by Joanna Neil
A moment later, he ended the call and spoke to one of the paramedics. ‘Will you be able to cope here if Sarah and I go off to another incident?’ he asked. ‘It’s at the school, just a short distance away from here.’
The paramedic nodded. ‘We’re about finished here. We’ll come to you as soon as we’re free.’
Ben began to walk back to the car. ‘Where are we going?’ Sarah asked.
‘It’s a school sports field just five minutes away,’ he told her. ‘A boy has suffered an ankle injury while he was playing football.’
They slid inside the car, and he started off in the direction of the school. ‘It’s on our way back to the hospital, so it wouldn’t be worth calling out another ambulance.’
When they arrived at the sports field, boys were milling around the injured lad, trying to see what had happened. As soon as Ben and Sarah arrived, the teacher sent the class back to the field to go on with the game. ‘Alex will be well taken care of,’ he said. ‘Let the doctor do his job in peace. I want you boys to be ready for the match this weekend. Go on with the game. Mr Jones will take over from me to supervise you.’
Once some space had been cleared around the boy, Ben knelt down to examine him.
‘That must have been some tackle,’ he said, looking at the area of bruising and swelling around the ankle. ‘I think you’ve actually broken a bone. I wonder what happened to the boy you clashed with?’
‘I think he’s all right,’ the boy said, gritting his teeth to fight the pain. ‘He was winded, and he went to sit down.’ Alex was about fourteen years old and sturdily built.
The boy’s teacher was worried. ‘I’ve called his parents. They’re on their way.’
‘That’s good.’ Ben glanced at the boy, who was squeezing his eyelids together in an attempt to hold back tears. ‘I’m going to give you something to ease the pain and then we’ll put a splint around the ankle so that it doesn’t move. After that, we’ll get you into the ambulance and take you to hospital.’
He looked at Sarah. ‘Would you get me the splints from the car while I give him a painkiller?’
‘Yes, of course.’ She hurried back to the car and rummaged in the boot for the splints. Walking back towards the injured boy, she glanced around and saw that his classmates were running about the field once more…all except for one, who was sitting down alone, leaning back against the wire fence. He didn’t look too well, and she wondered if he was the boy who had tackled Alex.
She put the splints down on the grass beside Ben. ‘Would it be all right if I go and look at the boy over there?’ she murmured. ‘He doesn’t look too well, and I could perhaps talk to him and make sure that everything’s OK.’
Ben glanced over to where the boy was sitting. ‘Yes, that’s OK. I’ll be a few minutes here yet. I want to make sure that the injection works before I attempt to immobilise the ankle.’
Sarah went over to the boy, who was sitting quite close to where the rapid-response car was parked. She said softly, ‘Were you hurt at all in the game?’
‘I…don’t…think so.’ He struggled to get the words out. ‘The teacher told me to…sit here.’
Sarah looked at him worriedly. He was a tall, lean boy, and his face looked ashen. His lips had a bluish tinge about them, and she found herself thinking that this was more than a simple case of exhaustion. ‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Matthew.’
‘You don’t look too well, Matthew,’ she said. ‘I could get the doctor to come and have a look at you as soon as he’s finished with Alex’s ankle.’
The boy didn’t answer but suddenly slumped over onto the grass. Alarmed, Sarah felt for a pulse but couldn’t find one. Then she realised that he wasn’t breathing. She called out for help and started chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but her efforts seemed to be getting her nowhere, and it suddenly occurred to her that both the oxygen and defibrillator were in the car.
‘Can I do something to help?’ The boy’s teacher suddenly appeared by her side.
‘Yes, go on with the chest compressions and the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while I go and get the defibrillator.’ She checked to make sure that he knew what he was doing, then went and reached into the boot of the car and pulled out the machine, along with the ventilation equipment.
