Christmas with Her Daredevil Doc

by Kate Hardy

  Alice duly repeated what Hayley had said, but it was obvious to her that Alice hadn’t taken it in. ‘He’s breathing on his own and he’s got a pulse—tell them we’re putting him in the recovery position.’

  She stripped off her coat and covered Jack with it to help avoid hypothermia setting in. Alice was still shaking and tears were running down her face, so Hayley gently took the phone from her and spoke to the handlers. ‘The ambulance is going to be here any second now,’ she said to Sam.

  Within a few moments, they could hear the siren of the ambulance, and the paramedics rushed up.

  Between them Hayley and Sam gave the handover to the paramedics.

  ‘The call centre told us the exact times you started CPR, his first spontaneous breath and his first spontaneous cardiac output,’ the lead paramedic said. ‘Thank God you were able to get the poor little scrap out.’ They carefully removed the wet clothes from the little boy and wrapped him in a warm dry blanket.

  ‘This is Alice, Jack’s mum,’ Hayley said.

  ‘Alice, we’re going to take Jack to hospital,’ the paramedic said. She glanced at the pram. ‘We can take you and the baby with us, the pram as well. You’ll see us hook Jack up to various machines in the back of the ambulance but don’t worry, it’s all standard procedure because we need to monitor his heart rate and oxygen levels on the way. At the hospital they’ll continue monitoring him for a while and do tests to check that he doesn’t have any injury to his neck or spine.’

  Alice nodded. ‘Thank you.’ She turned to Sam and Hayley. ‘And thank you both so much—without you, he would be dead.’ She was clearly fighting to hold back the tears. ‘He would have drowned. I don’t know what I can do to thank you.’

  ‘No need.’ Sam waved away her thanks with a smile. ‘We’re both emergency doctors so this is our job—it’s just we were on the side of the canal today instead of at the hospital.’

  ‘Let us know how he is, later today,’ Hayley said, and gave Alice her phone number.

  Once the paramedics had taken Jack, Alice and the baby to the ambulance, Hayley turned to Sam. ‘We need to get you into dry clothes,’ she said.

  ‘We’re hardly going to persuade a taxi driver to take us back to my place in this state,’ he said ruefully, looking down at his soaked clothes. ‘Do you know if we’re near any shops?’

  ‘There’s Camden market,’ she said.

  He stripped off his top and his socks, then put his coat and shoes on. ‘Hopefully they’ll let me just buy the stuff and change in their changing rooms.’

  ‘Let’s get you some dry clothes, and then a hot drink,’ she said.

  It didn’t take him long to buy a pair of jeans, a sweater and underwear; once he’d changed into dry clothes, Sam turned to her. ‘Do you mind if we go back to my place for the hot drink?’ he asked. ‘I stink of canal water and I could really do with a shower.’

  ‘Yes, of course.’

  * * *

  Hayley didn’t say anything on the way back to Sam’s, using the noise of the train on the tube tracks as an excuse not to talk. But inside she was a mass of seething emotions.

  He’d jumped straight into the water. Not a single glance first to check if it was safe. And there was no way you could see to the bottom of the canal. He could have been caught in water weed and been unable to get back to the surface; or he could have been caught on rusty, twisted metal that someone had dumped at the bottom of the canal. If there were rats around—and there probably were—then he might have been infected by Weil’s disease.

  Worse still, Sam knew her fears. He would’ve known that she would worry even before he’d jumped into the canal. He’d said about trying to compromise, taking him with her to the adrenaline junkie stuff he liked so she could see it was safe, gradually overcoming her fears. Yet today he’d gone straight in without trying to find a safer way to rescue the little boy...

  Then she was angry at herself. Of course he’d reacted by jumping in and rescuing the little boy. That was who Sam was. He saw a problem and he fixed it. He didn’t hold back or wait for someone to take the lead. He just did it.

  And she was holding him back with her fears.

  He’d done a brave thing today. A wonderful thing. He’d saved a child’s life. Instead of celebrating that and praising him, she was being selfish and thinking of the possible loss to herself. Fearing that she’d end up being lost and bereft again, the way she’d been when Evan had been killed.

