us a hand, Kate.’
Glen’s voice hailed her from the bottom of the stairs. She quickly ran to meet him and helped to lift the stretcher up onto the veranda.
Baden’s strong arms gently transferred Susie onto the stretcher, sitting her up to aid her laboured breathing. ‘Kate’s going to put a mask on you to help you feel better and Mummy’s here to hold your hand.’
His tenderness with Susie touched Kate. Not all doctors were at ease with kids. But he was a father and had probably spent a few nights walking the floor.
‘I want a drink,’ Susie sobbed between fits of jagged crying.
Kate adjusted the clear mask to Susie’s face, making sure it was a snug fit by pulling on the green elastic. ‘I’m sorry, sweetie, you can’t have a drink but I’m going to give you a drink in your arm.’ Kate checked with Baden. ‘Normal saline IV?’
He nodded, a flash of approval in his eyes. ‘Yes, saline. You all right to insert it?’ He paused for a moment in his examination of Susie’s back.
For a brief moment she was tempted to say no. She’d been out of the field for six months and Shane’s parents’ campaign against her had dented her confidence. But she had to show Baden she was a team player and totally reliable. ‘Sure, no problem.’
You’ve done this hundreds of times. Don’t let the Kennedys invade work.
‘Susie, this will sting just a little bit, OK? You squeeze Mummy’s hand really tight.’ She adjusted the tourniquet and palpated for a vein. Her fingers detected a small rise and she swabbed the little girl’s arm, the alcohol stinging her nostrils.
‘OK, here we go.’ Carefully she slid the intravenous cannula into the vein, controlling the pressure so there was enough to pierce the skin but not too much that she put the needle through the vein.
‘Mummy, stop her,’ Susie squealed as the needle penetrated the skin.
Kate bit her lip. ‘Nearly there, Susie.’ Holding her breath, she withdrew the trocar. Blood.
Yes. She released her breath and taped the needle in place. ‘IV inserted, Baden.’
He gave her a wide smile of acknowledgment—a smile that raced to his vivid blue eyes and caused them to crinkle at the edges.
A smile that melted something inside her and sent spirals of molten warmth through her, reaching all the way down to her toes.
Stop it. Thank goodness he was married and off limits. Otherwise that smile could batter all her resolutions about staying single. She found her voice. ‘Do you want a bolus of three hundred millilitres?’
‘Yes, good idea. I’m worried about bleeding.’
‘What about pain relief?’ It was a tricky situation.
‘Morphine would be good for the pain so she would be more comfortable and start to breathe more easily, but it also depresses the respiratory system. It’s catch-22.’ He frowned and rubbed the back of his neck, the same action he’d used when he’d told Mary about the perforated trachea. ‘We’ll titrate it in through the IV and that way we can control it and pull it if we need to.’
‘Mary?’ Kate got her attention. ‘How much does Susie weigh? I need as accurate a weight as possible.’
The distraught mother spoke slowly. ‘I…It’s been a while since I weighed her but she’d be about twenty kilograms, I think.’
‘Baden?’ He’d lifted her onto the stretcher.
He nodded. ‘That’s about right.’ He gave Susie’s knee a rub. ‘You weigh the same as the sacks of flour I buy to make bread.’
Susie gave a wan smile.
Kate calculated the dose. ‘So two milligrams of morphine.’
‘Correct.’ Baden checked the dose with her as mandated by the Dangerous Drug Act.
He called to Glen. ‘We need to go.’ He rested his hand on Mary’s shoulder. ‘Are you or Barry coming with us or will you follow on your own?’
‘Mary’s going with Susie.’ Barry’s gruff voice cracked on the words. ‘I’m going to go and kill that bloody rooster.’
‘After you’ve done that, pack them both a case, Barry, and we’ll radio you when we get back to Warragurra.’ Kate hugged the usually stoic man and ran down the steps.
Kate gave thanks that the airstrip at Camoora Station was very close to the homestead. Station hands, their dusty faces lined with anxiety, carried the stretcher as if it were porcelain, avoiding jolting the adored Susie, hoping their care would help.
Seven minutes after Baden had issued the order to depart, the PC-12 aircraft was racing down the dusty runway.
Kate did the first set of in-flight observations. Susie’s heart was racing and her breathing rapid and shallow. ‘She’s tachycardic and tachypnoeic,’ she informed Baden sotto voce the moment he signed off from the radio conversation with the paediatric registrar in Adelaide.
He placed his stethoscope on Susie’s back and listened intently. ‘Nothing is getting into the lower lobe of her left lung.’ Deep furrows scored his forehead as he leant across her to check the IV.
The fragrance of spicy aftershave mixing with his masculine scent filled Kate’s nostrils and she wanted to breathe in deeply. Instead, she deliberately leaned back and concentrated on filling in the fluid balance chart. ‘Are you thinking pneumothorax?’
‘I’m certain the lower lobe of her lung has collapsed but at the moment her body’s compensating. I’m not rushing into a needle thoracentesis without X-ray guidance unless I have to.’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘It was such a brutal attack. I can’t believe a rooster’s beak could cause such damage.’
‘It wouldn’t have been the beak. It was the spur on the foot. They’re viciously sharp.’
He raised his brows. ‘You seem to know a bit about poultry.’
She shrugged. ‘Born and raised a country girl. What about you?’
‘City boy. Grew up on the Adelaide beaches.’
She laughed. ‘Linton would say that Adelaide and city was an oxymoron.’
Baden raised his brows. ‘From Sydney, is he?’ He chuckled. ‘I’ll have you know that peak hour lasts half an hour.’
His rich laugh relaxed her. ‘Peak hour in Warragurra is Saturday night when the station hands drive into town. Even from Adelaide it’s a big leap.’ She checked Susie’s pulse. ‘What brought you here?’
‘It was something I’d talked about doing for a long time.’ He had a far-away look in his eyes as if he was recalling memories.
She jotted down the volume of the new bag of IV fluid that she had just attached to Susie’s drip. ‘And suddenly the time seemed right?’
His relaxed demeanour
