Nurse In The Outback

‘It’s going to be great having you here, Kate.’

She gently disengaged her hand from his. She didn’t really want to encourage him to start making romantic overtures.

The room was beginning to fill up. Kate looked up to see a couple standing at the door and realised, from the squeal of recognition uttered by the female, that it was Tessa Hetherington, a proprietorial gleam in her eye as she linked arms with Grant Kershaw.

It was hard to believe that this was the same Sister Hetherington who had looked almost forbidding in the severe lines of her immaculate theatre uniform. Her hair, which had been hidden by a cap, now cascaded down her back in a froth of raven curls. Her dress was of a swirly black material, shot with gold, and her lips gleamed scarlet.

Kate, wearing a simple navy silk dress, her hair pinned into a soft chignon, felt almost gauche and unsophisticated in comparison to the glamorous creature who was picking her way through the tables towards them.

She wondered if Tessa had seen Craig Anderson holding her hand. Grant Kershaw had glanced dismissively at their table and was now ordering a drink at the bar.

‘Hello again!’ giggled Tessa as she approached their table, teetering on impossibly high-heeled shoes. ‘Glad to see you two young things enjoying yourselves.’

Something must have happened to have lightened her mood so much, Kate supposed, as she smiled politely at her senior.

‘I trust that you’ll get Nurse Carpenter home on time, Dr. Anderson. She’s got a busy day ahead of her tomorrow.’ Tessa smiled rather glassily at Kate. ‘Grant and I are out celebrating,’ she confided. ‘It’s our four month anniversary tonight.’

Kate looked across the room to where Grant Kershaw sat staring moodily into space, his profile stony. If that’s his expression when celebrating, she thought, I’d hate to meet him if he’d just received bad news!

Tessa followed the direction of her glance, and frowned. ‘I must get back to Grant,’ she said. ‘He’s absolutely starving.’ She giggled again. ‘Bye-bye, Craig. Be a good boy!’ She retreated back across the room and stood close to the surgeon, whispering something in his ear.

He turned round and stared at Kate, with a naked contempt in his eyes that startled her. What on earth had Tessa Hetherington said to him! Suddenly she felt extremely weary.

‘Come on, Craig,’ she said. ‘I’d like to go now, please.’

‘Sure.’ The affable young man looked anxiously at her and signalled for the bill. ‘There’s nothing wrong, is there, Kate? I thought Tess was acting rather strangely.’ His eyes searched her face, as if looking for clues.

‘Nothing’s wrong,’ replied Kate, making an effort to smile. ‘It’s just that the journey and the excitement seem to have caught up with me, and I’m really rather tired. And as Tessa has just promised me a busy day in theatre tomorrow, I’d better get my beauty sleep!’

Craig nodded and placed a wad of dollars next to the bill.

‘No, please, Craig—let me pay half.’ Kate rummaged around for her purse, but the Australian was adamant.

‘My treat,’ he smiled. ‘I’ll let you cook me dinner some night, how about that?’

‘Done,’ she replied. ‘Just so long as you like burnt toast!’

Laughing, they made their way out of the restaurant. Kate studiously avoided looking at either Grant or Tessa, but she could hear the latter pealing with merriment as they left the room.

Darkness had done little to stifle the ever-present heat of the Australian summer, and Kate was grateful for the breeze generated by the open-topped sports car. Thankful too that the noise of the engine obviated the need for any conversation with Craig.

Her encounters with Grant Kershaw were proving embarassingly antagonistic, she decided. It was probably a good thing that Tessa Hetherington seemed hell-bent on preventing her scrubbing for him. She must be very insecure in the relationship, though, if she suspected every new nurse at Dampland of having designs on her man. Kate remembered the blonde she had seen with him at the party in Perth. Perhaps Tessa’s fears were justified after all.

Well, she needn’t worry about me, reflected Kate. The last thing in the world she needed was involvement with another faithless man.

Yet why was it that she found it difficult to suppress a shudder of excitement when looking at that cold, hard face? Why was it that the tentative advances of the handsome young man beside her left her unmoved? A man like Craig Anderson might be just the balm which her wounded spirit needed. She turned to look at him, his thick blond hair tousled by the wind.

He sensed her looking and patted her hand. ‘Feeling better?’ he enquired.

‘Much better,’ she replied. ‘It was a great supper, and this is a great car.’

He beamed appreciatively as the lights of the hospital appeared in the distance. As they drew nearer, Kate could see that the lights of the operating theatres were blazing. There must be an emergency, she thought.

