Twin Surprise For The Italian Doc

It was ridiculous to experience a twinge of something so easily recognisable as envy.

No, it was even worse than envy. This felt like jealousy, thanks to the way Georgia’s eyes were narrowing. She shook her head to stop it happening.

‘What’s the next task about?’

‘It’s called “School Bag”. We’re being called to a teacher who has tripped over a school bag and is lying on the floor, not moving. She’s unconscious but breathing. Head injury, do you think?’

‘I’m sure it won’t be that simple. We’ll have to make sure we rule out other causes of unconsciousness. Was the fall the cause or did she fall because of something else?’

‘Like a cardiac event.’

‘Yes. Or hypoglycaemia, drug overdose, a stroke, seizures, anaphylaxis, alcohol. It’s a long list.’

‘Let’s hope there’s someone around who can tell us exactly what happened. We need to know how she was acting immediately before she fell.’

The only other people in the classroom with the unconscious woman, however, apart from the silent judges, were a group of young children who were taking every advantage of their teacher being unable to control them. Some were having a race around the room, jumping from one desk top to another. One was ripping pages from a textbook. They were all shouting and laughing.

The teacher was lying face down near the blackboard. A school satchel was close to her feet, spilling its contents of an apple, drink bottle and box of pencils. Kate felt for a pulse on their patient’s neck the moment they got close enough.

‘Hello...can you hear me?’

‘You have no response,’ a judge informed her. ‘The heart rate is one hundred and twenty.’

They rolled their patient carefully so that they could protect her airway. The noise in the classroom increased and Kate was hit on the head by a ball of screwed-up paper. Georgia’s head swerved and caught the culprit—the boy who’d been ripping pages from the book. He grinned at Georgia.

An impish grin beneath a wild mop of curly hair. Such a cute kid, she had to stop herself grinning back. Instead, she jumped to her feet and tried to find her sternest expression. If they couldn’t get this scene under control, it was going to make it impossible to do their job well.

‘Enough,’ she shouted. ‘All of you kids come here. At once.’

A chair toppled with a crash in the sudden silence that followed. One by one, the children came closer. They were all acting so well, with their heads down to show that they knew they were in trouble. One little girl, with huge blue eyes and long plaits, was biting her lip and looking so scared that Georgia just wanted to give her a cuddle.

‘It’s okay,’ she told them. ‘But you have to stop being naughty. Your teacher is sick. Did anyone see what happened?’

‘She fell over,’ one of the children said.

‘And before that?’

The children shook their heads. One boy turned away and pushed another one, who pushed back. Georgia caught a third boy who stepped past her, poised to start running again. From the corner of her eye, she could see Kate taking some baseline measurements, including blood glucose. Then she looked at one of the judges.

‘Is there someone available who could look after these children?’

‘There is a school caretaker outside the room.’ A nod from the judge was the signal for the young actors to leave the scene. The boy who’d thrown the paper ball grinned at Georgia again as he left and this time she did return the smile. Along with a quick wink.

‘Blood glucose too low to register,’ Kate said behind her. ‘Skin is cold and clammy and she’s still tachycardic.’

‘Cool. I’ll set up for a glucose infusion.’ Georgia turned back to the task as the door closed behind the last of the children. They could work in peace now but there was a part of her that was missing the energy that had been in the room a moment ago.

An energy that only children could provide. That wholehearted enthusiasm for being alive that adults learned to control too well sometimes. Taking advantage of an opportunity for adventure was a hallmark of a happy child and it always seemed to involve either laughter or tears—a pendulum that could swing unpredictably.

Georgia loved the unexpected.

And she loved kids. Even more than babies. She’d had always had dreams of having a whole bunch of them. A messy house and lots of noise with hopefully more laughter than tears. A frantic routine of cooking, cleaning, cuddles and school runs to deliver her little tribe to classrooms just like this one.

She had a job to do now that had nothing to do with small people and the fragment of that dream that the extras in this scenario had prompted was easy enough to push aside.

But it was a reminder that it was still there. Getting stronger with every passing week. If she was going to achieve even a part of that dream she was going to have to do it soon.

And having a kid you could take to school had to start in a very different place.

With having a baby.

And that brought her straight back to the plan she had just abandoned on moral grounds—of using this competition as an opportunity to start that journey to parenthood.

Georgia dismissed that line of thought easily as well as she taped the cannula to their patient’s arm as evidence that an IV line had been established.

As they monitored the effects of their treatment, she tried to think of anything they might be missing that could be another twist in this scenario.

‘She’s not wearing a Medic-Alert bracelet, is she?’

‘No.’ Kate moved the collar of the shirt their patient was wearing. ‘Or a necklace.’

‘Can you check her bag? Or the drawer in her desk? It would be useful to know what medication she’s on. Is she using insulin or medication to lower her blood sugar? She might have overdosed.’

Kate did find a packet of tablets in the teacher’s bag but they weren’t what they might have expected.

‘These are antidepressants, aren’t they?’

‘Yes.’

The woman lying on the floor began to move and she groaned softly.

‘Your patient’s blood glucose level is returning to normal,’ one of the judges said. ‘What is your plan for transport?’

Georgia thought fast. ‘We will transport her to hospital. She has no one here to watch her and we don’t know what her normal regime is for her diabetes control.’

‘Which hospital do you choose?’

‘Hospital B.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it’s a higher-level hospital and there are psychiatric services available. The fact that she’s taking antidepressants suggests that there are additional issues for this patient that might be affecting her control of her disease.’

The judges nod was pleased. So was Kate’s.

‘Good job,’ she whispered, as they left the scene. ‘I probably would have picked Hospital A because it was the closest. And I might not have thought to check her bag either.’

‘You get patients delivered to you with a handover of any available information. I guess I’m just used to searching for clues.’ Georgia shoved the bulky pack of gear into the back of the car. ‘It’s one of the things I love about my job—getting to play detective on scene along with being the medic.’