’s going to pay for this.’

‘Fortunately the X-rays don’t show any broken bones,’ Laura murmured. ‘The downside is that there is a nasty infection in there, possibly from an old wound.’

His eyes narrowed on her suspiciously. ‘So what does that mean?’

‘It means that I’ll need to wash the wound out with a medicated solution, and then I’ll put a dressing on your hand so that it stays clean. I’ll prescribe an antibiotic as well to clear up the infection.’

‘You mean you’re not going to stitch it up?’ Angrily, he got to his feet, and Laura quickly drew back, startled.

‘I’m afraid I can’t, not while there’s an infection present. You’ll need to come back the day after tomorrow so that we can look at it again.’

‘You’re doing this to wind me up.’ He lunged towards her, his face a mask of aggression.

‘I’m not, I promise you.’ She tried to stay calm, but his anger was making her feel uncomfortable. ‘If you’ll excuse me for just a moment, I’ll go and get some supplies.’

Without giving him any chance to object, she walked out of the cubicle and drew the curtains behind her. Pulling in a sharp breath, she went to the desk at the far end of the room and began to count soundlessly to ten.

‘Is there a problem?’ Nick flicked a glance over her, appraising her carefully from head to toe.

‘None at all.’ The last thing she needed was to admit to Nick that she was having difficulty treating a patient. He placed a lot of emphasis on treating patients with respect. Pain sometimes made people unreasonable, he had said, and it was their job in A and E to look beyond a person’s critical or tetchy comments.

‘Really?’ he said drily. ‘I heard someone shouting. Are you having trouble with a patient?’

‘It’s nothing that I can’t handle,’ she said tersely.

‘I’d still prefer it if you’d told me what’s going on,’ he persisted. ‘It’s late at night, and we’re busy in the department. Tempers get frayed, and things can easily get out of hand.’

Laura grimaced. He thought she was going to mess things up, didn’t he? That wouldn’t go down well. Tom Edwards had been easygoing and tolerant, but Nick was a different animal altogether. Over these last few weeks, while he’d been in charge of A and E, he had made it clear that he liked things to run smoothly, and he was keen on keeping the department up to full speed.

‘I won’t let that happen.’

‘You came on duty tonight to help out because we were short-handed, didn’t you? This isn’t your usual shift.’

‘That’s right.’ She looked at him steadily. ‘What difference does that make?’

‘It means that you haven’t had much of a break between shifts, and I know that you haven’t had a coffee-break for some time. I think you should go and get one now.’

‘I’m in the middle of treating a patient, or had you forgotten?’

‘I’ll deal with him.’

Laura shook her head. ‘I would prefer to do that myself. It’s a matter of professional pride.’

His mouth crooked in a half-smile. ‘You can be a very stubborn woman at times, can’t you?’

‘I prefer to use the word independent.’ She moved away from him towards a cupboard. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I need to get some supplies.’

He watched her go, and Laura turned her attention to getting the irrigation equipment. It took her a few minutes to find what she needed, and when she returned to the cubicle where she had left Wayne Golding, she was startled to see that Nick was already in there.

‘I hope you understand what I’ve been saying,’ Nick murmured, giving Wayne a narrow-eyed look. ‘That’s a nasty infection, but Dr Brett will clean it up for you and make arrangements for a follow-up appointment. Now I have other patients to attend to. Goodbye, Mr Golding.’

Wayne looked uncomfortable, and Laura wondered what on earth had been going on. She sent Nick a questioning glance, but he simply swept determinedly past her and went to check on another patient.

Wayne was subdued as she washed out the wound on his hand, and he made no murmur when she carefully taped a dressing in place. The change in his attitude was remarkable, and Laura had no idea what had brought about the transformation. He even thanked her when she passed him on to a nurse who would arrange his follow-up appointment.

The whole episode puzzled her so much that she went in search of Nick. He was treating a pneumothorax, and she assisted him until they were both sure that their patient was out of danger.

‘Would you like to tell me what you said to Wayne Golding?’ she asked as they cleaned up afterwards. ‘He was a different man when I went back to treat him.’

‘I heard what he had been saying to you, so I simply told him that his behaviour wouldn’t be tolerated. The doctors and nurses in A and E have a difficult enough job to do, and they deserve respect. I made it clear to him that if he couldn’t control his temper and behave in a reasonable fashion, I would ask Security to remove him from the premises.’

Her jaw dropped. ‘You really said that? But I thought you would blame me for not handling the situation efficiently and sending him on his way.’

He frowned. ‘Why on earth would you think that?’

‘Things have been so different around here since Tom was taken ill, and I’m not always sure that I’m doing the right thing. The triage system is different, and the working rotas have changed. We assess patients, treat them and mostly we send them on their away more quickly than before, but it isn’t always possible.’

‘Don’t you think it’s a good thing that we’ve made the department more efficient?’

‘Yes, I do, but the changes have happened so quickly, and I’m not sure whether you expect one hundred per cent efficiency. I’m not certain that that’s attainable.’

‘Then perhaps we should get one thing straight at the outset. I value the co-operation of all the staff in A and E. Everyone has worked tremendously hard to make the department function efficiently, but it could be that I’ve been concentrating so hard on getting things off the ground that I haven’t made it clear to everyone how much I appreciate what they have done. I need to remedy that.’

Nick frowned. ‘I still don’t understand why you didn’t come to me with any of your doubts.’

She made a wry smile. ‘I’m just a junior doctor here, remember. I value my job and I don’t want to rock the boat unnecessarily.’

‘Laura,’ he said in a dry tone, ‘I’m here to support you in what you do. If you have any problems, you should bring them to me. You’re not expected to manage things on your own. We work as a team. That’s one of the fundamental characteristics of working in A and E.’

‘Maybe, but you always seem to expect perfection. It’s sometimes hard to live up to the standards that you set.’