Theatres had a full operating team on standby at all times, since illness was no respecter of hospital routine! Theatre hours were from eight to five, when elective surgery was performed, but surgical emergencies took precedence over everything else, and staff could often find themselves working all night long, only to have to continue operating the following day.

The MG drew up outside Kate’s apartment, and Craig got out of the car first to open the door for her.

‘Thanks for a lovely evening,’ she smiled at him.

‘My pleasure. I probably won’t see anything of you tomorrow, since you’ll be in the ivory tower! Best of luck on your first day anyway.’

‘Thanks, Craig.’ She stood on tiptoe to give him a light kiss on the cheek, and watched him drive away from her doorway.

The flat had remained cool and, pausing only to wash and brush her teeth, she was soon ready for bed.

She set her alarm clock for seven o’clock and was asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_b8ee4a23-523b-511b-8e78-fac0deadd942)

THE EARLY morning sun was already fierce on Kate’s bare head as she made her way from the apartment to the hospital block. Her fatigue had been genuine and, despite the rather troubled encounters with Tessa and Grant, she had experienced a deep and dreamless sleep. As she travelled up in the lift, her heart quickened with anticipation. She was determined to forget and enjoy her first day at work.

The suite was empty, save for the two night nurses, who were busily clearing up after an early emergency appendicectomy.

Kate preferred a leisurely start in the mornings, and a quick glance at her watch told her that she had over half an hour before ‘knife to skin’. First she went into the female changing room, where a short search produced a package of laundry labelled ‘Nurse Carpenter’. This contained fourteen plain white dresses and matching cotton kerchiefs. She was soon in uniform, and her hair, having disobeyed all the laws of gravity, now lay concealed beneath the cotton scarf. She slipped on the ubiquitous white clogs and left the changing room.

Thus garbed, it was difficult to differentiate Kate Carpenter from any other theatre nurse. A keen eye might notice that she had somehow contrived to make the white dress appear more fashionable and attractive than it actually was, since it clung so softly to her slender curves. Surgeons often joke that a theatre nurse is only recognisable by ‘ankles and eyes’, and indeed, many a theatre marriage had begun by eyes meeting across an operating table.

Kate made her way to the common room where a pot of coffee percolated merrily. The two night nurses were just pouring themselves cups, and one of them smiled and gestured to Kate to help herself. They departed in the direction of the Sister’s office, presumably to hand over to Tessa when she arrived.

Kate sipped the strong black coffee appreciatively, and scanned the notice board to see what the morning’s list was. There were two theatres at Dampland Hospital, and Kate was assigned to the smaller Theatre Two as scrub nurse. The surgeon was a Dr. Manners and the anaesthetist a Dr. Lillywhite.

She noted that Theatre One had been given over to Dr. Kershaw, with Sister Hetherington scrubbing for him.

Kate assumed that Dr. Manners was the senior house officer, as he had a fairly basic list of surgical operations. There were two large lipomas to be removed, one stripping of varicose veins and a cystoscopy all of which Kate felt that she could have scrubbed for in her sleep. Still, it was over four months since she had been in theatres and it was just possible that she might have become rusty.

Dr. Kershaw’s list was the grander and more delicate list of a senior surgeon, where the potential for complications was that much greater. His list began with two thyroidectomies, and Kate felt a wave of envy. She had twice had the honour of working with John Garvie-Fozard, surgical consultant at St. Jude’s, and one of England’s leading authorities on this intricate operation.

The over-activity of the thyroid gland which most often caused it’s partial or total removal presented great hazards to the surgeon. It’s close proximity to the trachea in the neck raised the threat of airway obstruction, and the rich supply of blood vessels to the area, meant that the risk of severe haemorrhage was never far away.

If, to perform this operation, the surgeon needed both speed and precision, then the scrub nurse certainly needed to match those qualities.

One of Kate’s proudest moments had been at the end of a particularly tricky morning’s list, when Mr. Garvie-Fozard had pulled off his gloves and turned to her.

‘Very well done indeed, Nurse,’ he said. ‘I see I must be grateful you weren’t motivated to be a surgeon, or no doubt my position would be in jeopardy!’ The old man’s eyes had twinkled at her, and in two sentences he had vanquished his reputation as Fierce Fozard for ever.

The opening and shutting of the lift doors, together with called greetings, indicated that more of the day staff were beginning to arrive, and Kate walked into Theatre Two to prepare her instruments.

The anaesthetic nurse had not yet arrived, neither had Kate’s runner. The runner was usually a student nurse who was required to run and fetch any different instruments or sutures which Kate might suddenly need during the operation, as the scrub nurse always stays sterile and must not move away from the clean field of the operating table.