style="font-size:15px;"> We must have just missed each other. I started in September last year. Her stomach dropped as she recalled Baden’s words. He and his family would have arrived in Warragurra just as the Kennedys had finally realised they had no legal standing to contest Shane’s will. Just as the vitriol in the local press had reached its zenith. In many circles in the town her name was mud. Perhaps Baden’s wife had heard the rumours and not heard the truth.
Tension tugged at her temples with a vice-like grip. Work was her sanctuary while she found her feet again in the town. She must make this assignment with Baden work. Only her actions could dissolve rumours and innuendo. She had to prove to him she was a professional who could be relied on, a team player. Someone he could depend on as much as he’d obviously depended on Emily.
She watched him walk along the veranda toward her, his moleskins moving against his thighs, outlining hard muscle. ‘Ah, the baby clinic.’ He rubbed his hands together. ‘It’s one of my favourites.’ His smile raced across his face, lighting his eyes, making them sparkle with anticipation.
His smile sent her blood racing to her feet, making her feel light-headed. ‘I know what you mean. A roly-poly baby, healthy on breast milk reaffirms that life is good.’
They quickly established a pattern of weighing and measuring babies, reassuring anxious mothers and immunizing babies against childhood illnesses. Kate dealt with any breast-feeding issues and Baden examined the babies with reflux.
With companionable teamwork and a lot of laughter they tested the hearing of all the eight-month-old babies. Baden entertained each mother and baby with his Peter the Penguin puppet, while Kate shook the rattle behind the baby’s ears.
Baden’s experience as a father came through as he managed to relax the mums and the babies with the antics of the hand puppet. Kate imagined he would have read great stories to Sasha, complete with a cast of voices for the characters.
In the distance a child’s scream rent the air as Kate called her next mother and baby.
‘Looks like we might be patching yet another knee and dispensing a lollypop,’ Baden commented as he filled in an immunisation record.
Kate nodded. ‘I think that will be number six for the day. Gravel paths and toddlers don’t really mix.’ She turned and called her next patient. ‘So, Ginny, how’s baby Samantha going?’
Ginny cuddled the baby in close. ‘Pretty well, although I think she’s been having a growth spurt as she’s been feeding a lot.’
Kate checked Samantha’s date of birth. ‘Well, at six weeks you’d expect—’
‘Help me! Will someone help me?’ A woman’s frantic voice carried across the yard, her distress palpable.
‘Sorry, Ginny.’ Kate spun around, reaching for the emergency kit, her hand colliding with Baden’s.
He grasped the handle. ‘I’ve got it. Follow me.’
He ran down the veranda as Mary Sanderson came into view, carrying her four-year-old daughter. Her eldest daughter, Kelly, ran close behind.
Blood covered the little girl’s face as she lay whimpering in her mother’s arms. ‘What happened?’ Baden gently guided the woman into a seat.
‘She was feeding the chooks with her big sister, like she does every afternoon. Kelly said she heard Susie scream and she turned around to find the rooster had knocked her flat. I can’t believe a rooster could knock a child over.’ Incredulity marked her face. ‘I’ve spent all my life on a farm and I’ve never seen that happen.’
Kelly bit her lip. ‘The rooster was on Susie’s chest and pecking her and I ran at it but it wouldn’t let go. I threw the bucket at it but while I was picking her up it flew at her again.’ She gave a quiet sob. ‘It was really scary.’
Kate squeezed Kelly’s shoulder. ‘You did a great job, Kelly. Dr Baden and I will soon have the blood cleaned up and it won’t look so scary.’ She opened up normal saline and began to clean Susie’s face with gauze so they could clearly see the extent of the damage.
Susie’s petrified screams pulled at her. The little girl’s face seemed to be swelling under Kate’s fingers as she wiped the blood away. Her puffy eyes were slits in her face and her cheeks were increasing in size.
Baden’s long fingers gently sought a pulse in the wriggling child’s neck, which he counted against the second hand of his watch. ‘Susie, I’m just going to listen to your chest with my stethoscope.’ He bent down so he was at the same level as the little girl and showed her the round end that would lie against her chest.
Susie’s crying halted for a moment but then she started to cough—probably induced by the hysterical screaming. The coughing eased and she lay exhausted in her mother’s arms.
Apprehension skated through Kate as her trauma radar tuned in. Something wasn’t quite right. Superficial lacerations didn’t usually cause swelling like this. As she grabbed more gauze she caught Baden’s worried expression.
He felt it, too—the aura of disquiet seemed to blanket them both.
She quickly and deftly used the gauze to clean away the large amount of blood on the child’s neck. Blood oozed out as fast as she could clear it. ‘Baden.’ She hoped he could decode the tone of her voice.
He immediately pulled the earpiece out of his ear, his concentration firmly on her. ‘Yes?’
‘There’s a really deep wound on her throat and her neck is swelling fast. I’m worried about her airway.’
‘So am I. Her air entry is diminished.’
‘What do you mean?’ Mary’s voice wobbled. ‘It’s just a few scratches, isn’t it?’
Baden carefully examined Susie’s throat, his fingers gently palpating around the base of her throat. ‘There’s air under her skin.’
‘Air? That can’t be good.’ Kate reached for the walkie-talkie.
He rubbed the back of his neck. ‘It’s subcutaneous emphysema. I think the rooster has perforated her trachea—the tube that takes the air to the lungs—and now air is escaping into the skin.’
Mary’s hand flew to her own throat. ‘Can she breathe?’
‘She’s breathing on her own at the moment but the risk is that the bleeding and swelling will block the tube. We’re going to have to get her stable and then evacuate her to hospital.’
Kate immediately called Glen on the walkie-talkie. ‘We need the stretcher, Glen. Susie Sanderson needs oxygen and evacuation, over.’
‘On my way, over.’ Glen’s voice crackled into the dry, hot air.
Mary, her eyes wide with fear, looked frantically at them both as Baden’s words finally sank in. ‘She’ll go to Warragurra Hospital, won’t she?’
‘No, I’m sorry but she needs to go to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.’ He rested his hand on Mary’s for a brief moment. ‘I’m going to need to examine her fully.’
‘Glen’s on
