The Doctor's Family Secret

She went off to check with the lab about the blood tests, and just as she put the phone down, Lewis’s mother came hurrying towards her.

‘I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long,’ she said breathlessly. ‘I had trouble getting through to my husband at work. I didn’t realise he was already on his way here.’ She looked anxiously at Laura. ‘How is Lewis? Have you had any results yet? Do you know what’s wrong with him?’

Laura nodded. ‘It looks as though Lewis’s recent chest infection could be the source of his troubles. The infection has been carried in his bloodstream and is affecting the bone in his leg. It’s a very painful condition, but we’re giving him something to ease that.’

Mrs Watkins looked panic-stricken. ‘It’s bad, isn’t it?’ Her face crumpled. ‘It’s all my fault. I didn’t realise how bad it was. I should have done something sooner.’

Laura shook her head. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong, Mrs Watkins. You must believe that.’

She grimaced inwardly. Much as it troubled her to admit it, it looked as though Nick had been right. The woman did blame herself, and it should be a lesson to Laura that she took too much for granted. She still had a lot to learn.

‘Lewis had treatment for his chest infection,’ Laura explained, ‘but the bacteria were aggressive and resistant. There was nothing you could have done about that.’

She gave the woman a reassuring smile. ‘We’re going to give Lewis much stronger antibiotics than those that he had before,’ she said. ‘We’ll be giving them intravenously so that we can do everything in our power to beat this infection. We’re expecting him to recover completely, but it will take a while, possibly a few weeks.’

‘Will he have to stay in hospital?’

Laura nodded. ‘Yes. Just for a week or so, until we’re sure that he’s on the mend. After that, as soon as he’s well enough he should be able to go on with the drug therapy at home.’

‘Can I see him?’

‘Yes, of course you can. You can stay with him as much as you like. I’m going to set up his intravenous line right now if you want come with me.’ Looking closely at the anxious woman, she added reassuringly, ‘We’ll soon have him feeling better.’

‘Thank you. I know that you’re doing all you can for him. It’s just that he’s so young…he’s all that I have.’

‘I’m confident that we’ve caught this in time,’ Laura said softly. ‘Come and see him. You’ll be able to cheer him up.’

Laura was kept busy for the rest of the afternoon, and thankfully managed to keep out of Nick’s way. She didn’t want him breathing down her neck, watching her every move. It wasn’t as though he singled her out for attention—he kept firm control over everything that went on in A and E—but she found his presence unnerving. It was bad enough that he hadn’t wanted her on his team, and his ongoing disagreements with her father were an additional irritation.

She wondered how her father was coping. He hadn’t been well, and she had been concerned about him all day. Now that things had quietened down again, she could go and see him.

His office was on the next floor and, approaching it, she saw his door begin to open. She slowed her pace a little. If her father was at his desk, and free, she would pop her head round the door and say hello.

Instead, she heard the sound of a voice clipped in anger, and her heart sank.

‘No, David, I don’t see your point at all,’ Nick was saying. ‘In fact, you can take it from me that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a lot that can be done to make the department run more smoothly and efficiently, and I’ve a number of ideas as to how we can make the place more user friendly. I don’t accept that it can’t be done, and if I were in charge of the department I would be on your case every day. As it is, I’ll make sure Tom Edwards knows what I think.’

Laura drew in a sharp breath. It was a good thing that the general public didn’t use this corridor. It wouldn’t have been helpful for them to hear the argument that was going on. She hesitated, not wanting to eavesdrop but not knowing what she should do. She had come to talk to her father, and it looked as though his meeting with Nick was about to come to an end. There was hardly any point in retracing her steps.

‘I’m sure that Tom already knows what needs to be done,’ her father responded shortly. ‘As the consultant in charge, I imagine that he wants to see changes every bit as much as you do.’

He paused. ‘Look, Nick, I do agree with you that we need to run the department in an effective manner. I know how important these things are, and what you’re saying is reasonable enough, but it’s a question of priorities. A lot of the time the X-ray machine that we have is left idle—evenings and weekends, for instance, when the outpatient departments are closed. Surely you must see that?’

‘What I see is that patients are vulnerable,’ Nick said firmly.

Laura stepped away from the door and began to examine the scene from the nearby window, but she could still hear what was being said.

