had heard the noise. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Tummy pain again. I’m going to take her into Emergency.’
‘Should I call for an ambulance?’ Shona asked anxiously.
‘It’ll be quicker if I take her.’
‘I’ll get the car out,’ Shona offered. ‘I can drive.’
‘You don’t have to come. It could be a long night.’
‘Of course I’m coming.’
‘I don’t want to go,’ Alice sobbed. ‘I don’t want to move!’
‘I know, hon, but we have to. We need to do what Dr Costa asked us to do. When you’re in the hospital you’ll be able to have some medicine that will take the pain away completely.’
Alice’s arms came up to lock around Pip’s neck. She braced herself to take the weight.
‘You promise?’
‘Yes.’ Pip lifted the girl. ‘I promise.’
‘Will Dr Costa be there, like he said he would?’
‘I don’t know, hon. Let’s hope so but it’s late and he’s probably gone home by now.’
Alice was still sobbing. ‘But I want him to be there.’
‘Mmm.’ The strength of her own desire to have Toni Costa there was overwhelming. Pip had to close her eyes and try very hard to sound casual. ‘Me, too.’
THE triage nurse took one look at Alice and sent them straight to a resus bay.
The registrar on duty, Graham, was right behind them.
‘Let’s get some oxygen on,’ he ordered a nurse, ‘and I want some vital sign baselines. What’s going on, Pip?’
‘This is Alice, she’s twelve,’ Pip responded. ‘She’s got acute epigastric pain radiating to her back with associated nausea and vomiting.’
‘First time this has happened?’
‘No. She had an appointment with Toni Costa recently because we want to find out what’s causing it. He asked me to bring her in when it happened again so we could get bloods to check amylase levels.’
‘Right. I’ll get a line in straight away.’
But Alice jerked her hand away from the registrar. ‘No,’ she said fiercely. ‘I want Dr Costa.’
‘He doesn’t work in Emergency, love,’ Graham said patiently. ‘Come on, this won’t hurt for more than a moment, I promise.’
‘No.’
‘We’ll be able to give you something for that pain after I’ve put this little tube in your vein.’
‘No!’ Alice’s sobs turned to a choking sound and Pip held her daughter’s head as she vomited yet again. Shona took a dampened towel from the nurse, ready to wipe Alice’s face.
‘Sorry,’ Pip said to Graham, ‘but Toni did ask us to call him if we came in acutely. Alice was expecting to see him, I guess.’
‘It’s 9.30 p.m. Not much chance of him being in the building.’
‘I know.’
Graham looked at the sobbing, unwell child on the bed and his expression revealed his reluctance to force treatment on someone who was very unlikely to be co-operative. He looked down at the IV cannula in his hand and then glanced at Pip.
‘I could try beeping him—just in case.’
‘Good idea.’ Pip smoothed damp strands of Alice’s hair back from her face. ‘It’s worth a try.’ At least that way Alice would know they had tried to get the person she wanted to look after her. When she knew it was impossible, she might be prepared to let Pip put a line in her hand if Graham still wasn’t acceptable.
She wasn’t prepared for the look of surprise on Graham’s face when he reappeared less than a minute later. ‘He was in ICU. He’s on his way down now.’
‘Hear that, Alice?’ Pip could allow herself to sound delighted on her daughter’s behalf. ‘Dr Costa’s coming to see you.’
Alice hiccuped. ‘Good.’
It was good. Better than good. Pip had no disagreement with Alice’s conviction that Toni was the top of the list of desirable people to care for her. The worry that the paediatrician might have been in the intensive care unit because Dylan had taken a turn for the worse was dismissed with only a small pang of guilt. Pip’s attention had to be focused much closer to home for the moment and she wanted the best for her own daughter.
Their confidence did not appear to be misplaced. Toni took over the resus bay from the moment he arrived and managed to exude an air of authority tempered with a charm that reduced the stress levels for everybody concerned. He actually managed to both reassure Alice and gain the information he wanted at the same time. Pip could see Alice visibly relax when the doctor smiled at her and patted her hand before his fingers rested lightly on her wrist.
‘Heart rate?’
‘One-twenty,’ Graham supplied.
‘Respirations?’
‘Twenty-eight.’
‘Temperature?’ The touch on Alice’s forehead was hardly necessary but Pip could see that it was appreciated. Alice closed her eyes and, just for a moment, the lines of pain on her face almost vanished.
‘Thirty-seven point four.’
‘Blood pressure?’
‘Eighty over fifty.’
‘Bit low. Postural drop?’
‘We haven’t tried assessing that.’
Pip was still watching quietly, enjoying the sensation of having an expert take over. As a doctor, it was a good learning experience, being on a parent’s side of this equation. Her anxiety was actually receding to the point where Pip could register how impressive Toni’s clinical skills were. He was able to palpate an invisible, tiny vein in Alice’s forearm and then slip a small-gauge cannula into place without eliciting more than a squeak from his patient.
Worry kicked in again with his latest question, however. A drop in blood pressure from a change in posture could be serious and the paediatrician seemed to be looking for signs of hypovolaemic shock. What could Alice be bleeding internally from? A perforated peptic ulcer? Something as nasty as acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis?
‘She said she felt dizzy when she had to sit
