The Doctor's Surprise Bride

by Fiona McArthur

Eliza looked back up the way she’d come but there was no car to be seen. She peered further down the road in the opposite direction and a patch of clear in the dusky smoke showed no car.

  Eliza swung her wheel tightly and turned the Mustang in a half-circle to face the other direction and crawled slowly up the road and around the bend. She leaned out the window to look at the gravel edge and, as she drew level with where the animal had crossed, she saw the skid marks leading to the rim of the ravine.

  Not good. Eliza pulled up, switched on her hazard lights to warn approaching traffic and climbed out of her car.

  The tyre marks disappeared short of the low fence and then reappeared as a swathe of broken scrub before careering down the hillside.

  She needed help before she attempted to find the occupants because the least helpful scenario would be for her to injure herself in a climb down the ravine, and no one knew she was there. This was not the sort of country where passing drivers noticed a broken branch or two and investigated.

  She dialled the emergency number, notified the police and ambulance then went back to her car for a torch and her first-aid kit.

  The kangaroo had disappeared and Eliza glared in the general direction in which the marsupial would have escaped.

  ‘Good one, Skippy,’ she muttered, and scrambled through the undergrowth at the side of the road to climb the wire fence that the car had managed to sail over.

  When she was on the other side of the fence she could see the black marks disappearing down the slope where the tyres had ripped through the soft soil as the driver had tried to brake.

  Her shoes were not designed for mountain trekking and she skidded when she couldn’t grab bushes to slow her descent. She tightened her lips in sympathy for what must have been going through the mind of the driver in the uncontrolled descent.

  Finally she picked up the car by way of a glint of metal, but lost her footing as she took her eye off the hillside to examine the wreckage. The last twenty feet she accomplished faster than she’d intended but managed to land at the bottom still on her feet.

  She stopped because she bumped into the rear of what she could now see was a red sports car, and she pulled herself through the bushes at the side of the vehicle until she came to the passenger door.

  She reefed the door open and the interior light came on, but the car was empty. There was blood on the steering-wheel but whoever had been in there had managed to get out in case the car blew up.

  Eliza looked around and spotted the outline of a woman as she sat upright against a tree.

  ‘Are you all right? I’m a nurse.’ Eliza didn’t want to frighten her.

  Eliza shone the torch onto the woman’s chest, careful not to blind her, but suddenly it didn’t matter. The woman fainted and that was when Eliza saw she was heavily pregnant. She slid slowly sideways in an ungainly heap and Eliza scrambled across to stop her head, at least, from hitting the ground.

  Eliza rolled the woman’s weight slightly to one side and tried to elevate her legs onto a log to send more blood to the brain, but she didn’t rouse when Eliza spoke to her.

  The unconscious woman’s breathing was slowing and her pulse was more difficult to palpate than Eliza had expected. She felt the coldness of dread creep over her own body.

  In the distance, the sound of an ambulance could be heard, and Eliza hoped they would hurry because she had a horrible suspicion internal injuries were draining the mother’s life away. If the mother died the baby would die, too, unless they were somewhere they could perform a miracle.

  The next fifteen minutes seemed to last for hours though they extricated the woman more easily from the ravine than Eliza could have hoped for via a lower farm gate. The ambulance had been able to drive along the valley floor and back up to the road in half the time it would have taken to carry the patient out up the slope.

  Just as the ambulance drew up to the hospital the cardiac monitor suddenly squealed in protest. The woman’s heart had stopped.

  ‘Cardiac arrest.’ Eliza felt dread in her stomach and connected the bag to the tube the paramedic had inserted when they’d first arrived. Eliza and the paramedic began CPR but both knew that even the best resuscitation wouldn’t be enough for the baby, or the mother, if they didn’t stop the internal bleeding.

  Jack met them as they opened the doors and took the situation in at a glance. He was relieved and grateful to see they had positioned a wedge under the patient’s side and had an intravenous line in.

  Jack listened as Eliza reeled off what she knew as they pushed the ambulance trolley into the mini-theatre and transferred the woman onto the emergency bed with barely a break in the cardiac massage.

  After two shocks and a dose of cardiac stimulants there was no discernible improvement in the woman’s cardiac output. Jack shook his head.

