Doctor in the House by Richard Gordon

Author:Richard Gordon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Doctor in the House
ISBN: 9780755131020
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2012-12-27T05:00:00+00:00

The baby was washed and tucked up in one of the drawers from the wardrobe, which did a turn of duty as a cot about once a year. The mother was delighted and said she had never had such a comfortable delivery. The spectators were re-admitted, and cooed over the infant. There were cups of tea all round. I had the best one, with sugar in it. I felt the name of the medical profession never stood higher.

‘Do you do a lot of babies, doctor?’ asked the mother.

‘Hundreds,’ I said. ‘Every day.’

‘What’s your name, doctor, if you don’t mind?’ she said.

I told her.

‘I’ll call ’im after you. I always call them after the doctor or the nurse, according.’

I beamed and bowed graciously. I was genuinely proud of the child. It was my first baby, born through my own skill and care. I had already forgotten in the flattering atmosphere that my single manoeuvre in effecting the delivery was pulling back the eiderdown.

Packing the instruments up, I climbed into my soggy duffle-coat and, all smiles, withdrew. At the front door I found to my contentment that the snow had stopped and the roads shone attractively in the lamplight. I began to whistle as I walked away. At that moment the midwife turned the corner on her bicycle.

‘Sorry, old chap,’ she said, as she drew up. ‘I was snowed under. Have you been in?’

‘In! It’s all over.’

‘Did you have any trouble?’ she asked dubiously.

‘Trouble!’ I said with contempt. ‘Not a bit of it! It went splendidly.’

‘I suppose you remembered to remove the afterbirth?’

‘Of course.’

‘Well, I might as well go home then. How much did it weigh?’

‘Nine pounds on the kitchen scales.’

‘You students are terrible liars.’

I walked back to the hospital over the slush as if it were a thick pile carpet. The time was getting on. A hot bath, I thought, then a good breakfast…and a day’s work already behind me. I glowed in anticipation as I suddenly became aware that I was extremely hungry.

At the hospital gate the porter jumped up from his seat.

‘’Urry up, sir,’ he said, ‘and you’ll just make it.’

‘What’s all this?’ I asked with alarm.

‘Another case, sir. Been waiting two hours. The other gentlemen are out already.’

‘But what about my breakfast?’

‘Sorry, sir. Not allowed to go to meals if there’s a case. Orders of the Dean.’

‘Oh, hell!’ I said. I took the grubby slip of paper bearing another address. ‘So this is midwifery,’ I added gloomily.

‘That’s right, sir,’ said the porter cheerfully. ‘It gets ’em all down in the end.’

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.