Saved by Their Miracle Baby

by Alison Roberts

  ‘I’ve been given a room in the staff quarters for now. I want to get properly settled into my new job before taking any time out to hunt for real estate.’

  ‘It must be something about working exclusively with hands,’ Lisa said to Hugh.

  ‘What must?’

  ‘Refusing to take time away from work to do other important things. Like finding a home. Or exploring a sporting talent that could be so brilliant you might win a gold medal on a world stage.’

  ‘Oh...don’t start that again,’ Abby groaned. ‘I’m not going to try out for the Paralympic team. I’m exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to do. Basketball is just my sport. Exercise. Stress relief.’

  ‘Oh...that’s right. You said your day had sucked. What happened?’

  Oh...help... Abby concentrated on loading mushy peas onto her chip so that she could avoid catching Noah’s glance.

  ‘It just got overly busy for a while,’ she muttered. ‘But that’s what happens when you sneak off to watch some complex surgery.’

  If Noah had guessed that he was the reason Abby had told her sister that she’d had a bad day, he gave no sign of it now. In fact, he was ready to offer his support.

  ‘I totally get the fascination with working with hands,’ he said. ‘Obviously. It’s an extraordinary field to be in. I couldn’t imagine taking time away to do anything else.’

  ‘Really?’ Hugh was interested. ‘I love the variety of the work I get in Emergency and never knowing what body part is going to come in needing treatment next. Maybe I just have a low boredom threshold.’

  ‘Nothing boring about hands,’ Noah said. ‘Not that I’m into the kind of inspirational quotes that you see everywhere these days, but I do have a framed quote that I keep on the wall of my office. From a German philosopher, Immanuel Kant.’

  ‘Oh...’ Abby’s eyes widened. ‘I bet I know which one.’

  And then they both spoke together.

  ‘The hand is the visible part of the brain.’

  Oh...this time the exclamation was silent. Because the sudden feeling of connection was a little overwhelming. Noah understood, didn’t he? He had the same passion.

  Hugh and Lisa shared a look. ‘We’re going to hear all about the magic of opposable thumbs again, aren’t we?’

  Noah’s lips twitched. ‘Well...half of all hand functions do require the thumb.’

  ‘And, apart from the brain, what other body part can do so much?’ Abby added. ‘And perform such complex tasks? They let us create art and play music, read Braille if you need to or talk with sign language. Hands—and arms—are far more important than legs and feet.’ Her voice trailed off as she realised she was preaching to the converted. ‘They can give you your independence...’

  She could feel the intensity of the look Noah was giving her without lifting her gaze to meet it.

  ‘I’m not surprised to hear that you’re so good at your job,’ he said quietly. ‘With a passion like that you must inspire your patients to get completely invested in their recovery.’

  Abby shrugged off the compliment. ‘I’ve heard a few good things about your work, too,’ she said. ‘It was fascinating to watch the microsurgery today. I hope I get a chance to work with him down the track.’

  ‘He will need to start some gentle therapy in the next day or two,’ Noah said. ‘We’ll be having a team meeting that will include your clinical director on Monday morning. Perhaps you can get involved right from day one?’

  ‘I don’t get to choose my patients but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.’ And not just because it would be such an interesting case, Abby thought. It would also mean that she would be working on the same team as Noah and it would be an opportunity to learn so much. She was smiling as she spoke but Noah didn’t notice. He was looking at his watch.

  ‘And, with that reminder, I really need to head back. I said I’d be up on the ward later this evening to check on his post-op progress.’ Noah got up from the table. ‘Thank you so much, Hugh, for the invitation and to you as well, Lisa. I’m sure you were looking forward to coming home for a quiet evening that didn’t include entertaining new colleagues.’ His smile was warm. ‘How long till the baby arrives?’

  ‘A bit over a month,’ Lisa told him. ‘I’m not stopping work until I have to, though.’

