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“But no one who can turn the clock back. No one who can turn him into the man I thought he was.”
Katie wondered if Sally’s worst injury was the damage to her belief system. How did you ever trust a man again? “I hope everything works out for you.”
Katie was unlikely to find out, of course. The place was like a conveyor belt of trauma. She dealt with what came through the doors, and then she moved on. There was no long-term management here.
“You’ve been very kind. Your parents must be proud.”
“Dr. White!”
Katie ground her teeth. The reality was that compassion had to be squashed into the shortest time possible. They were two doctors down and she had a queue of patients waiting for her attention, so she smiled at Sally again and left the room.
Would her parents be proud if they’d witnessed her life over the last few weeks? She didn’t think so.
She was probably letting them down. She knew she was letting herself down.
She looked at the nurse who was hovering in the corridor. “Problem?”
“The guy coughing up blood—”
“Mr. Harris.”
“Yes. Harris. How do you do that? How do you know everyone’s name even though you only spoke to him for less than a minute?”
“I like to make an inhuman experience as human as possible. What about him?”
“His tests are back. Dr. Mitford saw him and says he needs to be admitted, but there is a bed crisis.”
When wasn’t there a bed crisis? You stood more chance of finding a unicorn in your Christmas stocking than you did a hospital bed. Demand exceeded supply. A patient she’d seen at the beginning of her shift was still waiting for a bed six hours later. Because there was always a risk of hospital-acquired infection, Katie sent people home whenever she was able to do so. “Did you manage to contact his daughter? Is she on her way?”
“Yes, and yes.”
“Call me when she arrives. I’ll talk to her. He might be better off at home if there is someone there to take care of him.” And better for his dignity. She’d seen on the notes that he was a retired CEO. Once, he’d probably commanded a room. Now he was the victim of human frailty. No matter how busy she was, she tried to remember that landing in the emergency department was one of the most stressful moments of a person’s life. What was routine to her was often terrifying for the patient.
She never forgot what it had been like for her mother being in the hospital with Rosie.
Katie saw three more patients in quick succession and was then hit by a wave of dizziness.
It had happened a few times over the past few weeks and she was starting to panic. She needed to bring her A game to work, and lately that wasn’t happening.
“I’m going to grab a quick coffee before I keel over.” She turned and bumped straight into her colleague.
“Hey, Katie.” Mike Bannister had been in her year at med school and they’d remained friends.
“How was the honeymoon?”
“Let’s put it this way, two weeks in the Caribbean wasn’t enough. What are you doing at work? After what happened I thought—are you sure you should be here?”
“I’m fine.”
“Did you take any time off?”
“I don’t need time off.” She forced herself to breathe slowly, hoping Mike would move on.
He glanced over his shoulder to check no one was listening. “You’re stressed out and on the edge. I’m worried about you.”
“You’re imagining things.” She was totally stressed out. “I probably have low blood sugar. I’m cranky when I’m hungry and I haven’t had a break since I walked into this place seven hours ago. I’m about to fix that.”
“You’re allowed to be human, Katie.” Mike’s gaze settled on her face. “What happened was nasty. Scary. No one would blame you if—”
