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‘Has the bed been made for the patient yet?’ Jackie asked tartly.
‘We’re two domestics short. We can’t just drop everything because a senior registrar demands it. His patients aren’t the only ones in the hospital.’
‘They’rehisonly ones,’ Jackie flared, and Annie knew that even if she’d address the issue with Iosef, she certainly wasn’t going to let the nursing co-ordinator know that. One of the many things Annie admired about Jackie was that she defended her team to the hilt. ‘Don’t grumble to me about a member of my team without very good reason. He happens to be the best doctor we’ve had in this place in a long time—I know I’ve certainly learnt a lot from him. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got patients to see. Perhaps you’d be kind enough to ring down when Mrs Lucas’s bed is finally ready.’
It was the nursing co-ordinator’s turn to stalk out now. ‘Bloody Iosef,’ Jackie sighed, because to Annie she could say that.
‘Are you going to talk to him?’
‘And say what—that he’s got to stop walking around insisting he knows best?’ She gave a small eye roll. ‘You know what his answer would be, don’t you?’
‘That he does!’
‘He actually does!’ Jackie managed a wry smile. ‘Not that I’ll tell him that. OK, I’m off to pull rank. Wish me luck.’
‘Good luck!’
Even with the baby moved safely to the maternity ward, the department was still kept on its toes dealing with the incident, fielding calls from reporters, even a couple of women claiming to be the mother—and even if it was a blatant hoax, each call had to be handled professionally and bounced to the appropriate authorities. But it wasn’t just the vile shift, the baby and her missing mother or the thirty-nine-year-old who in the end never actually made it up to the ward that occupied Annie’s mind.
They’d promised to never bring their relationship to work but it took a supreme effort today to talk to him about a patient, to pass him in the corridor, to even sit with him on a quick coffee-break and not confront him.
To not ask the question she needed the answer to now.
‘Annie...’ Melanie’s anxious face appeared around the curtain, followed by the rest of her. ‘I know you’re about to go off duty, but I need a hand.’
‘Sure.’ Annie said as Melanie pulled her aside.
‘I think I might have the baby’s mum here...her parents have just gone to register her. She came home from school and has been in bed since with abdominal pain. They think she might have appendicitis, which, of course, she might—only she doesn’t want to get undressed.’ Melanie gave a worried shrug. ‘I think you might be better with her than me, just for the initial bit— I know you’ve got to go soon.’ And it was an honest admission that was often made in nursing—no matter how good your skills, sometimes things could be better handled by others, and Melanie was generous enough to her patient to admit that tact and dragging out information weren’t her strongest points.
‘Try and get the family to stay in the waiting room for now,’ Annie said. ‘How old is she?’
‘Sixteen. Her name’s Rebecca.’
* * *
‘Hi, Rebecca.’Smiling as she entered, Annie walked in, saw the pale, fearful face on the pillow and was positive that Melanie was right, or even if she was wrong, there was something big going on with this young girl. ‘I hear you’ve got a stomach ache.’
‘I don’t need to see a doctor,’ Rebecca started. ‘I just want to go home.’
‘You don’t look very well,’ Annie said, and took a deep breath. ‘Look, Rebecca, I’ve asked Melanie, the other nurse, to keep your parents down in the waiting room for now. Is there anything you want to say— anything you want to tell me while they’re not here?’
‘No.’
‘OK, well, I’m going to do a set of obs on you and then we’ll get the doctor to come in and see you.’
‘I don’t want to see the doctor.’
‘Rebecca, you’re clearly not well. Your parents are worried about you. Now, whatever is going on, it has to be dealt with.’
‘I can’t,’ the young girl begged. ‘I just want to go home.’
‘That’s not going to happen,’ Annie said gently, because quite simply it wasn’t. Her parents were not going to turn around and drive home without their daughter being examined, and however much Rebecca might want it all to go away, some things just didn’t. ‘Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong?’
‘You already know, don’t you?’
‘I think so.’ Annie nodded.
‘Is she OK?’ Rebecca sobbed. ‘They said on the news that she wasn’t breathing.’
