Revealing The Real Dr Robinson. Dianne Drake

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СКАЧАТЬ life changes. And the gnats swarming her, either to glom onto the carbon dioxide was she exhaling or the sweat she was sweating like she’d never sweated before, were sure testament to that.

      “Okay,” she said, picking up the duffel and slinging it over her shoulder, which threw her off balance and sent her tumbling backward a couple of steps. “Just do it. You want your life back, this is how you’ll get it.”

      Shanna gained her balance at the same time she gained her bearings, and headed off down the narrow grassy path she hoped would lead either to her destination or to someplace where someone else could point her in the right direction. At this juncture, there weren’t many options. The sun was already getting groggy in the sky, so if she didn’t land somewhere soon, the chances looked good for her spending the night out here. Not an appealing thought, sleeping alone in the jungle where who knew what kinds of predators were lurking.

      Thing was, the darned bag weighed her down, which slowed her down. But leaving it, maybe coming back tomorrow to get it, wasn’t an option. If something happened to it, if it disappeared overnight… She hadn’t brought much on this journey, but she wasn’t about to do without the few creature comforts she’d included. So she redoubled her efforts, focused only on the trail ahead of her, and bore down for the march. Thinking on every step of it how she was going to explain herself to Ben without looking like an idiot, a total lunatic or both.

      A few casual days in a tiny Italian village weren’t enough to compel anyone to do what she was doing. Especially given the way those days had gone. He’d been there but, in so many ways, he hadn’t been. And that was what she needed to learn from him. How to switch off her feelings and simply get on with it. That’s the way he lived his life, being an outstanding doctor, no emotional involvement attached to it. Precisely what she needed to learn. And now she’d traveled halfway around the world to get it, or come to terms with what she would do with the rest of her life if she couldn’t. Because heart-on-the-sleeve medicine didn’t work in the Brooks medical world.

       “Ayúdeme por favor. Mi madre fue mordida por una serpiente. Está muy enferma. No puede mover. Pienso que se morirá. Ayúdeme por favor!”

      A young girl, probably no more than ten, appeared on the road and grabbed hold of Shanna’s duffel. Not to steal it. Shanna understood that. The child was terrified because, from what Shanna could gather, her mother had been bitten by a snake. Una serpiente. Wasn’t moving. Possibly dying, or already dead.

      “Is she breathing?” Shanna asked instinctively, before she’d had a chance to think that the girl probably spoke no English. “Respirar. ¿Respira su madre?” she repeated, grateful for some family urging in the direction of languages.

       “Yo no sé. Está en el suelo, como duerme. Pero yo no sé si puede respirar.”

      Unconscious, on the ground. Status of her breathing unknown. “¿Sabe donde el hospital es?” She was asking the girl if she knew where the hospital was.

      The girl nodded then pointed straight ahead on the trail.

      “¿Es muy distante?” Very far?

      The girl shook her head. “No.”

      “Bueno. Por favor, corre al hospital, los dice lo que usted me dijo, y los dice que hay ya un médico con su madre, pero necesitan alguien que puede ayudar a conseguirla al hospital.” She was telling the girl to run ahead to the hospital for help, but the look on the girl’s face indicated she either didn’t understand or might be afraid to do so. “¿Lo que es su nombre?” she asked the girl as they made their way through the grasses.

      “Valeria,” she said.

      “Eso es un hermoso nombre.” Beautiful name.

       “Agradecimiento.”

      Valeria smiled politely with her thank-you, even though she was so scared. Shanna was impressed by the girl’s manners, especially given the circumstances. Grace under pressure. Something she needed to master. “¿Y qué es el nombre de su madre?”

       “Su nombre está Ines.”

      The mother’s name was Ines. Just as that little bit of knowledge sank in, they rounded a clump of tall pampas grass, where Ines was sprawled on the ground. Breathing, thank God! But barely.

      Shanna dropped her bag to the ground, knelt to open it, then had second thoughts about snakes. Pit vipers were prevalent here. At least, that was what she’d read on the plane. That, and so many other disjointed facts about Argentina. So she stayed half upright, half bending, and grabbed the few medical supplies she’d been allowed to carry in. No medicines, just equipment. Which wouldn’t save the woman’s life. “Soy médico, Valeria. Pero debo ayudar. Por eso yo deseo que vaya al hospital.” I’m a doctor, but I need help.

      Back home, help had been at hand with just the push of a button. Out here, she didn’t know. And as she wrapped her stethoscope around her neck and clicked on her penlight, she wasn’t even sure the kind of help she might have had back home would do much good, given what she was already seeing in Ines.

      Truth was, if the bite had come from a pit viper, the only possible treatment was antivenin. “Debo ayudar.” Yes, she needed help, especially when her first take of the woman’s pulse revealed tachycardia. Pulse much too fast and starting to skip some beats. In addition, there was swelling on her left ankle where the bite area was, not only very puffy but red and hot to the touch.

      Shanna imagined other symptoms had occurred while the child had waited there with her mother, probably hoping someone would come along to help them—difficulty with speaking, muscle weakness, dizziness before passing out, excessive sweating, blurred vision, maybe even some paralysis.

      While she’d never had to treat a venomous snake bite as a family practitioner, she’d certainly studied them in medical school. Which was nothing like encountering one in front of her. Because what she remembered from her studies was that without fast treatment death followed coma. And the blue tinge developing around Ines’s lips was a precursor to death.

      “¿Puede correr al hospital, Valeria?” Even though she asked Valeria again to run to the hospital, Shanna wasn’t sure it would make much difference. Time was elapsing and she had no idea how long ago Ines had been bitten. But the woman was still breathing, which meant there was still hope. Only at Ben Robinson’s hospital, though, and only if Ben stocked the right kinds of antivenin.

      The child tugged on Shanna’s shirt. “Sí, puedo. Pero tengo a amigos cerca que puede ayudar a llevar a mi madre allí. Creo que sería más rápido.”

      She had friends who could carry Ines there faster. Shanna kept her fingers crossed as she shooed Valeria off to fetch these friends. “Tan rápidamente como usted puede,” she urged the child, even though she didn’t know if Valeria’s fast would be fast enough.

      In the meantime, Shanna kept vigil over Ines, washing the snake wound the best she could with bottled water. There’d been a time when making a tourniquet had been the field standard in care, but studies had proved that when a tourniquet was applied, the poison was likely to concentrate where the tourniquet was cutting off circulation, increasing the chances of amputation or even a faster death.

      Then there was the idea that cutting the wound and sucking out the poison could improve things. Unfortunately, too many people had died from sucking the poison into their own lip or mouth СКАЧАТЬ