‘We need Sally’s parents and the plumber,’ Tessa said brusquely, and Mike gave her a wondering glance. She’d snapped straight back into medical mode. What had taken place between them belonged somewhere else. She was now crisp, decisive and every inch a doctor trained to cope with trauma. ‘The rest of you, I’d like you to stay outside until you’re needed. Now, who’s Sally’s mom?’
‘She’s not here,’ a girl with peroxided blonde hair and too much make-up told her. ‘I’m Kylie, the kid’s aunty. My sister and her husband have gone out to dinner and I don’t know where they’ve gone. It was supposed to be the pub but it’s burned down so they went somewhere else.’ She glared aggressively, as though expecting Tess to turn on her and say it was all her fault.
‘One of the neighbours is doing a ring-round of their friends to try and find them,’ the plumber volunteered. He turned to Mike who was lifting the child forward to take the strain from the toe.
‘Doc, I’ve been thinking,’ he said. ‘The hassle with the outlet on old baths is that the outlets don’t screw. Usually it’s a cinch if a kid gets stuck because you just turn the whole outlet around while someone turns the kid at the same time-so they both come out together and at least you can work on getting the thing off when they’re out of the bath. This is an old type, though. It’s a permanent fixture-glued fast.’
‘Then we’ll have to chip it out,’ Mike said. He was practically in the bath now, gathering the child to him. ‘She’s freezing. I want blankets and hot-water bottles. Fast.’
‘I figured you’d say chip it,’ the plumber said in satisfaction. ‘I’ve got the tools here ready. I would have done it before but I didn’t like to when the kiddy was so distressed and thrashing about, like. I reckon, though, what’s best’d be if I get underneath the house and cut through the pipe. Then if I chip it from underneath I won’t upset the kid as much. With luck the whole thing will lift up. It’ll just be a matter of supporting the kid while we do it.’
‘Do it,’ Mike said, his eyes on the little girl’s face. They needed to get her out of there fast. She was showing signs of going into shock.
‘Could you hop in the bath and cuddle her?’ Tess asked Kylie. She cast a quick glance at Mike, and Mike nodded his agreement. Warmth and reassurance were what this child needed more than anything.
‘What…hop in?’ The teenage babysitter was clearly horrified.
‘Do as she says, Kylie,’ Mike ordered, and Tess almost grinned as the teenager gazed at Mike in dismay but then did what she was told. Mike had some authority in this town. There weren’t many people who could tell a teenager to sit in a bath in front of witnesses and be obeyed.
In two minutes they had the sulky teenager sitting right in the bath, with the child lying back on her lap. Without her mum to comfort the child, it was the best they could hope for. While Mike examined the toe, Tess sent a couple of the women to find hot-water bottles, and she replaced the single towel around the child’s body with a big fluffy blanket.
‘She’s been pulling,’ Mike said softly, looking from the swollen toe to the white, drained face of the little girl. The fact that the child was now silent was ominous. The old medical adage was, ‘Never worry too much about a child who’s screaming. If a child’s quiet, then worry.’
‘I think we might administer some pethidine, Dr Westcott,’ Mike said, and Tess nodded. She retrieved what he needed from his bag and prepared it.
‘There’s no way we’ll get the toe out by pulling.’ Mike’s fingers were carefully probing the little foot. ‘The whole foot’s swollen now. Our best chance is to manoeuvre it free once we have both sides exposed.’
There was a thumping under the house and the sound of men’s voices. The plumber obviously had back-up. The child started whimpering again, and Kylie put her face in the child’s hair.
‘Hey, hush, Sally, Sally,’ Kylie said softly. ‘We’ve got two doctors on top and a big plumber underneath, cutting your toe out. We’ll be able to take the pipe to playschool for show and tell, and if we’re lucky the fireman might give you a ride in the fire engine.’
