Outback Encounter by Meredith Webber

Author:Meredith Webber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

WHATEVER it was, it was urgent, Caitlin realised, putting an arm around the nurse’s shoulders, making soothing noises, but leading her straight back to the hospital.

‘Get yourself a cup of tea,’ she told the nurse, abandoning her near the kitchen. Then, putting together urgency and the ambulance siren, Caitlin made her way to the emergency room Mike had shown her earlier.

Anne and Connor were bent over a patient near the door. Perhaps hearing her approach, Connor looked up.

‘MVA. Could you check that lad?’ he asked, nodding to the second bed in the small room. ‘Mike’s on his way in.’

MVA—motor vehicle accident—the same shorthand was used in emergency departments all over the country.

‘Come on, damn you, live!’ Connor was muttering at his patient as Caitlin pulled a curtain around the second bed.

She picked up the transfer papers from the ambulance and the file the upset nurse must have started. Warwick Bell, aged seventeen. Concussion. Lower limb damage. The rest of the information on the sheet was sketchy and Caitlin realised the ambulance attendants’ attention had been centred on the more seriously injured occupant of the car—the young man Connor was willing back to life.

Caitlin concentrated on Warwick. He was unconscious and had an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose but no tube in place so presumably his airway was clear. His neck was protected by a cervical collar and a short spine board was still strapped around his torso. She picked up the stethoscope that hung above the bed and listened to his chest. Once Mike arrived they could use an oximeter to check oxygen saturation in his blood.

Blood next—no bad external bleeding, though he had blood seeping from scrapes and cuts on his face and a bandage on his left forearm which she assumed covered a flesh injury. His blood pressure was good, pulse a little fast. She checked his injured leg, noticing the swelling below the knee, and stripped off his right shoe and sock, seeking a peripheral pulse in his foot. It was there, faint but noticeable, so she knew blood was still getting through.

She slid a catheter into the back of his left hand, knowing fluids could be needed urgently if his condition deteriorated, took a vial of blood for typing and testing, then moved on.

Through the curtain, she could hear Connor talking, entreating his patient to stay alive. The clatter of instruments, the murmured conversation between Anne and Connor suggested it was an epic battle and Caitlin felt her chest grow tight as she wondered if they’d win.

But she had her own patient to tend. Head next. She was talking to him all the time, and now she asked him to open his eyes. To her surprise, his eyelids flickered and with only a little further encouragement, he managed the task. Blue eyes, as clear as a baby’s but empty of any understanding. His pupils were dilated but even in size, and responded when she shone a torch into them. She kept talking to him, seeking a response to voice commands.

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