The Infirmary by L J Ross

Author:L J Ross [Ross, L J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07MDNMCX2
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2019-02-10T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Ryan and Phillips were crossing the foyer at Accident and Emergency when they spotted the van’s arrival at breakneck speed. Instinct had them surging forward through the automatic doors as a man in his mid-twenties leapt from the driver’s side and raced around to retrieve his passenger.

“Help! Somebody, help!”

Ryan covered the tarmac in seconds, long legs eating up the ground. When he saw the woman’s face and the wounds on her body, he understood the situation immediately.

Without a word, he helped to lift her from the car and held her close as they hurried back into the foyer, grateful to find Phillips had alerted the team of their new arrival. A group of men and women rushed forward with a gurney, taking her from him with gentle hands and wheeling her towards the resuscitation room. All around them, the waiting room forgot their burns and broken ankles, falling silent as they sensed the fear amongst medics and police alike.

Their faces became a blur as Ryan and Phillips watched their only witness disappear through a set of double doors.

“Adult trauma, call A&E resus department.”

The tannoy sounded above their heads and they saw Sebastien Draycott run across the waiting room to join others from the Major Trauma Unit—nurses, junior doctors and hospital porters bearing blood products—to try to save the woman’s life.

Ryan picked up his heels and ran after Draycott, who turned on him in anger.

“You can’t be in here! Stay back!”

“That woman is a victim of crime. I have every right to be here,” Ryan replied, flashing his warrant card and muscling aside the security guard who tried to stop him entering the resuscitation room. He followed the sound of urgent voices behind a half-veiled screen and waited to one side where he would not be in the way.

Phillips found him there.

“I’m praying for her,” he said, quietly.

Ryan was not a religious man, never had been, but he would have prayed to Old Nick himself if it would help.

“The van driver found her on Claremont Road,” he murmured. “Take down his statement while it’s fresh and send a car down there to preserve any evidence. Tell Faulkner to get down there, too. She can’t have run far by the time she was picked up.”

Phillips was ashamed he hadn’t thought of it himself.

“Aye, I’ll do that now.”

“Frank?” Ryan swallowed back a sudden constriction. “Find out her name. She has a name.”

* * *

A team of medics surrounded Nicola Cassidy, from the most revered specialist to the lowliest of hospital porters. They fought to keep her alive while Ryan stood guard, silently watching their every move. His eyes followed them fitting an oxygen mask over the woman’s face and an IV tube, hooking her up to a monitor so they could check her blood pressure and heart rate. He watched them arrange a sats probe to check the oxygen levels in her bloodstream, and then quickly administer fluids and begin a blood transfusion.

It all looked right.

But the woman was in cardiac arrest, Ryan realised.

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