  Back at Sam’s flat, she made two mugs of tea on autopilot while he showered. When he walked back into the kitchen, still damp from the shower, he looked at her. ‘Do you need sugar in yours?’

  ‘I don’t take sugar.’

  ‘Sweet tea’s meant to be good for shock.’

  ‘That’s a myth,’ she said. ‘And I’m in not in shock.’

  ‘You haven’t said a word since we got on the tube. What’s wrong?’

  ‘I...’ She blew out a breath. ‘You saved that little boy’s life.’

  He shrugged. ‘Anyone else would have done the same.’

  No, they wouldn’t. Not the way Sam had done it. The scary way. ‘You went straight in without thinking of the danger to yourself.’

  * * *

  The critical tone in Hayley’s voice touched a raw nerve. Right now, she sounded like Lynda. Sam hadn’t lived up to Lynda’s expectations; Hayley’s tone made him wonder if he was making the same mistake all over again. ‘This isn’t about the little boy, is it?’

  ‘No. Because now I’ve seen you in action in an emergency, Sam, and you lied to me. You don’t even think of your own safety before you act.’

  ‘What was I supposed to do—let him drown?’

  ‘No, of course not.’

  ‘There wasn’t an alternative to going in there myself. Surely you could see that, too? Even if there had been a life-saving pole, he wouldn’t have been able to grab it and hold on until I could pull him in. It was the only way to rescue him.’

  ‘I know, and don’t you realise how much I hate myself for this? I can’t get past the fear, Sam, I just can’t, and I hate the idea of losing you, and you know why I feel this way.’ Her voice had risen almost to a wail. ‘I’ve been here before.’

  ‘So you’re angry with me?’ She was blaming him for making her remember Evan’s death?

  ‘Yes. And I’m even more angry with myself, because I know this is who you are and I shouldn’t want to change you.’

  Her words took some of the fight out of him. This wasn’t another Lynda situation and he was overreacting. Hayley was as upset with herself as she was with him. He wrapped his arms around her. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘I’m sorry, too. It’s wrong of me to feel this way.’

  That was true. ‘It’s also understandable.’ He stroked her hair.

  ‘I worry that it’ll be the same on a MERIT call-out. That you’ll put yourself in danger—if they tell you it’s not safe to go in but you think you can rescue someone, you’re doing it anyway.’

  ‘I wouldn’t take stupid risks.’

  ‘You just did,’ she pointed out. ‘So that doesn’t reassure me at all.’

  He sighed. ‘Lynda hated my mountain rescue work.’

  ‘Your ex? She worried about you like I do?’

  ‘Not quite. You worry that I’ll be hurt or worse. She worried that mountain rescue work wasn’t high-profile enough and I could have spent my time on some finance committee instead.’

  She pulled back, frowning. ‘Why on earth would you be on a finance committee?’

  ‘To give my career a boost.’

  ‘But you’re a doer, not a talker.’

  ‘It wasn’t how Lynda saw things. She wanted to change me, too—to make me into someone I wasn’t.’

  Hayley bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’ T
hen her frown deepened. ‘What did she want you to be?’

  ‘The CEO of a hospital, eventually.’

  ‘But then you’d spend your days in an office and dealing with admin and politics, not patients. And I don’t think that would make you happy.’

  Sam realised that Hayley understood him, and the rest of his anger dissolved.

  ‘Is that why you broke up with her?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes. Though Lynda was the one who ended it. I guess I was a bit self-deluded. I thought she’d eventually realise this is who I am and I can’t change.’

  ‘I’m not asking you to change. Just to...maybe see the risks and think them through.’ She looked at him. ‘Do you want to be a CEO?’

  ‘No. I’m not interested in managing staff and premises. If I’d wanted to be a CEO, I would have studied economics or law and gone into finance,’ he said. ‘I just want to work with patients. Though I’m not an unambitious wimp,’ he added.

