The Baby Emergency. Carol Marinelli

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       CHAPTER TWO

      PULLING up a chair at the nurses’ station, Shelly smiled at a now much happier Nicola.

      ‘She’s great, isn’t she?’ Nicola said, happily munching into a huge slab of walnut cake.

      ‘Told you. Melissa’s bark is far worse than her bite. Once the day staff are gone she relaxes—and feeds us,’ Shelly added, helping herself to a generous slice.

      ‘Save some for me!’ Ross perched on the edge of the desk, depositing a mountain of files and X-rays as he did so.

      ‘How’s the baby in Emergency?’

      ‘Heading this way,’ Ross sighed. ‘He’s pretty sick but he’s holding his own at the moment. The children’s hospital has got an ICU cot but not a general one, whereas we’ve got a general but no ICU. I can’t believe I’d managed to forget the constant battle with the bed state.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Looks like we’re in for a long night. Hopefully Melissa will go easy on me, I didn’t really have any choice but to admit him. Emergency’s steaming down there, it’s no place for a sick baby.’

      ‘I agree.’ Melissa, coming up behind Ross, caused him to jump. ‘I don’t mind being busy, Ross, it’s just the general thoughtlessness that annoys me. Annie should have had him up here hours ago. Instead, we’ve got a sick baby to assess and an overwrought mum to deal with in the middle of the night. A little bit of foresight wouldn’t have gone amiss.’

      Ross nodded his head in agreement. ‘Right, what have you got for me? I’d better clear the pile before Kane gets here. Who knows when I’ll find time otherwise?’

      ‘Just a couple of IV orders that need updating, and I think Shelly wants some antibiotics written up for cot five—his blood culture results are back.’

      Ross nodded. ‘Yeah, the lab just paged me.’ One hand tapped away on the computer as he brought up the results. ‘This is the life,’ he sighed. ‘Pathologists on call, X-Ray just a stone’s throw away.’

      ‘I thought you said it was civilised where you were,’ Shelly teased, desperately trying to resume normal services despite her internal bombshell.

      ‘It was. The clinic I worked in at Tennagarrah was comparable to a luxury caravan. All the basics were there but you weren’t exactly spoilt for choice and you had to work for everything. This in comparison is a five-star hotel.’ With an exaggerated whoop of delight he jumped down and opened the drug fridge. ‘And just look at the mini-bar, where do I start? Bactrim, flucloxacillin, gentamicin, vancomycin. What can I get you, Sister?’

      Shelly peered at the monitor in front of her, reading the blood results and the antibiotic sensitivities. ‘Well, a large dose of flucloxacillin would hit the spot.’

      ‘Coming right up.

      ‘Anything else I can get you?’ Ross asked, carrying on the joke as he pulled the vial of antibiotic out of the fridge. ‘Have you had a look at the room service menu yet?’

      ‘This will do just fine.’ Picking up her cake, Shelly effectively ended the playful conversation. Images of five-star hotels and bubbling spas and four-poster beds weren’t exactly doing wonders for her blood pressure, and the sight of the porter wheeling in the gurney carrying the baby provided a very welcome diversion.

      ‘Kane Anderson,’ the emergency nurse informed them as Shelly pulled down the cot side and greeted Kane’s mum with a warm smile. ‘He’s been down in Emergency so long he’s part of the furniture now. This is his mum, Angela.’

      ‘Hi, Angela, we’re just going to get Kane into the cot and then I’ll get the handover from Emergency. Once that’s done I’ll come and settle you both in.’ Gently she lifted the infant over, handling him deftly and with minimum fuss so as to avoid any unnecessary exertion.

      Although the handover was important and the emergency nurse was obviously in a rush to get back to her department, Shelly took a moment or two to explain how the oxygen tent worked, realising how alarming it must look to Angela.

      ‘This monitor tells us the oxygen concentration in the tent, it’s very safe.’

      ‘He can’t suffocate?’ Angela checked.

      ‘Definitely not,’ Shelly said firmly. ‘If the level drops in the tent the alarm goes off, and this little probe I’ve attached to his foot tells us Kane’s own oxygen levels. I’ll be back in a couple of moments. I’m just outside but if you’re worried at all just bang on the window or call.’

      ‘She’s being a bit difficult,’ the emergency nurse started.

      ‘No doubt because she’s worried and exhausted,’ Shelly said quickly, refusing to get drawn into a discussion on the mother’s emotional state, preferring to make her own observations. ‘And eighteen hours in Emergency wouldn’t exactly have helped matters. СКАЧАТЬ