Just a few seconds later she had attached the bag device to the oxygen mask and put it in place over the boy’s airway. Then she instructed the teacher how to press down on the bag so that the oxygen was pumped into the child’s lungs. ‘See how his chest is rising and falling?’ she asked.
He nodded.
‘OK, keep on doing that, and make sure that the air keeps going in where it’s supposed to.’
She checked Matthew’s pulse once more, and was dismayed by her findings. She switched on the defibrillator and began to open up his shirt so that she could attach the electrode pads to the boy’s chest.
‘Stand clear,’ she told the teacher. The automatic defibrillator assessed the boy’s heart rhythm, and then delivered a shock to the heart.
‘Keep on with the ventilation,’ Sarah said, beginning chest compressions once more.
‘He has a pulse now,’ Ben said, coming to kneel by her side, a moment later. ‘He’s beginning to breathe by himself.’
Sarah looked up at him. How long had he been there?
Perhaps he’d read her thoughts, because he said, ‘I’ve only just arrived. I heard you shout, and as soon as I could I came to see what was happening. I didn’t realise that you were using the defibrillator until it was too late.’
‘I knew what to do.’
He gave her a strange, assessing look. ‘So it seems. Anyway, the ambulance has just arrived.’
‘Good. We need to get him on board.’ Sarah frowned. ‘The sooner he’s in hospital, the better. It’s unusual for a boy this age to have heart problems like this, but I think he should be checked over for problems of arrhythmia. There might even be a history of such problems within the family.’
Ben looked at her oddly. ‘What kind of treatment would help in that situation?’ he asked casually.
‘That would depend on the type of arrhythmia. Possibly he would be started on beta-blocker therapy, but if his condition didn’t improve, he might need to have an implant to prevent any further attacks. It all depends what the tests reveal.’ She glanced at the heart monitor. ‘At the moment he has a sinus rhythm with premature ventricular beats.’ She looked up at Ben. ‘He’s having problems with his breathing, and I think it would be wise to intubate him so that he has a secure airway in place while he’s being monitored.’
‘I think you’re right,’ he said. ‘I’ll do it before we put him in the ambulance.’ He studied her as he started to pull the equipment out of the boot of the car. ‘Do you realise what you’ve just done?’
She stared at him. ‘What do you mean? I was trying to help him. Are you saying that I did the wrong thing?’
‘Not at all.’ He didn’t take his eyes off her as he walked back to the patient. ‘I’m saying that you did what any doctor would have done. I don’t think you know all these things that you write about purely by chance—I think you must have trained as a doctor at some time. You acted on instinct, and you saved his life.’
Strangely, Sarah felt as though she had been punched in the chest. Her lungs were suddenly desperate for air, and her heart was beginning to pound. All the time she had been tending to the boy she had been working purely on instinct, not thinking, not worrying whether she was doing the right thing, but it had all seemed perfectly natural, as though she had the skills at her fingertips. It hadn’t occurred to her that none of this was normal.
By now the teacher was looking at them both as though he was confused by what was going on.
‘It’s all right,’ Ben told him. ‘I’ll take over from you now. Perhaps you could go and call his parents. We’ll be taking him to hospital for observation.’
The teacher got to his feet, looking bac
k at them as he started to walk away. Ben put a tube in place in the boy’s throat and attached the oxygen device.
‘He’ll need to go to an intensive care unit. I expect they’ll start him on an infusion for the arrhythmia, and they’ll do an echocardiogram to see what’s going on with the heart.’
Sarah stood up, feeling a little shaky. ‘You’re not angry with me, then?’
Ben gave her an amused look. ‘Angry? Far from it. What we need to do now, though, is find out where you did your training and see if we can figure out how much you do know.’
‘Perhaps that’s all there is.’ Sarah frowned. She was having trouble taking any of this in, and the fact that Ben was accepting it as though nothing was wrong made her more confused than ever.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t believe it, not for a second. One thing I do know is that your memory is coming back to you, piece by piece.’
