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‘Will do.’
‘Put the baby on the breast, Kim,’ Tia instructed quietly, and the student immediately did as requested, understanding that the action of breast feeding could help the uterus contract. Tia tried to rub up a contraction and just as she was starting to feel seriously worried the doors slammed open and Sharon hurried in, closely followed by—
Luca.
Tia’s heart kicked against her ribs and she turned incredulous eyes to Sharon who merely shrugged helplessly, indicating from her expression that she didn’t know what was going on.
Luca barely gave her a second glance, instead striding straight to the bed and introducing himself to Dawn. Tia immediately snapped back into professional mode, her personal feelings towards him temporarily forgotten. Now wasn’t the time to question his presence.
‘It seems as though she has a retained placenta,’ she told him quickly, ‘She delivered forty minutes ago. The uterus is atonic. I’ve tried to rub up a contraction, we’ve put the baby to the breast.’
Luca started scrubbing, firing questions at her over his shoulder. ‘Has she emptied her bladder?’
‘We’ve just catheterised her,’ Tia told him, ‘and we’ve got everything ready to set up an IV.’
‘She’s had an epidural?’
Tia nodded. ‘Yes, but it’s wearing off.’
‘Let’s top it up immediately and bleep the anaesthetist. I want her transferred to Theatre,’ Luca instructed, turning to his SHO who was hovering. ‘Can you sort out the epidural top-up and the IV, please, Dr Ford? Take blood for haemoglobin and cross-matching.’
Despite the emergency, the glamorous, dark-haired SHO couldn’t stop sneaking looks at Luca, and Tia found herself grinding her teeth as they moved Dawn into Theatre.
Luca walked quickly over to the head of the bed and gave the frightened woman a reassuring smile.
‘Dawn, your placenta does not want to come away by itself so I’m going to have to help it out,’ he said quietly, his Italian accent giving his words a warm and attractive quality. ‘You still have the anaesthetic in place so it shouldn’t be painful, but if I hurt you in any way I want you to tell me immediately. We will work as a team, I promise.’
Tia watched with awe as he calmed both Dawn and her husband with his quiet confidence and then prepared for a manual removal of the placenta.
Tia bit her lip. She’d actually never seen a placenta removed like this before. She’d read about it, of course, but she’d never actually seen it happen and she was heartily relieved that Luca was there to take charge. There were stories of exceptional circumstances when a doctor couldn’t be found and a midwife had had to undertake the procedure. Frankly, the thought made her shudder.
Sharon hovered at the back of the room, knowing that she could have a serious emergency on her hands.
‘She has a partial separation,’ Luca told the SHO as he examined Dawn. ‘The fundus is broad, whereas it should be contracted, and she is losing some blood.’
Actually, that was an understatement, Tia thought anxiously. Dawn was now bleeding steadily and she watched as Luca covered his hand in antiseptic cream and introduced it carefully into the vagina, following the line of the cord which he held tight with his other hand.
Then he released the cord and transferred his free hand to Dawn’s abdomen.
‘I can feel the separated edge…’ Luca’s handsome face was a mask of concentration as he worked his fingers between the placenta and the uterine wall.
Tia watched, fascinated despite her anxiety for Dawn, noting that he used his free hand to press on Dawn’s abdomen to prevent tearing of the lower segment of the uterus.
With a grunt of satisfaction, Luca rubbed up a contraction and gently removed his hand, dropping the placenta into a kidney dish. ‘There. OK, we need to check that this is intact.’
Tia adjusted the light and they examined the placenta thoroughly to check that none of it had been retained within the uterus.
When he was satisfied that the placenta was complete Luca turned his attention back to the mother.
‘Everything is fine, Dawn,’ he said quietly, examining her abdomen again. ‘Your uterus is well contracted now and the bleeding has stopped. We’ll check your haemoglobin level but I don’t think that the blood you have lost will cause you a problem.’ He turned back to his SHO. ‘Give her some more oxytocin and start antibiotics.’
‘Yes, Dr Zattoni.’ The SHO was gazing at Luca as if he was the answer to her prayers, and Tia was filled with a sudden insecurity.
It didn’t matter whether Luca was in love with Luisa or not—he would always have women throwing themselves at him. And would he be able to resist them? She knew better than most that plenty of men wouldn’t.
Men like her father.
Feeling sick at the thought she looked for an excuse to leave the room.
