2004 by The Spanish Doctor's Love-Child

Author:The Spanish Doctor's Love-Child [Love-Child, The Spanish Doctor's]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-20T11:09:48+00:00

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‘You did the right thing, calling an ambulance,’ Leandro said. ‘So we need the tablets he’s been taking and his parents’ number. If you can ring the number through to us…’ He scribbled a number on a piece of scrap paper. ‘This will get through directly.’

The CT scan ruled out the subarachnoid haemorrhage and the ECG showed no sign of left ventricular failure. Leandro drew up a solution of labelatol with saline while Becky set up a drip.

‘Tom, I’m going to put you on a drip—it’s putting medication straight into your bloodstream,’ he said, ‘to help bring your blood pressure down. I’ll need to put another needle into you so I can measure your blood pressure continuously and see how you’re doing. Is that OK?’

Tom nodded.

‘And we need to give you a catheter so we can measure your urine output. It’s going to feel a bit uncomfortable, but I promise you’ll start feeling a bit better soon.’ He turned to Becky.

‘We’ll start him on this at fifteen mils an hour and then increase it in fifteen minutes—I want him down to about a hundred and ten diastolic,’ he said. ‘I’m going to put in an arterial line—

and I think you should page ICU, as it’s the best place to keep an eye on someone with hypertensive encephalopathy.’

‘Leave it with me,’ Becky said.

She was monitoring Tom when the phone rang. ‘His parents are in Leeds,’ Tom’s friend said, and rattled off the number.

Becky read it back to him to check she’d written it down properly, then asked, ‘Did you find the tablets?’

‘There’s two. One’s a packet of paracetamol. The other’s not marked.’

‘Thanks. Can you bring them both in?’ Becky asked.

When she’d cleared the line, she rang his parents to explain the situation and they promised to come straight away.

‘Before you come—can I just ask you about your family’s medical history? Does anyone have blood-pressure problems?’

‘No, nobody,’ Tom’s father said.

‘And Tom doesn’t take drugs?’

‘Of course not. He’s a nice boy, though when he went to college we were worried in case he fell in with the wrong crowd and started taking something just to fit in. But his friends are all nice boys, too. They don’t do that sort of thing.’

‘Sorry to ask. We just had to check. Come to the emergency department and ask for Becky Marston. I’ll take you up to him myself,’ she said.

Though before Tom’s parents arrived, the tox screen was back.

And she knew it wasn’t good because Leandro said something very short in his own language.

‘Problems?’

‘Amphetamines.’

‘Oh, no. That’s probably what’s in the unmarked bottle his friends found .

They’re bringing in a sample,’ Becky explained.

She tried to prepare Tom’s parents when she took them up, but neither of them would believe that Tom would have taken drugs. Despite the fact that when the sample arrived, it turned out to be amphetamines.

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