white-haired man on the stretcher was pale and saturated with sweat. His nose was running and his chest gurgled with fluid. Savannah felt the leap in her own pulse rate at the sight of the gravely ill man.
His clothes were covered with a fine powder and he lay limp on the trolley except for the twitches he had no control over.
‘Wear some gloves and get his clothes off. Looks like organophosphate poisoning.’
Savannah did a double-take. This was a different Theo. This doctor was fast, sure and determined to keep his patient alive until the intravenous line he’d quickly inserted could be used to inject the atropine he was drawing up. They had a chance.
Savannah snatched a pair of disposable gloves from the box and started to strip the shorts and T-shirt from the man.
“It’s a parasympathetic nervous system reaction from the pesticides, isn’t it?’ she asked quietly.
‘Right. Not wearing full-length clothes wouldn’t help. The poison is absorbed through the lungs, gut and skin. So until you get his skin washed he’s still absorbing the poison into his system. All I can do is keep giving atropine, which has the opposite effect on the body. Hopefully it will override his nervous system response, which is to produce so much in the way of secretions he could drown in them.’
The man was gasping for breath and Savannah could well believe Theo’s worst-case scenario. Savannah swiftly applied the cardiac leads and began to sponge the man’s body. Julia arrived to help and kept replacing the water dish and washers with fresh ones.
‘Pinpoint pupils and respirations are faster and shallower.’ Savannah dried him and pulled a warm blanket over his twitching body. Her voice was steady. ‘Blood pressure’s falling, he looks like he might fit.’
Theo was calm but intense. ‘Pump the intravenous fluid into his veins—it’s hypovolaemic shock from the fluid shift. Pupils are beginning to dilate so the atropine is starting to take effect. He should improve soon. It’s usually quite dramatic. Looks like they got him here just in time.’ They both glanced at the monitors and nodded.
‘Vital signs are stabilising, and his twitching has decreased. Stop pumping the fluid in and we’ll just run it normally now.’ Savannah removed her hand from the manual pump bulb on the IV line and flexed her fingers.
That had been close. Any doubts she’d had about Theo’s skill were gone.
Theo was looking down at the patient when the man opened his eyes.
‘Hello, old son.’ He squeezed the man’s shoulder and Savannah blinked at the kindness in Theo’s eyes. ‘You gave us a scare for a while there. You should be on the mend now but we need to move you up to Intensive Care for at least seventy-two hours.’ He turned away to write up the notes on Mr Grey. ‘Speed his transfer to the unit, Sister. I’ll go out and see his wife.’
Two broken legs, a toddler with a temperature and a teenage boy’s three-day-old burn that needed redressing saw them through to morning tea.
Theo was off home at ten, Mrs Reddy and the two orthopaedic patients had been transferred to the wards and the toddler sent home with a script. Savannah looked around. The ward was back to empty.
‘That was fun.’ Theo’s voice was dry and he met Savannah’s eyes. They froze for a moment before both turned away. He felt like a cruising jock in high school and the feeling was so alien to him he shook his head.
Must be sleep deprivation, he decided. He hadn’t felt like this for years!
He stretched before he patted his pocket for his keys. ‘Well, it’s been interesting, working with you. I’m back on the ten-to-six day shift tomorrow so I’ll see you then.’
Savannah tried not to stare at his broad back and neat denim-clad bottom as he strolled out the door. She mentally kicked herself. He turned and saluted Julia who was on her way back to the desk after restocking a trolley.
Savannah forced her eyes away from Theo’s departing figure. ‘He seems very competent and caring with the patients,’ she commented.
Julia’s eyebrows were raised. ‘Hmm. He’s quick but thorough, not like some around here. Plus he’s not hard on the eyes—especially with his hair cut. But the ex-wife soured him and he’s emotionally dead.’ There was bitterness in Julia’s voice that spoke of an unsatisfactory love life of her own. Savannah met her eyes.
‘That’s OK, I’m trying for celibacy,’ she replied, and was pleasantly surprised when Julia gave a short laugh. There was hope for her yet!
Julia looked up, curious. ‘So how do you two know each other?’
‘I met him one day last week. He lives on the nearest property and looked after my late uncle’s farm until I moved up here. We actually played together as kids when I came up for holidays, but I don’t think he remembers.’
Julia nodded. ‘I’m sorry to hear about your uncle. And I was less than welcoming this morning. Ask me anything about the place.’
‘We’ll take it slow. I’m not going to rush in and change everything, but if I can see something that makes our job easier and more efficient, we can look into it. Obviously the computer age hasn’t caught up with Bendbrook yet so that’s on my list.’ Savannah glanced at the clock. ‘Where’s the doctor that starts at ten?’
‘One of our local GPs, Dr Hudson—’ that hint of bitterness again laced Julia’s voice ‘—does the odd shift when we can’t get a resident. He usually runs late.’
‘What if an emergency comes in?’
‘Theo has breakfast at the canteen before he goes to bed. We call him back if we’re desperate. In that respect we’re really lucky to have him. We’ve had some less-than-perfect residents. The medical superintendent tried to get Theo to sign a contract—they even offered him the post of Director of Emergency—but he says he’s not interested. Refuses to be tied down.’
One of those. Savannah decided it was time to stop discussing Dr McWilliam and filed away the issue of tardy Dr Hudson for a discussion on punctuality later. ‘Let’s have a look at this stock order.’
* * *
The canteen was quiet and Theo was giving himself a harsh talking-to. He was getting involved. He’d not looked at another woman since Marie had ground him into the dust, and he wasn’t going to start now. You couldn’t trust them. So many times he’d thought he’d won custody of Sam and then Marie had pulled something else out of the hat. He’d finally realised she enjoyed his pain.
He didn’t know how much more he could take. His life was marking time until he could win custody of Sam, and his lawyer promised that day would soon come.
Theo didn’t want to complicate it with an overly demanding job—he had to be free to be able to leave at any minute if needed. But what about Andy’s niece?
Savannah provoked a response in him that he didn’t understand. She was bossy, and yet caring with her patients. There was something about her that pierced his usual wall of indifference that protected him from the female of the species.
Maybe if he found out what it was he could inoculate himself against her like a flu vaccine. He forked the last of his powdered