  ‘How exciting.’ But Noah’s tone didn’t match his words and he was already turning away with no more than a nod in Abby’s direction. ‘I’m sure we’ll meet again soon, Abby. Have a great weekend.’

  Hugh went with Noah to the front door. Lisa and Abby exchanged a look.

  ‘What was that about?’ Lisa murmured. ‘He seemed to be having a great time and then suddenly he couldn’t wait to get away.’

  ‘Guess he was thinking about his patient and that put him back into a professional zone.’

  ‘Who’s in a professional zone?’ Hugh was walking back into the kitchen.

  ‘Noah. He just switched off. As though he’d had more than enough of our company.’

  ‘Ah...’ Hugh sat back down at the table. ‘I was surprised that he accepted my invitation to have a drink, to be honest, after I’d heard the gossip.’

  ‘What gossip?’

  ‘I went up to the ward before heading home, to see how the surgery had gone on Steve—the guy with the hand injury. I was in the corridor, trying to find his notes in the trolley, and I could hear the nurses in the office, chatting. And, yeah... I don’t usually take any notice of that kind of stuff but...’ Hugh sighed. ‘It was why I invited him home for a beer. I thought he could use a friend.’

  Abby was hanging onto every word Hugh was saying, her curiosity so sharp it felt like a door was being slammed in her face when he stopped speaking.

  ‘And?’ she demanded. ‘You can’t stop there...’

  ‘I don’t like gossip. Even if the story’s true.’

  ‘What story?’ Lisa was as interested as Abby. ‘Come on, hon. You can’t not tell us. Abby’s going to be working with the man.’ Her gaze slid sideways. ‘I even got the impression that they might quite like each other now that they’ve got over the fact that Noah crashed into her car.’

  But Hugh was shaking his head. ‘That’s just it. One of those nurses was saying how cute she thought the new surgeon was and the other one said she’d worked with him up north and there was no point in thinking that something might happen even if he was single.’

  ‘Why not?’ Abby asked.

  ‘He’s gay?’ Lisa suggested.

  Hugh shook his head. ‘His wife died a few years ago. Some tragic accident, like a fall down some steps, with a head injury that was so catastrophic she was in cardiac arrest by the time she arrived in the ED. Love of his life, apparently.’

  ‘Oh, no...that’s tragic.’

  ‘That wasn’t even the worst of it. She was pregnant. Far enough along for them to do a post-mortem Caesarean in Emergency. The baby only lived for a day or two.’

  Abby and Lisa exchanged another glance. No wonder Noah hadn’t seemed that interested in Lisa’s pregnancy. Abby was actually finding it hard to take a breath because her throat had tightened up and there seemed to be something so heavy pressing on her chest that she put her hand there to see what it was.

  ‘Anyway...he threw himself into his work and that was it. His personal life was out of bounds and he never socialised with anyone. So...’ Hugh reached out to touch Lisa’s hand as he smiled at her. ‘I’m glad he agreed to come home for a drink. And I think you’re right. He does like our Abby and why wouldn’t he? They both share the same passion for the same kind of work.’

  It was true. That shared passion had given them a genuine moment of connection. But maybe they had something else in common as well, Abby thought, and that was a handicap that affected every aspect of their lives. Hers might be very obvious but being in a wheelchair was only the ext
ernal aspect of the challenges she faced. Noah’s handicap was completely invisible because it was purely emotional but Abby was very well aware of how crippling that could be and her heart was breaking more than a little bit for him.

  She’d always had the unwavering support of her sister to face all the hard stuff in her life but who did Noah have? Especially now that he’d moved to a new area and a new place of work. Did he want real friends in his life or were other people always required to stay within the boundaries of a professional relationship? And... Abby released the breath she’d finally managed to take in a long, slow sigh.

  Even if he did have family or friends in his life and thought that was all he wanted to have, was he still lonely sometimes for something more?

  Like she was?

  CHAPTER THREE

  THERE WAS A heavy silence in the room.

