Clive Evans gave them a hand with their luggage. 'No more heavy lifting for you,' Jamieson said to Sue.
'It's a bit early for that,' smiled Sue.
When they had moved everything upstairs and Evans had left them Jamieson noticed that Sue had become much more subdued. 'What's up?' he asked.
Sue looked up at him from the chair she was sitting on and said, 'I suddenly feel ridiculous.'
'Why?'
'It seemed the right thing to do to come here to be with you but now that I am here I feel like a silly schoolgirl. I should have stayed in Kent.'
'No you shouldn't,' said Jamieson softly. 'Its lovely having you near me. We belong together. But it's not going to be much fun for you. I've got to get to the bottom of this business.'
Sue suddenly burst into tears and put her head on Jamieson's shoulder. 'Oh dear,' she said. 'Does being pregnant mean behaving like this all the time?'
Jamieson held her and shushed her gently. 'Dry you eyes,' he said. 'We'll go out to dinner. The three of us.' He patted Sue» s stomach and she smiled.
They were half way through dinner when Sue suddenly laid down her knife and fork and looked at Jamieson, wide eyed.
'What's wrong?' asked Jamieson.
'The women weren't infected during their operations at all,' said Sue.
'I beg your pardon,' said Jamieson, taken aback at Sue's sudden statement.
'The infected women in the ward,' said Sue. 'They didn't pick up the infection during surgery at all.'
'Go on,' said Jamieson, putting down his knife and fork.
'The infection was caused by something in the post-op ward.'
'It's been cleaned and disinfected,' said Jamieson.
'I didn't mean that.'
'Then what?'
'Their dressings,' said Sue.
'Their dressings?'
'The chances are that the women all had their dressings changed during the same ward round. That's when the infection could have set in.' That's why they all developed the illness together. The bug was in the dressings.'
'Contaminated dressings?' said Jamieson quietly. 'God, you could be right.' He left the table to phone the hospital from the public phone at the side of the bar. He watched Sue play idly with her cutlery while he waited for the hospital to answer. It seemed to take an age.
'Kerr Memorial,' said the voice.
'Surgical gynaecology,' said Jamieson.
'They're engaged at the moment. Will you hold caller?'
Jamieson said that he would through gritted teeth. He shrugged as Sue caught his eye.
'Surgical, Sister Roache speaking.'
'This is Dr Jamieson, Sister. I need some information about the application of surgical dressings in the ward.'
'What exactly do you want to know?' asked the nurse.
'Tell me everything. I want to know your routine for changing them. I also want to know when you do it and the order in which they're done. I need to know who does them and how often the routine changes. Everything.'
'Let me see now,' said Sister Roache. 'New patients are treated on an individual basis so for them, it could be any time. After a couple of days on the ward patients would have their dressings changed after morning ward rounds, say some time from ten thirty onwards. It would be done consecutively.'
'All of them?'
'Yes.'
'But you have seventeen patients in the ward at present if I remember rightly?' said Jamieson.
'Seventeen, yes.'
Jamieson cursed under his breath. If all of the women had had their dressings changed consecutively why had only eight developed wound infections?
'Size!' whispered Sue who had come across to eavesdrop on the conversation. 'Ask about the size of the dressings!'
'What size of dressings were used in the changes Sister?' Jamieson waited while she went to check.
There was an excitement in Sister Roache's voice when she came back to the phone. 'I think you may have your common factor Doctor,' she said. 'The eight infected women were given 200mm dressings the others had various other sizes used on them.'
'Were the 200mm dressings all from the same pack?' asked Jamieson with baited breath.
'It would appear so,' replied the nurse.
'Are there any left from that pack?' asked Jamieson.
'I'd have to check.'
'If there are put them to one side. Don't let anyone near them. I have to get them to the lab.'
'Very good.'
Jamieson put down the phone. 'You were right,' he said to Sue. 'You're a genius. It was the dressings. An unsterile pack of dressings'
'But how did they get to be unsterile?' replied Sue.
Jamieson shook his head as a black cloud swirled around inside his head.
When they got back to the residency Jamieson went immediately up to the Gynaecology Department and spoke to Sister Roache. She handed him a dressing pack with only two remaining in it. Jamieson was careful not to touch either of them.
'Staff Nurse Telfer says that this was the pack that was used,' said the sister. 'She and student nurse Barnes applied them.' Jamieson said that he would take them to the lab and asked about the condition of the infected women.
'Not good. I've never known such a virulent outbreak of wound infection before.'
Jamieson didn't tell her that this was an entirely new infection but he thought about it on the way over to the Microbiology Department. That two completely different organisms had caused such havoc in the same department only reinforced his growing suspicion that the contamination was not due to a quirk of fate. Something much more sinister was behind it.
Jamieson saw a light on in the microbiology lab and found Moira Lippman there. 'I didn't know you were on call tonight. 'This is a bit of luck,' said Jamieson.
'What can I do for you?' asked Moira.
Jamieson thought the girl sounded a bit distant but let it pass. He asked her about setting up some microbiological tests on the dressings.
'Of course,' said Moira Lippman. 'Just leave them there. I'll do them in a moment.'
The girl turned back to the bench to continue with the specimen she was dealing with and Jamieson felt compelled to ask, 'Is something wrong Moira?'
Moira Lippman put down the tubes she had been holding and laid her hands flat on the bench in front of her. 'My sister in law is one of the infected women,' she said quietly.
'I'm sorry. I didn't realise,' said Jamieson softly. 'How is she?'
'Very ill. They all are.' Moira Lippman swung round in her chair and looked directly at Jamieson. 'There's something crazy going on here,' she said.
'Go on,' said Jamieson.
'It's a Staphylococcus infection this time yet it's behaving in exactly the same way as the Pseudomonas. None of the usual antibiotics are having any effect at all. We are having to run a race to find alternative drug combinations. Two highly drug resistant infections in a row. How can that be?
'Infections that are resistant to treatment are not unknown,' said Jamieson.
