tonight? Lisa needed attention as much as Martin, and Nikki knew that alone she would have struggled to keep both alive.
Finally the metal panels were ripped from the frame of the car. Martin was freed first. As Nikki, the ambulance driver and the assisting men carefully lifted his unconscious frame on to a stretcher, Nikki turned helplessly to Luke.
‘It’ll be another ten minutes before we have Lisa free,’ Luke told her. ‘How far’s the hospital?’
‘Five minutes.’
‘Take him and send the ambulance back for us,’ he ordered, and there was nothing Nikki could do but obey.
She didn’t have time to think of Luke Marriott for the next half-hour. Nikki didn’t have time to do anything but hold desperately to her patient’s fragile grip on life. Both she and Martin were fighting, she thought grimly, but only one of them was aware of it.
The nursing staff of Eurong’s tiny hospital were out in force-the full complement of five nurses and a ward’s maid were all at the hospital before Nikki and her patient reached it. In a tiny community like Eurong, word travelled fast. Everyone knew these two kids, and the nurses were grateful for anything they could do to help.
But there was so little…Nikki set up an intravenous infusion, took X-rays and then monitored her patient with an increasing sense of helplessness.
‘He’s slipping.’ Andrea, the hospital charge sister, took Martin’s blood-pressure for the twentieth time and looked grimly to where Nikki was adjusting the flow of plasma. ‘Isn’t there anything we can do?’
‘The plane’s on its way from Cairns,’ Nikki told her. ‘It’ll be here in an hour. They’ll transport him back there.’
‘But he’s slipping fast.’
‘I know.’ Nikki looked helplessly down at the boy’s pallid face. She suspected what was happening from the X- rays. There was pressure building up in the intracranial cavity. She was faced with an invidious choice-to operate here with her limited skill, or put the boy on the plane, knowing that by the time the plane landed in Cairns he’d probably be dead. ‘I can’t operate,’ she whispered. ‘I haven’t the skills…’
There was so much to this job. She would never be skilful enough to cope with the demands on her. Nikki had done obstetrics, basic surgery and anaesthetics but now-now she wanted a competent neurosurgeon right here and now. And because she hadn’t done the training this boy would die.
‘I can.’ The voice sounded behind her and Nikki spun around. Luke Marriott had quietly entered the theatre and was standing watching her.
He looked more disreputable than he had when she’d first seen him. The travel stains and the marks from catching prawns for two nights had been augmented by an hour trying to free the injured girl. His shirt was ripped and blood-stained. Even his fair hair was filthy, matted with dirt and blood. ‘Intracranial bleed?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘I’ve stabilised Lisa,’ he said briefly. ‘She’ll make it. She has two broken legs but they’ll wait for surgery in Cairns. She’s out to it now. If you prep, Dr Russell, I’ll throw myself through the shower, scrub and operate here.’ He turned to the junior nurse. ‘Show me where to go. Fast.’
‘But you can’t,’ Nikki said blankly.
‘Why not?’ The fair-haired man turned back to her and his eyes seemed suddenly older than Nikki had thought. Despite the dirt, he looked hard, professional and totally in control. ‘You’re wasting time, Dr Russell. Prep, please, and fast.’
‘But you’re not-’
‘I’m a surgeon,’ he snapped. ‘And I’ve done enough neurology to get me through. Now move!’
Nikki moved.
The burr hole was the work of an expert. Nikki could only watch and marvel, in the few fleeting moments she could spare from her concentration on the anaesthetic. Luke Marriott’s fingers were skilled and sure. It was Martin’s good fairy that had sent him here tonight.
What on earth was such a man doing as a relieving locum in a place like Eurong? Luke Marriott’s skills belonged in a large city teaching hospital. For him to be volunteering to work for the meagre wage of a locum for three weeks…
There was little time for her to question his motives. All Nikki’s energy had to focus on the job she was doing. Skilled surgery such as Luke Marriot was performing took every ounce of her anaesthetic skill, and she knew that the nurses too were being pushed to their limits. At one stage she raised her eyes to meet the eyes of her charge nurse. Andrea pursed her lips in a silent whistle of wonder, and Nikki agreed with her totally.
And then, finally, this strange surgeon was done. He dressed the site with care and signalled for Nikki to reverse the anaesthetic.
‘We’ve done all we can,’ he said grimly. ‘Now it’s up to Martin.’
‘His parents are outside.’ Nikki was still fiercely concentrating. She wasn’t going to slip now, when Luke’s part had been so expertly played.
‘I’ll take over the anaesthetic,’ Luke Marriot told her, his voice gentling. This was the job all medicos hated-to face parents when they couldn’t totally reassure. ‘You know them, Nikki?’
Nikki nodded numbly. She stayed where she was until Luke reached her and his fingers took the intubation tube. As they did, their hands touched and Nikki felt a flash of warmth that jolted her. That, and the gentleness of his eyes…He understood what she was facing, and that, on its own, made her job easier.
‘I’ll go,’ she whispered, and left him with his patient.
The few moments with the two sets of parents were as bad as they could be. Nikki tried her best to reassure them. This sort of thing hadn’t been so bad before she had Amy, she reflected sadly, but now…How would she feel if someone were telling her these things about her lovely daughter?
‘We’re taking them both down to Cairns,’ she told them gently. ‘We can take you on the plane but you must be back here in twenty minutes with what you need. Overnight gear for yourselves and a few things Martin and Lisa will want. The hospital will provide the necessities but a few personal belongings make a difference.’ She hesitated. ‘Maybe a few of Martin’s favourite tapes. He may…he may be in a coma for a while. Sound is important.’
Martin’s dad’s eyes filled with tears. ‘A coma…for a while…How the hell long?’ he demanded roughly.
‘I don’t know,’ Nikki said honestly. ‘Dr Marriott has lifted the pressure but there may have been damage done before that. We can only wait.’
Luke was waiting for her as she returned to Theatre. ‘Bad?’ he said softly, and Nikki looked up at him. For some stupid reason she felt like weeping. This wasn’t Nikki Russell-professional-untouchable.
‘Terrific,’ she said sarcastically, and her tone was harder than she intended. ‘What do you think?’
His face tightened and he turned to the sink. ‘Sorry I asked.’
Nikki bit her lip. She followed him across and mechanically started to wash.
‘You’ll fly to Cairns with them?’ she asked tentatively. Normally it would be her making the long flight, and she hated the flights with emergency patients. It left Eurong with no doctor within thirty miles. Still, both Lisa and Martin needed a doctor on the trip, and now there was Luke Marriott ready to go.
Or maybe not. Luke shook his head. ‘Your job, Dr Russell.’
Nikki stared at him. ‘But if something goes wrong…It’s you who has the neurology skills, Dr Marriott.’
‘And a fat lot of good they’ll do me at ten thousand feet. You can take blood-pressure and fix a drip just as well as I can, Dr Russell.’ They were being abruptly formal and all of a sudden it sounded absurd. The trough where they were washing was meant for one doctor. They were confined in too small a space and the night was too hot for comfort. The nurses had turned on the air-conditioning but it was still making a half-hearted effort to cool.
‘But…’ Nikki tried again. ‘But I’ve a little girl at home.’
‘You’ve a daughter?’ His brows rose as if the news shocked him. Nikki winced, wishing for the thousandth time she looked her age.
‘I have,’ she told him. ‘Amy’s four and she worries.’
‘But your housekeeper is there.’
‘Yes. But-’
‘And I’ll be there too.’ He smiled, and his smile held a trace of self-mockery. ‘I’m held to be good with children.’
‘But-’
