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Callum nodded, his concern for the very unwell-looking baby also overriding the million things he wanted to say to Hailey. ‘BP?’ he asked as he took his stethoscope out and listened to the baby’s chest.
‘Fifty-five systolic.’
He nodded, listening over the entire lung field. He palpated the abdomen. ‘Let’s give her some extra fluid. What’s her access like?’
‘Good cubital fossa,’ Hailey said, indicating the drip at the crook of the baby’s elbow.
‘Twenty per kilo. Let’s fill her up and get her to ICU.’
Hailey and Callum worked on reversing the shocked infant while Yvonne did some ringing around. First she rang ICU to organise a consult and a bed and then she rang Sarah’s mother on her mobile to tell her to come back to the hospital immediately.
The ICU team arrived, consisting of a nurse and a doctor, and they all worked together to stabilise the baby. Twenty minutes later Sarah was intubated and hooked up to a portable ventilator and monitor. The extra fluid had also gone in and her heart rate and blood pressure had both improved slightly.
‘We’ll get a central line and an arterial line in when we get back to the unit,’ Glenda Collins, the ICU doctor, told Callum. ‘We might need to start some inotropes too if the blood pressure remains too saggy. Are we ready to go, Kyle?’ she asked the nurse who had accompanied her.
Yvonne paged an orderly and a few minutes later the cot, loaded with portable machines, was wheeled out of the ward, flanked by two wardsmen, Glenda and Kyle. Sarah looked very, very tiny, dwarfed by all the medical personnel and equipment.
Yvonne, Hailey and Callum watched them leave.
‘Will she be all right, do you think?’ Rosemary asked, standing back in the corridor to allow the cot to pass.
Hailey looked at the junior nurse. ‘I hope so.’ She smiled. ‘Fingers crossed.’
‘She has a very good chance,’ Callum butted in. ‘Thanks to Hailey’s quick intervention.’
Hailey blushed at his compliment. She’d handled it well. She knew that. She’d felt calm and confident. Sure, her heart was beating a little fast, but that was only to be expected when a baby’s life was on the line. Even the most hardened professionals succumbed to the effects of adrenaline, they just knew how to channel it to their advantage.
A year ago something like this would have really thrown her. But she’d come a long way since then. Callum made her feel like she could do anything.
‘Are you OK?’ he asked her, his hand on her shoulder.
She smiled at him. ‘I’m fine. Thanks for coming so promptly.’
He shrugged. ‘Yvonne said it was urgent.’
She nodded. ‘Thanks anyway.’
He looked at her, saw the dark smudges under her eyes. ‘How are things…?’
Hailey hesitated for a moment. ‘OK.’
‘Do you need to talk?’ She looked like she needed to talk.
Hailey looked at her watch. Her shift was nearly over. It was surprisingly tempting. He looked so good and she had missed him. ‘I can come to your office in half an hour?’
Callum gave her shoulder a squeeze. ‘Thirty minutes. That would be great.’
Hailey felt more nervous standing in front of Callum’s office door than she had when Sarah had gone bradycardic, her heart rate having plummeted right down to forty during intubation. But she’d known why that had happened. She knew about the vagal nerve and how stimulating it could cause a drop in the pulse rate. And she’d known a dose of atropine would fix it.
But there wasn’t a drug to fix the twisted triangle she found herself in. Paul wanting her. Callum wanting her. Paul, who had come back into her life like she’d once hoped he would. Paul, who was finally past what had happened with Eric and was prepared to forgive her and move on. Paul, who had betrayed her trust and sent her away.
Callum wanting her. Callum, who she’d been wildly attracted to from the beginning. Callum, whose past was littered with tragedy but who had gone on, refusing to be cowed. Callum, who was still in love with his dead wife.
She summoned her nerve and knocked on the door.
Callum looked up from the computer screen he was feigning interest in. He closed the application with a click of the mouse. ‘Come in.’
Hailey entered as Callum was rising from his chair. ‘Hi,’ she said, shutting the door after her.
‘Hi.’ They looked at each other for a few moments. He’d missed her. His arms had ached and his heart had felt heavy and he hated how the space beside him in bed that had been empty for six years suddenly seemed so cold. ‘Sit,’ he said, pulling out a chair for her, remembering his manners.
