Will You Help Me? by Maggie Hartley

Author:Maggie Hartley [Hartley, Maggie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781399620932
Publisher: Orion
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Horror at the Hospital

As I was taken into an office, all I could think about was Ralph’s little face and the fearful look in his eyes as I had been led away.

There was a woman already in there.

‘I’m Dr Brown, a consultant radiologist,’ the man explained again as he sat down behind a desk. ‘And this is Miriam Kratz, who is part of the trust’s safeguarding team.’

‘What’s this about?’ I asked them. ‘Ralph looked absolutely terrified to see me being marched out like that.’

Dr Brown cleared his throat.

‘Ralph’s X-ray has shown up multiple fractures of his left leg,’ he told me. ‘There’s a transverse fracture of the femur, a hip fracture …’

As he continued, I switched off. My head was spinning and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

‘How has he done that?’ I asked.

‘We’re not sure,’ shrugged Dr Brown. ‘What we do know is that the fractures are all at different stages of healing.’

‘What does that mean?’ I asked, even more confused.

‘It signifies that the injuries happened at different times – they didn’t all happen at once from one single incident,’ he explained.

‘Has Ralph hurt himself or been in an accident that you can recall?’ he asked while Miriam Kratz took notes.

‘No,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘Not while I’ve been fostering him, but he’s only been with me for a month.’

Dr Brown and Miriam exchanged glances.

‘Look, please can you contact Ralph’s social worker,’ I told them. ‘I feel like you need to speak to both of us about this. I can assure you that he hasn’t suffered these fractures while he’s been in my care and prior to that he was with his birth mother. Can you not see when he was treated from his hospital records?’ I added.

‘There are no hospital records anywhere in the country for Ralph that we can find, so we can only assume that he never had treatment and that the fractures have just been left to heal on their own,’ replied Dr Brown.

My heart broke for Ralph. He must have been in so much pain.

Poor little lad.

I gave them Shelley’s name and number and they said they would contact her straight away.

‘What happens now?’ I asked them.

‘If you could wait in here for the time being and we’ll come and update you when I’ve had time to chat to Dr Brown and my colleagues,’ Miriam told me.

They both got up and left.

I knew I needed to call Becky and let her know what was happening.

‘Oh, Maggie,’ she sighed. ‘That sounds awful. Poor Ralph.’

‘I know,’ I replied. ‘It’s so upsetting thinking he had all these fractures but nobody took him to the hospital.

‘I think I was in shock when the doctor was talking to me and I couldn’t take it all in,’ I added. ‘I feel as if I’m under suspicion, even though from the way the doctor was talking, it seems as if these injuries are months old.’

‘Maggie, I’m going to call Shelley now myself and ask her to come up to the hospital straight away to see you,’ Becky told me.

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