Читать книгу Baby Miracle In The Er - Sue MacKay, Sue MacKay - Страница 11

CHAPTER THREE

‘CARDIAC ARREST!’ STEPH YELLED through to the front. ‘I’m going to counter-shock.’

Waiting for Kath to pull over and stop, she checked the defibrillator that had been attached to their patient since they’d arrived at the factory where he worked as an electrician. She set it to start the moment Kath gave her the go-ahead.

‘Go!’ Kath called as she clambered through to join them.

‘Stand back.’ Steph punched the button on the machine.

Gavin Broad’s body jerked, then slumped.

Kath watched the flat line on the defib screen. ‘Negative.’

‘Stand back.’

Another electric current whacked the man.

‘We have a heartbeat. Erratic, but it’s there.’

Kath continued to read the printout while Steph took his respiratory rate.

‘Thank goodness for small miracles.’

Their man had mistakenly cut a live wire with clippers that hadn’t been insulated. His workmates had been quick to recognise that his heart had stopped and used the AED, but Gavin had arrested twice. A cardiologist was his best chance, and they weren’t far from Auckland Central’s ED.

Having to stop while applying the electric shock treatment was necessary for the patient’s safety as well as Kath’s and hers, but the delay sucked.

The ambulance lurched as Kath drove back out onto the road, sirens and lights going full blast. Steph focused on the heart monitor and on taking observations. This man was not going to die on her watch.

‘Gavin, we’re nearly at the hospital,’ she told him. ‘Then you’ll be in expert hands.’

Michael’s hands until the cardiologist arrived? He would pass up any case he was working on to take a stat one—unless another specialist was free already.

Her patient didn’t react, just kept breathing shallowly. Not good, but at least he was alive. A third shock would be drastic, but she’d do it if she had to.

The ambulance swung in a wide circle, started backing up.

‘We’re here?’

‘Yes, and we’ve got a reception committee waiting,’ Kath answered.

She’d parked and had the back doors open as quickly as Steph had the defibrillator attached to the gurney and the Patient Report Form ready for handover.

‘Who have we got?’

The question came from the man she’d been hoping to get a glimpse of.

‘Gavin Broad, thirty-five, arrested twice.’ Steph would’ve locked eyes with him, but he wasn’t playing that game. However, he did take the PRF she held out. ‘Initial failure due to a multiphase voltage event.’

With her at the head of the gurney and Kath at the other end they lowered it to the floor of the ambulance bay and rushed into the department. Urgency meant that the details would be gone through on the way.

‘He’s fortunate there was a defib on the premises.’

Michael strode beside the gurney. Even in ill-fitting scrubs there was no denying that magnificent body.

Not meant to be thinking like that.

Tell that to her hormones.

When he leaned towards their man to say, ‘Hello, Gavin, I’m Dr Laing,’ his broad shoulders filled her line of sight and stole the moisture from her mouth. They were wide, muscular, and she already knew how warm they could be.

Her hand tightened around the stretcher handle.

Don’t forget he doesn’t want a relationship with anybody.

Michael was talking to their patient as though Gavin was fully aware of everything. ‘We’re taking you into Resus, so we’re prepared if another event happens. A cardiologist is on her way down to see you as I speak.’

Straightening up, those mouth-drying shoulders tight, he looked directly ahead as they rushed into Resus. No quick looks in her direction today.

Last night, after they’d got past her revelations and started on the fish and chips, they’d shared light-hearted banter. Aware that she wasn’t getting over him in any way—more like getting more enamoured with him—she’d pulled the ‘got to get some sleep’ pin around eight-thirty and had ignored the slight widening of his eyes and tightening of his lips at the word ‘sleep’.

Sleep...bed. There wouldn’t be any sleep if they went to bed together. Not happening.

Today Michael was back to being the consummate professional, with no sideways glances in her direction, no acknowledging they’d had some down time together. Grrr. He was so good at that. What would rock him off balance?

Hello? How would that help with your need to get over him?

She had to try something, didn’t she?

‘Hear from Chantelle this morning?’

Michael looked down at the PRF in his hand. ‘Nope, but nothing unusual in that.’

Unless Chantelle needed Michael to do something for Aaron.

Steph could read between the lines as well as anyone. She also knew when she was being ignored. There was a paramedic beside him—not the woman he’d shared an evening with. He was right. This wasn’t the place for being disgruntled about his attitude. Except everyone around here usually took the time to be friendly, even if only with a sharp nod as they raced to save a patient.

In Resus, Steph took her place by Gavin and gripped the bedding, nodded to the other medical staff waiting. ‘One, two, three.’

Gavin was instantly surrounded with ED staff and the cardiologist who’d walked in right behind them. Steph detached the ambulance defibrillator so the Resus unit could come into play.

Michael was talking to the cardiologist as a junior doctor listened to Gavin’s heart through his stethoscope. Nurses were taking obs, attaching wires, monitors, and all the paraphernalia required to obtain the information to save Gavin if he went into arrest again.

She was no longer required. This wasn’t her domain any more.

Walking away was easy. She might have loved working in here, been right at home with all the cases, the staff, the urgency, but she had all that and more now as a paramedic. Racing to a scene, lights flashing, sirens screaming, had her heart pounding and the adrenalin flowing. There were cases like Melanie’s when she hated not having senior medical back-up, but those made her dig ever deeper to do all she could and more.

She began pushing the gurney out of Resus.

On Kath’s belt the radio spewed a volley of words, their tone calm but urgent. ‘Ambulance three, cyclist versus vehicle, intersection Grafton Road and Symonds Street.’

Kath answered. ‘Roger, base. Grafton Road and Symonds Street. ETA five.’

As Steph picked up her pace she glanced over her shoulder. Michael was watching her, but immediately dropped his eyes when he knew she’d seen him.

Okay. Not sure what that meant, and don’t have time to think about it. Shove the gurney in, click the wheel locks, slam the doors shut, buckle up and go.