  Hayley looked surprised. ‘Of course you’re not. Is that what she thought?’

  ‘She thought I should have gone for promotion much more quickly than I did.’

  ‘She obviously wasn’t a medic, then,’ Hayley said dryly, ‘or she’d know that you can’t cut corners on your training.’

  ‘Actually, she’s a paediatrician. And she’s already a consultant.’

  ‘Oh. Is she older than us?’

  ‘No. But she’s on several committees. She’s a mover and a shaker. And very, very ambitious.’ Sam blew out a breath. ‘I guess she thought I held her back.’

  ‘That’s a shame. For both of you.’

  ‘Maybe it’s why we both dragged our feet about setting a date for the wedding,’ he said. ‘Maybe neither of us was prepared to admit we’d made a mistake. I wasn’t what she really wanted, because I don’t care about politics and power.’

  ‘Was she what you wanted?’ Hayley asked softly.

  ‘I thought so, when I met her. But I know now that I want someone who’ll support me instead of criticising me all the time.’

  * * *

  And Hayley had been critical of him—not just now, but ever since he’d been in London. She’d gone on and on about the adrenaline junkie stuff. And she hadn’t been fair to him. ‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to undermine you.’

  ‘I know. You worried about me getting hurt. There’s a difference,’ he said.

  ‘I was still criticising you.’ She rested her head against his shoulder. ‘I don’t care whether you’re a CEO or you’re right at the bottom of the ladder, as long as you enjoy what you do. Life’s too short to do a job you hate.’ She swallowed hard. ‘Though I can’t help the way I feel about the risky stuff.’

  ‘I’ll try to think before I leap, in future. Literally as well as metaphorically.’ He paused. ‘Today made me realise how much I’ve missed diving. I was going to volunteer for the local search and rescue team—but I’m guessing that would be too much for you.’

  ‘I’d spend the whole time worrying that you’d be caught on something at the bottom of the river and the air in your tank would run out, or a derelict building would crash down around you,’ she admitted.

  ‘The chances of that happening are about as small as being hit by lightning,’ he pointed out. ‘Especially when I’ve got a team keeping an eye on me. There are people monitoring a diver’s air and depth and they’ll spot the signs if something’s wrong and get someone down there to rescue a stuck diver.’

  ‘I know all that, in my head—but there’s huge a difference between knowing something logically and knowing it emotionally,’ she told him.

  ‘I guess.’ He held her close. ‘I don’t have any answers right now, but at least we’re talking about the problem. We’ll find a compromise. It’ll just take time. And patience.’

  And he definitely had patience—because he was falling for Hayley. Apart from his physical attraction to her, he liked her. She was sweet and funny and kind. And she was completely terrified of the stuff he loved doing... But they’d work something out. He was sure of it. It would just take a little time.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  MICHAEL HARCOURT, THE head of the department, waited for all the emergency staff on duty to gather in the department, his expression serious. ‘Everyone, we’ve got a major incident situation,’ he said. ‘There’s been a big industrial fire at the other side of Muswell Hill in a clothing factory—at the moment the fire crew think it’s likely to be an electrical fault that caused it. Obviously with cotton and other flammable material in the stockroom, the flames took hold very quickly. We need to triage all walk-ins, the same as we triage people coming in from the fire—obviously we need to treat the majors and the resus cases here, but refer all the walk-ins with minor injuries to local pharmacists, their family doctors or the next nearest emergency department. All our ambulances are on the way to the factory right now, and there’s a MERIT coming in from Islington.’

  Adrenaline surged through Hayley, mingled with relief. MERIT doctors were never used from the hospital that was receiving the casualties from a major incident because they were needed in their own department. So at least Sam would be out of the way of the fire. The very last thing she wanted was for Sam to be anywhere near a fire.

  She pushed back the memories of the last big industrial fire they’d had to deal with in the department. The fire that had claimed Evan’s life. Not now. She had to focus on saving the lives of the patients who were brought in by ambulance.

