The Surgeon She's Been Waiting For

‘Good.’ Megan began to wrap a blood-pressure cuff around William’s arm.

‘What’s the matter with my daddy?’

Megan looked up to see that Nicky was anxiously watching what was happening.

‘He’s not feeling very well, Nicky,’ she said. ‘We need to send him to hospital so that the doctors can make him more comfortable.’

Nicky stuck his thumb in his mouth, his eyes wide and troubled. Megan looked up at Chloe. ‘I wonder if you could take him to look at the ducks?’ she suggested softly. ‘This is perhaps a little too upsetting for him.’

The girl nodded, and Megan tacked on, ‘Just keep an eye on him and see to it that he doesn’t go too close to the water.’

‘I will.’ Chloe took off with Nicky in the direction of the canal wharf. ‘Come on, squirt,’ she said. ‘We’ll see how many ducklings we can find.’

‘Do you have any idea what might be wrong with my husband?’ the woman asked.

‘Not yet,’ Megan answered. ‘They’ll have to do tests at the hospital, and possibly a scan.’ She was concerned about the way his muscles were twitching, and as she watched him his body began to jerk uncontrollably. ‘Does he have any history of epilepsy?’

The woman shook her head. ‘No. The only thing he ever mentioned is a sort of cramping pain from time to time.’

‘Show me where it was that he had the pain,’ Megan said, and the man’s wife showed her an area around his kidneys.

‘Is that any help to you?’ the woman asked.

‘Possibly, but we won’t know anything for sure until he’s undergone thorough tests.’ Megan frowned. ‘His blood pressure is very high. Has he had problems with that before?’

‘Not that I am aware of, although he has been getting headaches. Is it important?’

‘It could be. I’m going to have to give him an injection to control the seizures,’ Megan murmured. ‘With any luck, the ambulance will be here before too long.’

The paramedics arrived within a few minutes, and Megan supervised William’s transfer into the ambulance, walking with them to the pub car park, where their vehicle was waiting.

‘I thought your stint on duty had finished a few hours ago,’ the lead paramedic said, acknowledging Megan. He grinned. ‘You can’t stay away, that’s the truth of it, isn’t it?’

‘Too right,’ she said with a faint smile. ‘I expect I’ll see you again bright and early tomorrow.’

‘I want to go with my husband,’ Alice put in. ‘Can I do that, and take Chloe and Nicky with me?’

The driver nodded. ‘We should be able to squeeze you in.’ He ushered them inside the vehicle and then closed the doors on them, leaving his partner to attend to the patient on the journey. ‘We’ll be on our way, then,’ he told Megan.

She inclined her head and waved them off. Then she turned, and realised that the artist was standing just a short distance away, watching her.

‘You seem to know them quite well,’ he said, throwing a glance towards the disappearing ambulance. ‘Are they colleagues of yours?’

‘Yes, I see them most days. I work in the A and E department at the Borderlands Hospital.’

‘Ah.’ He tilted his head backwards a fraction, and for a moment she wondered if there was something familiar about him.

‘Have we met before this?’ she asked him on an impulse. ‘I suddenly have the feeling that I’ve seen you around and about.’

He smiled briefly. ‘It’s possible, I suppose, though I doubt it. I’m sure I would have remembered if we’d been introduced.’ His glance shimmered over her. He put out his hand and she lifted hers in return, feeling more than a little overwhelmed as his palm covered hers in a warm embrace. ‘I’m Theo Benyon,’ he said, drawing her close to him.

‘Megan Rees.’

‘Perhaps we’ll meet again before too long?’ he murmured. His blue gaze drifted over her.

‘It’s possible, I dare say.’ She sent him a long look from under thick, dark lashes, an imp of mischief coming to her. ‘If you’re not too busy with your painting, you might want to help out in one of my “Keep Children Safe” workshops. We run them from time to time at the hospital, and we’re always looking for people to lend a hand.’

