Her Miracle Twins

Chantal smiled. ‘I see. Was it a big dog?’

‘Oh, it was enormous! But I’m not scared of dogs, am I, Mum?’

‘Not a big boy like you, Albert. Now, tell the nice lady doctor how you ran much too quickly when you chased the dog and tripped up on that kerbstone.’

‘So where did you hurt yourself when you fell?’

‘All down my leg.’ He pulled back the side of the blanket to reveal an improvised bandage of old cloths. ‘You should have seen the blood, Doctor.’

‘I can see the bloodstains peeping through the bandage, Albert. Who put the bandage on?’

‘The lady with the dog. She took me into her house and told me I was a naughty boy for chasing him.’

Chantal could see more tears threatening. ‘Mind if I have a look?’ She was already peeling off the cloths very carefully so that they wouldn’t pull on his skin. ‘Oh, yes, now I see the problem. Don’t worry, Albert, I’ll soon have that sorted.’

‘What are you going to do to me? You’re not going to chop it off, are you? My friend’s dad had to go into hospital to have his leg chopped off. He walks with crutches now. I don’t mind having crutches but I’d like to keep my leg on if you don’t mind. You see, I play football.’

She gave him a reassuring smile. ‘I’m simply going to mend the cut that’s appeared in the skin. Can you feel this nice soothing liquid I’m painting all over the cut?’

‘What’s that for?’

‘That’s cleaning the wound and—’

‘Have I got a wound? Like a soldier?’

‘Yes, and you’re behaving like a brave little soldier for me. I’ve just put some painkiller on it so it won’t hurt much. Not that you’ll need it as you’re such a brave boy. How old are you, Albert?’

‘Five and a half,’ he said proudly.

‘You’re a big boy for your age.’

Then she fell silent as she focussed on the task in hand.

‘There, all done. I’ve put some stitches in so that—’

‘Stitches? How many?’

She solemnly counted them one by one.

‘Six.’ She was spraying the whole area of affected leg now.

‘Six? Wait till I get back to school and show everybody!’

‘Doctor, do you think I should keep him at home today?’ his mother asked anxiously.

Chantal replied that one day at home would be advisable to give the healing process a good start. She explained how to treat the little boy for the next ten days before his mother took him to see their family doctor who would arrange for the stitches to be taken out.

‘Oh, don’t they dissolve by themselves?’

‘Not this kind of stitches. Because the wound is quite wide and in an area of the leg that will get a lot of movement from an active boy like Albert, it’s advisable to put very strong stitches in.’

She pulled back the curtain of her cubicle as she said goodbye to her little patient and his mother. The cubicles were all being used now and further patients were being wheeled in on trolleys.

Better get a move on. Michel didn’t like to have too many patients who hadn’t been seen by a doctor.

She found herself busy all day with a seemingly endless stream of patients. There was no time to think about herself. She was glad she would be going off duty soon because her ankle was aching now. Actually, it had been aching for the past hour or so but she’d chosen to ignore it. It would be a sign of weakness if she sat down during working hours.

The evening staff were arriving and taking over the patients who were still waiting to be seen. She took the opportunity to go into the office to write her report. Settling herself in front of the computer with her right foot on a chair, she turned sideways and switched on the computer. It was a relief to take the weight off her ankle.

She typed on in her difficult position, listing the wide variety of cases she’d dealt with that day.

Before the crash patients from the motorway had arrived, her first patient had been the child with a frozen pea up his nose. Frozen when it had gone up, according to Dad, but decidedly squelchy and messy when she’d managed to pull it out with her smallest forceps. The blood that came with it was because of the various attempts that had been made to reach it with a variety of household instruments, including a spoon, before the young boy had been brought to Emergency as a last resort.

She’d assured the worried father that the bleeding was only shallow and would stop soon as long as the young patient promised not to pick his delicate little nose.

Following that, there had been the motorbike rider on the coastal road who’d crashed into the back of a car that had stopped suddenly. X-rays had shown a fractured tibia and fibula so she’d called in Orthopaedics to admit him to a ward before they operated on him. The operation had been successful.

‘So this is where you’re hiding?’

She recognised Michel’s voice behind her, lifted her ankle with both hands to support it and turned the desk chair round.

‘Don’t let me disturb you, Chantal. How does your ankle feel after a whole day on your feet? Tell me honestly. Don’t be brave about it.’

‘Well, it aches a bit now. It’s just because it’s tired.’

‘OK, that’s a warning sign to ease off. Come in after lunch tomorrow and just work the afternoon.’

She raised one eyebrow. ‘Are you sure, Michel? I don’t want my colleagues to think I’m getting preferential treatment.’

‘And why on earth would they think that?’

‘Well, I’ve had a lot of time off recently and …’ She felt flustered as she attempted an explanation. ‘You’re the boss. If you think it’s OK then I’d best take your advice.’

He put on a serious expression. ‘I’m absolutely certain. Easy does it.’

‘You’ve been so kind to me.’ She was merely stating the obvious while no one was around to hear her praising him. She just felt she’d had preferential treatment and had to be careful.

‘I’m just being an attentive doctor to a valuable colleague.’ His voice was husky. He cleared his throat, before continuing in a totally neutral voice without a hint of emotion, ‘You’re a very useful doctor in our department so we don’t want to mess up the treatment you’ve had at this stage.’

She felt another surge of gratitude. ‘I was wondering …’

‘Yes?’

‘I’m truly grateful for the way you’ve taken care of me since I sprained my ankle and I’m sorry for the way I was so grumpy when you found me lying in the sand.’

‘Oh, Chantal, you were suffering from shock. Completely understandable. You were in pain. It was perfectly natural for you to behave like that. Forget it.’

‘Well, I’ve been thinking.’