‘I don’t think you appreciate the problems we have to deal with, Nick.’ Her father’s tone was curt. ‘I’m made to account for hospital expenditure the whole time. We’re overstretched as it is, and we have to make careful decisions as to what can be put in place.’

‘That isn’t my concern. My priority is the well-being of the patients.’

‘Even so, you should be aware of the wider picture. Just keeping up with maintenance can be a minefield. Take the MRI machine as an example…it’s a hugely expensive piece of equipment to maintain, and we’re already paying people to man it for extra hours. There’s a long waiting list of people needing MRI scans. Whenever the machine breaks down we have to get it fixed and back in action as a matter of urgency, or even more patients would be left vulnerable. We have to weigh one thing against another, and make decisions accordingly.’

‘I know that, but you still need to take note of what I’m saying. I work in A and E almost every day, and I know what needs to be done to make the department function better. I want management to know exactly what we need to make this place second to none.’

‘Believe me, you’ve made your position very clear.’ Laura could imagine her father’s tight-lipped expression. ‘I can assure you that I will put your ideas to management.’

‘I’m glad to hear it, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for anything to happen,’ Nick said, thrusting the door open even wider. ‘And much as I’d like to stay and argue the point with you, I have an A and E department to attend to.’

David’s comment was equally terse. ‘And I have a desk full of paperwork and a lot of catching up to do. I’ll talk to you later, Nick.’

Nick swept out into the corridor and slowed to a halt as he saw Laura. She pretended to be engrossed in the view of the landscaped quadrangle below the window, but she glanced up as he approached.

‘Is my father free now?’

He sent her a seething glance. ‘He’s all yours.’

‘Well, that’s good. I thought I would spend my coffee-break with him.’ Without further ado, she walked into the office and closed the door behind her. After the exchange she had just heard, she didn’t care that she’d left Nick standing in the corridor.

‘Laura…it’s good to see you.’ Her father looked up and put aside the file that he had just opened, laying it down on the desk.

‘How has your first day back at work gone? I’ve been worried about you. I didn’t think you were well enough to come back yet.’

He shook his head. ‘It was just a virus. I’m well enough now and, anyway, I get bored just sitting at home with nothing to do. I may just as well be here and getting on with things.’

Laura looked at the paperwork cluttering his desk. ‘You mean you wanted to get back to work because you knew all this would be piling up. You work too hard. I’m sure that’s why you got the virus in the first place. They put too much on you.’

She studied him carefully. ‘I just saw Nick coming out of your office. Has he given you more problems to deal with?’

He gave a faint grimace. ‘I expect that young man will go far. I always knew that he would be a man to be reckoned with one day. When I was a consultant here, he was on my team, and I could see that he was energetic and full of ideas. He has a quick intelligence, a brilliant mind, but he’s also headstrong and impatient.’

‘He’s giving you trouble?’

‘He wants to see things change, and he wants it brought about quickly. So do I, but I’m used to the way these things work. Nothing gets done overnight, no matter how hard you push. It’s the way things are, and I’ve learned not to let it get me down. There are people in management who have their own ideas of what changes need to be made, and everything is a matter of compromise.’

‘Are you regretting that you went into management?’

‘No, not at all. I couldn’t carry on as an A and E consultant after the accident affected the use of my hand, but I knew that I could be an effective administrator and that my experience as a doctor would be invaluable in making sure that administrative decisions were solidly based.’

Laura reached out and covered his hand with hers. ‘And now you have Nick hassling you every day. That wasn’t what you’d bargained for, was it?’

He smiled wearily. ‘It’s all part and parcel of the job, I suppose. I need to try to meet Nick halfway because he’s full of good ideas, and basically I’ve always thought that should be encouraged. I think we might lose him otherwise, and much as we rub each other up the wrong way, and as much as his going would make my job easier, it would be a great loss for the hospital, I’m sure. There aren’t many men who have his expertise.’

Laura frowned. ‘Is that a possibility? Is he thinking of leaving?’

‘I know that he wants a post as a consultant. He has all the qualifications necessary and I know that he’s been looking around.’

If Nick went, that would make things easier all round, Laura reflected, but she kept her thoughts to herself. The way things were, the constant arguments with Nick couldn’t be doing her father any good at all. ‘I wish there was something that I could do to make life easier for you. I hate to see you looking so drained.’