He threw back his head and laughed. ‘You don’t give up, do you, Megan Rees? I guess you like to involve people in your good causes—but I think I’ll pass on that one if it’s all the same with you. I have quite enough to deal with at the moment, one way and another.’

‘Do you?’ She wondered what those things might be as she smiled gently and tugged her hand free. ‘I have to go,’ she said. ‘Things to do, people to see. I’ll leave you to go and retrieve your painting.’

It was an excuse, but suddenly she felt the need to put distance between them. Her hand was still tingling from the warm intimacy of his grasp and her body quivered in response to the lingering look he had bestowed on her. All at once he seemed like the Devil personified, and her instinct was to retreat, fast.

She wasn’t quite sure why she felt that way, but if instinct was urging her to run, she would follow it. Theo was a red-blooded male, young and vigorous, and she couldn’t help but sense his interest in her. That alone was enough to put her on her guard. Hadn’t she already discovered that there was some kind of a flaw in all the men who crossed her path?

CHAPTER TWO

‘IT WAS definitely a heart attack. Look at the lab results…they show that her cardiac enzymes are elevated.’ Megan scanned the report on screen and then switched to the results of the echocardiograph. ‘See this area here?’ She glanced at the senior house officer by her side and pointed out the region that was giving her concern. ‘The heart function is definitely impaired.’

‘I see it. It’s not good, is it?’ Sarah winced. Her face was pale against the gold of her hair, and Megan guessed the long hours on duty were beginning to take their toll on her. She hoped she could send her to the doctors’ lounge to take a well-earned rest soon, as things had been hectic in A and E.

‘Not good at all.’ Megan turned her attention to the monitor that was recording her patient’s vital signs. ‘Her heart rate is way too high and her condition’s deteriorating fast.’

‘What are you going to do?’ Sarah was worried, her gaze troubled as she studied the laboratory results. ‘You’ve already given her glyceryl trinitrate and diamorphine, along with an infusion of tirofiban and heparin, but the chest pain is coming back, and she’s struggling to get her breath.’

Megan pressed her lips together. ‘We’ll leave her on the infusion for a while longer to see if things settle down.’ She frowned, pushing back a silky lock of chestnut hair that tumbled across her cheek. ‘Is there any news of Mr Carlson yet? We’re running out of time. If we don’t get her to surgery soon, she could go into cardiogenic shock and that would be grim.’

‘I’ll go and check, but last I heard he was tied up in Theatre at a hospital across the county.’

Megan winced. ‘We really need more people that we can call on. We’ve been understaffed for months now, and the situation doesn’t show any sign of changing for the better, does it?’

Sarah shook her head. She went to make her phone call, while Megan spoke quietly to the nurse who was assisting, before checking the infusion meter and keying in the appropriate settings.

‘Let me know if there’s any change,’ she murmured, and the nurse nodded.

‘I will.’

Megan drew in a quick breath and went in search of her next patient. It had been non-stop from the minute she had come on duty. A traffic accident at a notorious road junction had kept her and her colleagues busy for most of the morning, tending to the injured, and then she’d had to deal with a patient who couldn’t breathe properly and a child with a broken arm. Then had come the woman who had suffered a heart attack.

Just another day in the emergency department, and problems were piling up on one another, thick and fast. Wasn’t that the nature of the job?

An hour or so later she headed towards the central area to see who was next on her list.

‘Ouch.’ A small voice caught her attention and she glanced into one of the treatment rooms off the central area in time to see a small boy clambering up onto a trolley bed. He was attempting to unhook an oxygen mask and tubing from the outlet on the wall at the back of the bed, and it looked as though he had banged his leg in the attempt. He stopped to rub his injury momentarily and then went on with his examination of the oxygen equipment.

What on earth was he doing in there on his own? Megan went to investigate.

‘Is someone looking after you?’ she asked. He couldn’t be much more than five years old, she guessed.