The paramedics came over to them. ‘We’ve put the boy with the ankle fracture into the ambulance. Is this another patient for us?’
‘Yes, he is. Let’s get him to hospital as soon as we can.’
They followed the ambulance in the fast-response car, and Sarah was anxious all the time, concerned about the young boy. She fidgeted in her seat and wished that the miles could be swallowed up in one big gulp.
‘Do your parents work in medicine?’ Ben asked, throwing her an interested glance. ‘Sometimes it follows that a doctor’s son or daughter will follow in his or her footsteps.’
Sarah shook her head. ‘My father works for a pharmaceutical company. He had to go and work overseas to supervise a new development out there. My mother was working, too. They went together.’
Then, as she realised what she had said, she clapped a hand over her mouth. ‘How do I know that?’ She turned to Ben and looked at him, her expression shocked. ‘You did that on purpose, didn’t you? You asked me, as though I would come up with the answer without even thinking about it.’
‘And that’s exactly what you did.’
‘Yes.’ Sarah was shaking inside. Instead of feeling overjoyed at the memories that were coming back, she felt a well of fear and dread building up inside her. What was wrong with her?
‘What’s happening to me, Ben?’ she asked, and there was a noticeable tremor in her voice. ‘I’m so scared. I don’t know if I can face this.’
Ben drove the car into a lay-by and cut the engine. ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘Come here. Let me hold you.’
He reached for her and she went willingly into his arms and let him soothe away the feelings of apprehension and terror that were threatening to overwhelm her. It should have been a wonderful thing that all these memories were coming back to her, but to Sarah it seemed as though a void was opening up in front of her, a dark place of unknown happenings whose revelations could make her whole again or might destroy her.
She gave a soft whimper and buried her face in Ben’s shirt front.
‘You don’t have to face it alone,’ he said softly, stroking her silky hair. ‘I’m here with you. I promise you I won’t let you go through any of this on your own.’
CHAPTER NINE
‘DID Emily go off to Carol’s house all right this morning?’ Ben was standing by the table in his kitchen, making a last-minute check of the contents of his medical bag. He looked across the room at Sarah.
‘Yes, she was as bright and cheery as ever.’ She smiled. ‘I think Carol was really glad to see her. Her other two foster-children have gone back to their parents, so she’s feeling a little bit at a loose end at the moment. She’s pleased for the children, of course, because the parents seem to be trying to work things out.’
He pushed his stethoscope into the bag and fastened the clasp. ‘She’s been good for Emily, hasn’t she? And good for you, too, because it means that you can go out to work.’
‘I don’t know what I would have done without her,’ Sarah said. ‘As to work, shouldn’t I be going out with the ambulance crew today?’
‘Under normal circumstances, yes. My colleague is on the rota for going on call with the rapid-response car this month, but he has an appointment this morning so I’ll be taking his place until he returns at lunchtime. It means that I’ll be able to follow up in A and E this afternoon, and I thought it might be a good idea if you were to come along with me. It might help to spark off one or two recollections if you were to put yourself back in a hospital situation.’
‘Because you believe that I’m actually a doctor?’
He nodded. ‘That’s right. We’ve no idea whether you specialised in any particular area, or even whether you were a GP, but it can’t hurt to go into the unit and get the feel of the place, can it? It might be that the surroundings are different from what you were used to, but the principles are the same wherever you are.’
Sarah mulled that over. ‘I suppose that’s true, and as far as the job goes and staying with the response car for another day, Admin won’t mind how I get my information for the report.’
‘True.’ Ben went to collect his jacket from the cloakroom and said in a brisk tone, ‘Are we ready to go, then?’
Sarah nodded, taking one last glance around the kitchen. ‘I love this house,’ she said with a soft sigh. ‘The rooms are filled with light, and everything is just perfect. It makes me feel tranquil, just being here. You’ve even managed to landscape the garden so that it looks like a natural part of the Peak District. All those beautiful trees, and the rockery with its mossy stones…it’s a haven for wildlife.’