  The four people behind this closed door were all aware of how serious this discussion was going to be. The man in the bed, with his injured hand elevated in a sling. His wife, sitting on his other side, holding his uninjured hand between both of hers. The surgeon who was in charge of his treatment. And... Abby.

  ‘I’ve brought Abby along with me to talk to you today, Steve,’ Noah told their patient. ‘I know she started working with you after your first surgery and has been hoping—like we all have—that the second surgery on your thumb would restore an adequate blood supply.’

  Steve nodded slowly but he managed a smile for Abby. They’d got on well from the first, very gentle passive therapy that she had begun with him.

  ‘Looks like you’ve faced a few challenges yourself,’ he’d told her. ‘I’ll bet you’re the best person around for this job.’

  But it was Abby who’d been the first to notice the signs that the second surgery had failed. That the discoloration in Steve’s thumb was the first indication of tissue death, nearly two weeks after the day she’d observed his initial surgery. The same day that she’d found out that she’d met Noah Baxter before. She had her suspicions that their new hand surgeon had something to do with her being assigned to Steve as his therapist but that only made her more determined to do the best job she could. It was very disappointing that they’d reached this point.

  ‘As you know, your fingers are healing very well,’ Noah continued. ‘We did our best to restore an adequate blood supply to your thumb but I’m very sorry to say that it hasn’t worked well enough.’

  ‘But you can do another operation?’ Pauline’s tone was tentative. ‘And fix it?’

  It was no wonder that she was looking more and more tired, Abby thought, what with having to juggle babysitting or manage the travelling across the city with three children under five in order to make her daily hospital visits. Abby’s relationship with her patient and his wife was still new but she could see that the recent extensive tests and this extra consultation had clearly raised stress levels considerably for both Pauline and Steve and her heart went out to the young couple.

  ‘An adequate blood supply is vital to any part of the body,’ Noah said. ‘The blood carries oxygen and nutrients and antibodies to fight off infection. Without it, the cells can’t survive and the tissue starts to die. That’s what is happening with your thumb, Steve, and why those colour changes are happening.’

  Even though it was only a couple of days since Abby had noticed the change and her alert had led to a barrage of tests for Steve, the tip of his thumb was already such a dark shade of red/brown that it was almost black.

  ‘The risk of leaving dead tissue attached is that it can get infected and, if that infection travels to the rest of the body, it can cause sepsis, which can be very serious.’

  ‘So I’m going to lose my thumb, then.’ Steve’s voice was wooden. ‘And that means I’ll never work again.’

  ‘Oh, that’s not true,’ Pauline said quickly. ‘There are lots of jobs that don’t mean you have to use your hands so much.’

  ‘Not the kind of job I love,’ Steve said quietly. ‘My job. Where I get to work with my hands—growing stuff. With the best crowd of mates I’ve ever known... I’d go mad if I had to work in an office or a warehouse or something.’

  Abby had heard a lot about Steve’s work in the last couple of weeks. He worked at a hydroponic farm where they grew salad vegetables like lettuce and tomatoes and cucumbers. He mostly worked with the propagation and harvesting of the plants in the greenhouses. He’d just been helping out in the packing department for a morning when he’d had his horrible accident with the machinery. She also knew that Pauline had given up her part-time work after the arrival of their third baby and that things were financially tight.

  ‘You are going to lose this thumb,’ Noah confirmed. ‘But it doesn’t have to mean that you don’t have a thumb.’

  Both Steve and Pauline looked bewildered. Noah glanced at Abby and she could read the invitation to contribute to this discussion as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud. They’d only been working together for a couple of weeks with limited contact away from anything professional but, already, Abby was getting used to this ability of his to communicate silently.

  It had been there from pretty much the first moment she’d met him, she realised. From when she’d seen the understanding that she’d been making a joke about never being able to walk again flash across his face. When she’d seen the appreciation in his eyes of her attempting humour in what could easily have escalated into a more stressful situation. When she’d heard him laugh...