  ‘If you guys continue the CPR,’ Jack spoke to the ambulancemen, ‘Eliza and I will do the section.’

  ‘Caesarean section? What? Here?’ The ambulance officers were astounded but Eliza had heard of this before to save pregnant trauma victims.

  Jack knew what had to be done. ‘We’ll worry about infection if she survives. If we don’t get that baby out, Mum has no chance, and without a live mother the baby will die as well.’

  Jack turned his focus back to the woman and Eliza drew a deep breath. So be it. She knew it was true. ‘Even if it’s too late for the baby, we could save her doing this. We’ll lose her anyway if we don’t try. What do you need, Jack?’

  ‘Everything, but we’ll waste time getting it. We both need gloves for our own safety and I’ll make a vertical incision. I’ll need a scalpel, some antiseptic and a blanket for the baby. If she survives, we’ll worry about antibiotics and sewing up later.’

  ‘Should I listen for foetal heartbeats?’

  Jack looked at Eliza. ‘We don’t have time. This is the best chance both of them have.’

  During the next three minutes Eliza felt as if she were looking down at the scene from a distance somewhere up on the ceiling, although her body responded as she told it to.

  ‘No anaesthetic—get her belly exposed,’ Jack was firing orders. Eliza grabbed a packet of gloves and spoke over her shoulder.

  ‘Rhonda, get the gear ready for the baby. It feels about full-term size and I’ll help you when we have her or him.’

  Jack knew he had to get the baby out fast. He’d read all the literature and agonised over the might-have-beens with regard to his own personal tragedy. The amazing thing was, there was a very slim chance he could still save this woman’s life if he could deliver the baby and get the sequestered blood from her uterus and legs back into her bloodstream by unsquashing the bulky weight of her uterus from the large blood vessels below.

  There wasn’t much hope, he knew that too, but the woman had none if they didn’t try. If any one knew about this scenario, Jack did. If Lydia had been sectioned as soon as she’d arrested, they might have saved her and his son. Or maybe not. He’d never know. But this woman would have every chance he could give her.

  ‘She can sue me later for the scar,’ Jack muttered to himself as Eliza poured the contents of a bottle of antiseptic over the pale stomach that seemed so huge on such a tiny woman.

  The scalpel swooped and a thin red line appeared beneath the woman’s breasts down to the top of her pubis. This wasn’t the time for a bikini cut.

  Jack slashed again, deeper this time, and he saw Eliza wince as she held open the wound with a large pad. There was very little bleeding as the woman’s uterus appeared beneath the slack abdominal muscles and Jack continued doggedly until a gush of amniotic fluid heralded their entrance into the baby’s space.

  Jack captured the baby’s head and then eased the rest of the baby’s limp body out of the cavity. Eliza clamped and cut the cord, suctioned and then took the little girl from him. The baby was white and limp and Eliza hurried over to the bench where Rhonda waited with a warm towel and the resuscitation equipment.

  Eliza rubbed th
e little girl briskly as soon as she’d laid her down, and then tilted the baby’s head slightly. Rhonda looked terrified.

  Eliza talked her through it. ‘For newborns you always start with five slow, bigger breaths with the baby-sized ventilaton bag to force out any fluid from the baby’s lungs. This allows better inflation if she starts to breathe for herself. If you don’t expel that first fluid, it prevents severely depressed infants from being successfully resuscitated.’

  ‘The baby looks dead,’ Rhonda whispered. She’d had very little experience with babies. ‘Shouldn’t we listen for a heartbeat?’

  ‘You don’t have to. Just feel the umbilical cord for any pulsation, but the breaths are the important thing in the first few seconds.’ Eliza watched the little chest rise and fall as she squeezed the bag. ‘Air entry looks good. There’s no heart rate I can pick up so you start cardiac compression. Circle the chest with your hands and use your thumbs over the sternum just under the nipple line. Compress like this for about a third of the depth of the chest.’ She showed Rhonda quickly. ‘We should have about ninety heartbeats and thirty breaths in one minute.’

  They settled into the three compressions of the tiny chest to one smaller breath from the oxygen bag, which was needed for circulation.