  ‘We know we have casualties with burns and with smoke inhalation, but what we don’t know is how many or how serious their conditions are. The burns unit is on standby, and I’ve called all the staff in. You all know the drill, so we’re on code red,’ Michael said. ‘Any questions?’

  When none were forthcoming, he read out the roster; Sam and Hayley were both rostered to Resus, dealing with the most serious casualties.

  Michael took Hayley to one side before she headed to Resus. ‘Are you all right, Hayley?’

  ‘Yes.’ As long as she focused on their patients and didn’t think about the reason why they were being admitted, she’d be OK.

  ‘Good. But I have a fair idea of how difficult this is going to be for you. If it gets too much, then you step out,’ he said. ‘And that’s an order.’

  ‘Got it.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘We always look after our own in this department,’ he said.

  The walking wounded were the first to come in—some with burns, and some still coughing after inhaling smoke. The Casualty Clearing Station had triaged them already; anyone who could walk was coded as a Priority Three, meaning they needed treatment but it could be delayed until the more urgent cases had been seen, and they had green tags for easy identification. Priority Two were intermediate cases, more serious than P3s, and the patients had yellow tags; and Priority One cases were the most urgent and the patients would die without immediate intervention; they had red tags and were most likely to go straight into Resus.

  But triage was always an ongoing situation, Hayley knew; someone who had a chest injury might be classed as a P3, but if they developed a pneumothorax they’d become a P2 until that was dealt with. So there would be a second layer of triage before they saw their patients, to see if anyone’s condition had changed and become more serious.

  Sam was waiting for her to join him in Resus. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘As long as I’m too busy to think.’

  ‘Do you want me to have a word with Michael and see if he can swap you to a different area, given that the cases we get in Resus—?’

  ‘Thank you,’ she cut in, pretty sure that he meant that the Resus cases were the serious ones, the ones where they were most likely to lose someone—and, given that it was a fire, this was way too close to the day she’d los
t Evan. ‘I appreciate your support, but Michael’s already told me to step out if it gets too much. And I’d rather be in Resus, where I know I’m going to be too busy to think. Where I really need to concentrate on my patients.’

  ‘OK. But promise you’ll tell me if you need anything at all,’ he said, squeezing her hand briefly.

  ‘Thanks. But I’ll cope.’

  She and Sam helped to treat the minor injuries while they were waiting for the more serious cases to come in, cleaning burns and applying dressings and giving information sheets on how to care for the burns at home and when to seek further medical help.

  Their first case was a man who’d been working in the stock room when the materials had suddenly blazed up, trapping him. The fire crew had managed to get him out, but not before he’d suffered severe burns.

  ‘Peter Freeman, aged fifty,’ Dev, the senior paramedic, told them. ‘We’ve intubated him and he’s been on high-flow oxygen.’ He handed them a bag. ‘We removed what’s left of his clothing and his jewellery, and it’s all safely in here. We’ve used a cling film dressing on his burns and put a cold wet towel on top of that to cool him down—he’s been cooling for about fifteen minutes now.’

  It was important to cool the burned area as quickly as possible, but at the same time they needed to be careful of the risk of hypothermia, Hayley knew.

  ‘We’ve cannulated him and we started him on a litre of warmed fluid on the way in,’ Dev said. ‘And we’ve given him some initial pain relief.’

  ‘Great—thanks, Dev,’ Sam said. ‘And I see you’ve got him sitting up.’

  ‘Most of the burns are to his chest, arms and face,’ Dev said. Sitting the patient upright lessened the risk of swelling—and it was particularly important to avoid swelling of the throat when burns to the head and neck were involved.

  ‘Mr Freeman, my name’s Hayley and this is Sam, and we’re going to look after you here in the emergency department at Muswell Hill Hospital,’ Hayley said. ‘You’ve got a tube in to help you breathe, so you won’t be able to talk, but if we do anything that makes you uncomfortable, please just lift your hand and we’ll stop, OK? And we’ll talk you through everything we’re doing so you know what’s going on. We’re going to start with taking a tiny bit of blood from you so we can run some tests, OK?’