  ‘I think Mr Baxter asked me to come with him to talk to you today because I’ve had experience of working with a case like this,’ she said. ‘My patient was a lot further into his rehabilitation when I started working with him because he’d had his surgery and early rehab in another hospital, but he’d lost his thumb in a farming accident after getting caught up in rope when he was trying to deal with a stroppy bull. He was already back at work when I met him and he was really proud of what he could do again. He told me he’d been freaked out at the idea of his new thumb at first but it was the best thing he ever did.’

  Abby opened a folder she had on her lap and took out a photograph. ‘This is a picture of his thumb, six months after his transplant.’

  ‘Oh, no...’ Pauline looked horrified. ‘He got someone else’s thumb? Like a kidney transplant?’

  ‘No. Look...’ Abby showed them another photo, this one of both the man’s hands side by side. ‘Can you see a difference?’

  ‘The thumb with the scar is a bit fatter,’ Steve said. ‘And the nail looks different.’

  ‘It was his big toe,’ Abby told them. ‘That’s where it was transplanted from. Actually, “transferred” is a better word to use.’

  ‘It’s a surgery that’s been around for a surprisingly long time,’ Noah added. ‘But our techniques are improving all the time and the results can be very, very good.’

  ‘But what does his foot look like?’ Steve shook his head. ‘I don’t like this. My feet are important too. I’m on them all day. I want to be able to play footie with my boy down the track. Or take my family for a walk on the beach.’

  ‘With therapy and gait training, you won’t be disabled at all,’ Abby assured him. She wanted to tell him just how much more important hands were than feet but she restricted herself to a smile. Steve had, after all, considered the fact that she was in a wheelchair as a point in her favour as his therapist.

  ‘The left foot is usually the best choice,’ Noah put in. ‘Simply because you can lose a bit of push power without the big toe, and that means, with an automatic car, your driving isn’t affected—by having to jump on the brake unexpectedly, for example.’

  It was just a flash of a glance at Abby but she knew he was thinking of a moment when he’d needed to jump on his brake—in that split second before he’d bumped into the back of her car. Which meant he was thinking of her as a person, not simply as a colleague, and that gave her a frisso
n of something that had nothing at all to do with this patient.

  As she laid out more photos for Steve and Pauline to look at and Noah explained the procedure and the option of using a second toe instead of the big toe, along with the pros and cons, Abby found herself remembering that moment herself. And feeling curiously happy that it had happened.

  Okay...that crush—and the ensuing disappointment that he hadn’t called her—had been a bit silly but she was over that now. Meeting him properly and learning about the tragedy of him losing his wife and baby had put Abby in a very different space.

  A safe space.

  Because she didn’t have to think about things that she’d avoided thinking about for such a long time.

  Like sex...

  Like how hard it might be for her to face—and overcome—a barrier that had been in place for several years now so that there was actually the possibility of a sexual encounter.

  And, if she got that far, would she then have to worry about how different—and possibly disappointing—it might be for someone who was used to being with able-bodied women to be with someone whose legs looked so different? Who couldn’t move in the same way? Who could, in fact, be far too passive for it to be a remotely exciting or satisfying experience?

  It was better this way. To have a professional relationship with someone who could teach her so much. And to develop a friendship where they could both relax and enjoy each other’s company. Where they could make each other laugh. It might, in fact, be enough for her to get past the barrier that had pretty much stopped her forming a meaningful relationship with any man. The subtle nod of Abby’s head might have been an agreement with herself but it looked as though she was agreeing with what Noah was saying now.

  ‘So, using the second toe means less deformity on the foot, but the big toe will look so much more like a thumb—as you can see from the photos that Abby’s shown you.’

  ‘What about the surgery?’ Pauline asked. ‘Would you do the transplant at the same time as taking off the thumb or does that have to heal first?’