Emergency: Christmas. Alison Roberts

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Emergency: Christmas - Alison Roberts Mills & Boon Medical

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a hammer.’

      ‘Accidentally, I hope!’ Penelope laughed and her patient finally smiled at her. ‘Here we are, Aaron. Let’s get your jacket off so I can see your wrist and then I’ll get you to climb up on the bed.’

      Penelope unbuttoned the cuffs of the jacket and eased it carefully off the injured side. The left wrist looked very swollen, a nasty pale lump with an inflamed red edge at the base of the thumb.

      ‘You’ve certainly given that a good thump,’ Penelope observed. ‘What were you using? A sledgehammer?’

      Aaron smiled again as he climbed up to sit on the edge of the bed. He held his left arm out towards Penelope. ‘It hurts,’ he informed her.

      ‘I’m not surprised. Can you wiggle your fingers?’

      Aaron complied with a groan. ‘That hurts, too.’

      Penelope took hold of the hand gently. ‘Can you squeeze my fingers?’

      The pressure was surprisingly firm. ‘That’s pretty good.’ Penelope nodded. ‘OK, you can let go now.’

      ‘Do you like being a nurse?’

      Penelope’s nod was brisk. She took a careful breath, trying to detect any recent alcohol consumption on her patient’s part. It wasn’t just that Aaron was repeating the question he had asked only minutes before. There was something about his stare that was vaguely disturbing.

      ‘Nurses help people, don’t they?’

      ‘They do.’ Penelope picked up the clipboard and pen lying on the end of the bed. ‘I need to write a few more details for the doctor here, Aaron. How old are you?’

      ‘Twenty-five. How old are you, Penny?’

      ‘A lot older than you.’ Penelope wasn’t going to encourage a personal conversation. ‘What were you doing at the time of your accident?’

      ‘Knocking a hole in my wall.’

      ‘And what happened?’

      ‘I was holding a bit of wood that got stuck. I aimed a really big hit at the end of it but I missed.’

      ‘What time did this happen?’

      ‘Dunno. I don’t wear a watch.’

      ‘Was it this afternoon?’

      ‘Yeah. Couple of hours ago, I guess.’

      About the time that the resuscitation on Richard Milne had been in full swing. Penelope’s thoughts were diverted momentarily as she wondered how the young paraglider was doing. There had been no time to follow up any developments because of the stream of minor cases she’d had under her care. No opportunities to talk to Belinda or even think about the plans her friend might be hatching to get her a little closer to Jeremy. Penelope sighed lightly. No chance of having to call in an anaesthetics registrar for this patient. She pulled the blood-pressure stand towards the bed.

      ‘I’m going to take your blood pressure, Aaron. I need to wrap this cuff around your arm. Can you pull your shirtsleeve up for me, please?’

      ‘Sure.’

      Penelope had to stand closer to her patient as she applied the cuff. She avoided eye contact but she could feel his gaze on her.

      ‘You’re beautiful, Penny.’

      Penelope’s smile was extremely brief. She fitted the earpieces of her stethoscope into place and positioned the disc on the inside of Aaron’s elbow, apparently concentrating on her task. The vital sign measurement was automatic, however, and Penelope’s thoughts strayed again. Did Jeremy think she was beautiful? He had certainly managed to make her feel attractive over the last few weeks but did she have genuine cause to believe that? The comments had been few in reality but treasured all the more for their rarity.

      Like the day she hadn’t tried to tame her wildly curly black hair into its usual short ponytail. She had just taken a section from the front at both sides and drawn them into a small plait at the back, leaving the rest of her curls to cover her ears with the ends just touching her shoulders. Rules about hairstyles were much more relaxed these days and the only comment she had received had been from Jeremy.

      ‘Love your hair like that,’ he’d said. ‘It really suits you.’

      Penelope had been wearing her hair exactly like that ever since. Had Jeremy noticed? She released the valve on the sphygmomanometer. ‘One-twenty over 80,’ she informed Aaron. ‘Perfectly normal.’ Penelope placed her fingers on her patient’s wrist, her gaze now fastened on the second hand of her watch. ‘I’ll just check your pulse now, Aaron.’

      He was still staring at her with those oddly pale eyes. Penelope’s eyes weren’t pale. What was it Jeremy had said? It hadn’t been long after she’d met him for the first time. She had been doing the cricoid pressure on an intubation that Jeremy had been called in for. A very obese woman who’d suffered a major stroke. That had been a difficult case to intubate as well and their heads had been very close together at one stage during the procedure. Successfully completed, Penelope had been assisting in tying the endotracheal tube firmly into place and Jeremy had caught her eye. His voice had been low enough not to be overheard by the other staff members nearby.

      ‘Do you realise,’ he’d murmured, ‘that your eyes are exactly the colour of the delphiniums my mother used to grow in her garden?’ Jeremy had smiled at her, holding the eye contact for another split second. His final comment had been almost inaudible. ‘My favourite flowers.’

      Penelope recorded the baseline heart and respiration rate she had now completed on Aaron Jacobs. She had the feeling her own rates had just increased significantly thanks to the direction of her straying thoughts. She turned her attention firmly back to the task in hand.

      ‘Do you have any other medical conditions you’re being treated for, Aaron?’

      ‘Asthma,’ he responded. ‘I’ve got a Ventolin inhaler but I don’t need it very often.’

      ‘Anything else?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Are you allergic to any medications?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘How bad is the pain in your wrist at the moment?’

      ‘Pretty bad.’

      ‘On a scale of zero to ten, with zero being no pain and ten being the worst you could imagine, what score would you give it?’

      ‘About an eight.’

      ‘OK. I’ll see about getting you something to help with that. You’re going to need your wrist X-rayed to make sure you haven’t broken anything and then a doctor will come and see you.’ Penelope pulled back the cubicle curtain. ‘You might have a bit of a wait, I’m afraid. We’re quite busy today.’

      ‘That’s cool. I don’t mind waiting. Will you come back to look after me?’

      ‘I’ll be back as soon as I’ve organised some pain relief for you.

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