She turned to him and smiled. ‘I sometimes look over at your garden from my kitchen window and watch the birds flocking to the birdtable. Emily can even tell you the names of some of them.’
‘She’s a bright little thing, that one, and she comes out with things quite unexpectedly from time to time.’ His gaze flicked over her. ‘She mentioned her grandparents once, didn’t she? I remember that she was disappointed that she hadn’t seen them in a while.’
Sarah pulled in a deep breath to steady herself. ‘She seems to have a lot stored away in her mind, but because she’s as young as she is it’s difficult for her to express herself.’
‘Hmm…I wondered if we should work on trying to find your parents. You said that your father worked for a pharmaceutical company, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to find out whether a relatively high-profile employee has gone to work abroad. I’m assuming that he must be in a position of authority if he’s supervising a new development. There can’t be that many international companies, and provided that we explain the situation we might find that the executives are willing to help us out. We’d be more likely to strike lucky if we point out that his daughter has gone missing.’
He studied her for a moment and she guessed he was trying to gauge her reaction. Then he added, ‘It occurred to me that Sarah Hall might have been your maiden name. If it was your married name, we would probably have found your true identity by now.’
Sarah frowned. ‘But Emily said her name is Hall. Are you saying it’s possible that I was never married?’
‘That could be so. These things happen, and children are born to single mothers all the time, but at least it gives us a starting point for trying to find your parents.’ He stopped as he was about to open the front door and studied her thoughtfully for a second or two. ‘Would you like me to see what I can find out?’
‘That would be great,’ she said, thinking it through. ‘I tried to find them myself some time ago, but I kept coming up against dead ends, and I’m not sure that I could face going through the process all over again. It would be good if you were to help…if you don’t mind doing that for me?’
‘Leave it with me,’ he murmured.
They went out to the car, and from then on they concentrated on the job in hand. Sarah spent the morning making notes as Ben and the paramedics tended to their patients.
Around lunchtime they went to a place where a man had been found slumped at the wheel of his car. Luckily, he had pulled over
to the side of the road where he wouldn’t be a danger to anyone, but someone had called an ambulance because something didn’t look right about the way he was sitting there.
‘His skin is warm, but his pulse is very faint,’ Jamie, one of the paramedics, said. He spoke to the man, but there was no response, and his colleague went to fetch a stretcher.
Ben set about checking the patient’s reflexes. ‘There’s no sign that he suffered a stroke. Are there any substances in the car to suggest that he might have taken something that caused him to collapse?’
Jamie went to look. ‘Nothing.’
Sarah checked the heart monitor. ‘He has sinus tachycardia, but there’s no evidence of a heart attack. Could he be suffering from anaphylactic shock?’
‘It’s possible,’ Ben murmured, preparing to set up an intravenous line. ‘Let’s give him normal saline and see if that helps to revive him.’
‘It doesn’t seem to be having much effect,’ Jamie remarked a while later.
Ben winced. ‘I’ll give him an antihistamine and a subcutaneous injection of epinephrine to see if that will do the trick. Whatever happens, we need to get him to A and E right away.’
The man was still unresponsive after the medication, and Sarah was worried. ‘His pulse rate’s increasing, but there’s still no readable signal on the pulse oximeter, is there?’
‘No, but at least he’s breathing. We’ll give him supplemental oxygen via the mask.’ He turned to Jamie. ‘Let’s get him to hospital.’
Jamie nodded. He was a young man, in his thirties, with neatly cropped dark hair and friendly grey eyes. Sarah followed him into the ambulance, noting down the equipment that had been used and the procedures that had been followed.
‘How are those two young lads doing?’ Jamie asked, as he checked that the patient’s oxygen mask was in place. ‘I mean the ones that we looked after on the sports field the other day. Have you heard anything about them since then?’