know what’s going on, because the nurses will alert me to any change as soon as it happens.’
She frowned as she ran the stethoscope over her patient’s chest. Initially, his heart rate had been alarmingly fast, while his pulse had been barely discernible, but now the heart rhythm was becoming chaotic and everything about the man told her that he was gravely ill.
‘Unfortunately, we don’t have any records for him, over here in the U.K.,’ Amber said, turning to look at the girl once more. Caitlin Wyndham Brookes was twenty or so years old, a slender young woman with black hair expertly cut into a smooth, jaw-length bob. Her eyes were grey, sombre at the moment, much like an overcast, rain-drenched sky. ‘You mentioned that he lives overseas for most of the year,’ Amber added. ‘Do you know who looks after his medical care back home?’
‘He has his own doctor in Oahu…in Hawaii.’ Caitlin glanced at Amber. ‘I suppose I could try to get in touch with my step-cousin over there. He’ll be very concerned about my father—they’re so much like father and son. My father took Ethan under his wing after his parents died, and there’s a real bond between them.’
She hesitated for a moment, thinking things through. ‘Ethan would probably be able to have a word with the doctor back home, if that would help, and I know he’ll want to be kept informed about what’s happening over here.’
Amber nodded. ‘That would be great. As he’s so far away, it might be quicker and easier if he could fax the information we need, or perhaps send the bare essentials by e-mail. If you were to go and have a word with our nurse, I’m sure she could help sort things out.’
Sarah, the nurse on duty, was happy to oblige, and Amber sent her a grateful glance as she led the young woman away. Sarah gave her a discreet smile in return, her fair hair making a silky swathe across her shoulders as she nodded with gentle perception. ‘I’ll take a few details and see if we can find out any more information.’
She could see that Amber had enough on her hands, dealing with a difficult situation that could take a turn for the worse at any moment. Much as she wanted to help in any way she could, Amber was finding it distracting, trying to keep the young woman calm throughout everything.
Amber turned her attention back to her patient. Martyn Wyndham Brookes was in his mid-fifties, a tall, personable man, she guessed from talking to the paramedics, with black hair streaked with threads of silver. She gathered that he was a wealthy man, a man of some standing in the international business community. According to the paramedics who had brought him into hospital, his U.K. office was situated in Docklands, occupying a prestigious block that overlooked the grand vista of the river Thames.
It seemed, though, that illness was no respecter of wealth or position. Martyn’s condition had gone downhill rapidly, and Amber knew that it was going to take all her skill to help him to recover. His features were ashen, his skin had taken on a clammy appearance, and he was no longer attempting to talk.
‘How’s it going?’
She glanced up to see that James, her boyfriend, a senior house officer like herself, had come to join her. She looked at him with affection, feeling as though a faint glow of sunshine had come into her life. ‘Things could be better,’ she said in a low tone. ‘It’s always good to see you, though. How are things with you?’
He shrugged, draping an arm around her shoulders, so that she immediately felt warm and cherished. ‘Soso. It’s been pretty stressful around here, lately, with one thing and another. We’re still waiting on the results of job applications, aren’t we, and our contracts here come to an end within a couple of weeks? Have you heard anything yet?’
She shook her head. ‘Nothing, so far, though I haven’t had time to check my hospital mail box yet today. We’ve been so rushed in here.’
He gave a brief, half-hearted smile. ‘I expect you’ll come through it all right. You’re very good at everything you do. Look at the way you sailed through your exams. No one is going to turn you down. You applied for a topnotch job in emergency medicine and you’re bound to get it.’ Even as he was singing her praises, there was a flat note in James’s voice that made Amber glance up at him, a frown indenting her brow.
He let his arm fall to his side, leaving her feeling suddenly bereft. Something was clearly wrong with him, but she had no idea what it might be. James had not been his usual self for some weeks now. At first she had thought it was the pressure of exams weighing him down, along with the aftermath of results, but now she was beginning to wonder if it was something more than that.
‘I don’t think it’s as cut and dried as it seems. I’m waiting to hear the news just the same as everyone else. From what I’ve heard, it’s all down to the computer system matching up job applications with employers. There were some terrible glitches, apparently.’ She frowned. ‘It’s all a bit worrying, isn’t it? Sarah said that there have been quite a few mix-ups, and a lot of people have missed out on getting any kind of job. Some junior doctors have been talking about leaving medicine altogether.’ She shook her head in sad reflection, causing her burnished chestnut curls to quiver in response. ‘It’s such a waste, after all those years of training.’
She looked back at her patient. He seemed to be oblivious to everything that was going on around him, but perhaps that was just as well, given how desperately ill he was.
‘I doubt you’ll have any problems,’ James said. ‘All the senior staff speak very highly of you, and you could pretty much do anything you want. I guess it puts me in the shade.’ His mouth made a rueful shape, and Amber sent him another quick look, wondering what had got into him to make him appear so downbeat.
‘You sound as though things are becoming too much for you,’ she murmured, sending him a sympathetic smile before checking the pulse oximeter reading to see how her patient was doing. The machine kept bleeping, warning her that the level of oxygen in his blood was falling as his circulation became more impaired. She decided to check with the consultant about starting him on thrombolytic drugs to try to dissolve, or reduce, the size of any clot that might have formed.
‘I’m really hoping that we’ll be able to work together at the London University Hospital. We’ve worked well with one another here in A and E, haven’t we?’ Amber studied James closely, seeing the troubled look in his eyes. ‘Perhaps we could have lunch together later today and talk things through? I’m fairly sure that you won’t have any trouble getting the research job you were after.’
‘Maybe. There aren’t that many people lining up to study my particular area of enquiry into asthma. It all depends whether the powers that be can come up with the funding.’
He straightened up, looking more at ease with himself, and moved away from her, towards the door. ‘I’ll go and check in the office again to see if any more news has come in.’ He looked at the man lying motionless in the bed. ‘Poor chap. It looks as though he’s having a rough time.’
Amber nodded, brushing a hand over her temples to tease back tendrils of hair that threatened to obscure her vision. Her chestnut-coloured hair was a shoulderlength mass of wild curls, a genetic gift from her mother that needed to be ruthlessly tamed with clips or scrunches. They shared the same eye colour, too, a soft, jewelled green.
‘I want to start him on thrombolytics,’ she said, ‘but until I have the results from the lab, I’m working in the dark a bit. My boss is operating on a badly injured patient right now, and I don’t want to disturb him unnecessarily, but I don’t think I can afford to wait.’
‘I know what you mean. It’s a balancing act, knowing