‘Good girl,’ Tess said warmly. Underneath the make-up and the earrings and the bravado, there was a good kid. Kylie must have been almost as scared as Sally, facing this on her own.
The change in Kylie seemed to affect Sally-or maybe it was the pethidine kicking in. The little girl lay slumped on Kylie’s lap and let them do as they willed, and five minutes later the whole bath outlet and three inches of outlet pipe lifted upwards and the little foot was free.
Free from the bath, but not from the pipe.
‘Now what?’ Kylie said uneasily, gathering the little girl closer, pipe and all.
‘We get her to the hospital,’ Mike said. He could see the tip of the toe now and he wasn’t happy. It had no colour at all. There wasn’t time to immobilise it and wait for the swelling to settle before they tried to free it.
‘I want my mummy,’ the child whimpered and buried her head in Kylie’s breast.
‘Yeah, well, I ought to have found out where they were going,’ Kylie muttered, close to tears herself, and Mike put his hand on her shoulder.
‘They should have told you. Let’s not blame yourself here, Kylie. You’re doing a great job.’ Then he looked at Tess, his mind working over options. ‘How do you feel about giving an anaesthetic, Dr Westcott? Under supervision, of course.’
Tess met his look, and bit her lip.
She knew what he was asking here. Mike Llewellyn was asking an unregistered doctor to give a general anaesthetic to a child without her parents’ consent.
If she didn’t, the child would lose her big toe. And if she did…the legal ramifications were vast.
‘Tess, there’s no choice,’ Mike said heavily. ‘I know it’s a lot to ask but I’ll take all legal responsibility. I’ll put it in writing if you like.’
‘You trust me?’
‘Yes,’ he said, and he did. He met her look and he nodded. Yes, he was sure. Tess might be flirtatious and frivolous, but he had the gut feeling that, whatever else she was, she was a damned fine doctor.
‘OK, let’s do it,’ Tess said softly. She smiled at Kylie, a big, cheery smile that was meant to totally reassure her. ‘Isn’t it lucky that I came all the way from the States?’ she said. ‘I must have just known that Dr Llewellyn couldn’t manage even a stuck toe without me.’
Much to Mike’s relief, they got the toe out without sawing the bath pipe right back to the skin.
Tessa’s anaesthetic procedure was extremely competent, as Mike had guessed it would be, and once he’d reassured himself that she knew exactly what she was doing he was free to deal with the toe.
Their friendly plumber, looking like a big green bear with his overalls covered by a theatre gown, cut the pipe again, this time half an inch from the toe. That meant Mike could work on the toe from both sides.
He applied cold compresses to the toe. The nurse-the horrible Hannah who was
The toe came free with a pop, and Tess looked up from her dials to see colour seeping back into it almost instantaneously.
‘Oh, well done,’ she said, and she started reversal straight away. There was no point keeping Sally asleep a moment longer than needed, and there was now no drama.
‘Well done to you, Tess,’ Mike said softly, looking along the table to where she was carefully monitoring Sally’s breathing. He hadn’t been in the least concerned about the anaesthetic, he realised as he gently massaged the little toe. One look at Tessa’s confident preparation had put his mind at ease. The lady knew her job.
So now what? he thought. Now what?
It was almost unbelievable. Out of the blue he’d been granted one fine doctor-a doctor with skills in anaesthetics and trauma medicine. If he’d hunted Australia for a new partner, he couldn’t have found anyone better.
Once she was registered there was nothing they couldn’t do, he thought suddenly-jubilantly. All the minor surgery that he currently sent away…the road accidents that he couldn’t cope with on his own…the urgent stuff. He’d lost patients in the past because there’d been only one of him when he’d needed two.
If she really was willing to stay…
She was, he knew she was, but there were strings. Or rather, there was a string. One string-and that string was emotional involvement. Hell, he could have this girl as a partner and keep his distance. He must! He couldn’t think clearly when she was near. His mind felt weird now-fuzzed at the edges. It was the way he’d always known