  The baby twitched and Eliza felt the first flicker of incredulous hope in her own chest. ‘Come on, baby. If you’re going to do it, it has to be in the next minute or two.’ Eliza prayed this baby was as resilient as she knew most babies were. ‘Babies want to live,’ she said to Rhonda, but she was really talking to herself. ‘They are designed for sometimes rocky starts.’

  The baby gave a tiny gasp and then another, and Eliza paused in her bagging to check for a heart rate. She could feel the tiny pulsations and the beat speed was climbing fast.

  ‘You can stop compressions, Rhonda, we only need to concentrate on the oxygen now.’

  When the baby gave a weak cry, Eliza felt the tears prickle behind her eyes, but there was no time for emotion. Rhonda straightened in shock and Eliza disconnected the bag from the oxygen tubing and held it near the baby’s mouth. The feeble cries grew louder until there was no doubt that she would survive.

  The baby settled into a more consistent breathing pattern and after another thirty seconds Eliza glanced across at Jack. ‘You go, girl,’ she said, and then looked across at Rhonda.

  Rhonda was unashamedly crying. ‘I can’t believe we just did that.’

  ‘I need you here,’ Jack called over his shoulder and Eliza nodded to the nurse beside her. ‘Keep her warm and keep the oxygen blowing about an inch above her mouth.’

  She moved back to Jack, and he nodded congratulations at her success. ‘The placenta is out and I’ve packed the uterus. We can take the wedge out from under her now that the weight of her uterus has gone.’

  The ambulance officer stuttered in shock. ‘W-we’ve got the b-beginnings of a heart rate here, if we can keep it going.’

  Eliza couldn’t believe it. She’d never expected to save both the mother and baby. ‘Could she make it, too?’ she asked Jack, and he nodded.

  ‘She’d better. We’ve just given her the best chance we can.’

  Jack was grimly determined now there was hope. He mightn’t have been able to save his own family but their lives hadn’t been wasted if he saved others from what he’d learnt. He wasn’t going to let this patient slip away from him.

  With a steady heart rate they could run in the needed fluids and the litres of O-positive blood that were arriving from the Red Cross fridge. The woman’s heart rate on the monitor was settling down and, although she was still deeply unconscious, her oxygen saturations were creeping up.

  ‘We’d better get some suture material here and repair this wound so they can airlift her out to a city hospital.’

  The next hour saw the arrival of the adult retrieval team in the emergency helicopter and Jack’s shoulders sagged as his patient’s care was transferred to the new crew.

  ‘Amazing job,’ the intensive care doctor congratulated the Bellbrook team, and Eliza and Jack smiled tiredly.

  After the police had been, Jack drove Eliza to her car and the silence stretched between them.

  Finally Jack spoke. ‘This is when I hate being the only doctor in town. I couldn’t have done it without you.’

  ‘You were incredible—so focussed on what needed to be done. I still can’t believe the mother and baby survived, but I never want to do that again.’

  ‘Tell me about it. She only looked about thirty and we still don’t know her name.’ They’d pulled up beside Eliza’s car.

  The sky lit up with a flash of sheet lightning and the slow rumble of thunder followed soon after. Rain would help put out the fires and the break from the heat would be good.

  Jack looked mentally and physically exhausted and Eliza didn’t feel much better. But she didn’t want him to leave her.

  ‘Follow me back to Dulcie’s, Jack. Just for a while. I don’t want to be alone just now and I don’t think you should be either.’

  He didn’t take his eyes off the steering-wheel as he waited for her to get out, then he nodded, and she heard him sigh.

  ‘It’s a strange old world,’ he said.

  A short time later they both turned off their engines and Roxy greeted them at the gate.

  ‘Yes, I know I’m late,’ Eliza said, as Roxy proceeded to cover her in wet doggy kisses. ‘And don’t lick me.’

  Jack smiled faintly at that and Eliza thought it almost worth the dampness to see his spirits lift. ‘Come inside,’ she said. ‘I’ll check the animals with a torch later. I filled all the troughs this morning and they’ll last until I get to them.’

  ‘I think if I went to sleep I’d never wake up.’ Jack followed her into the house and fell into the armchair in the lounge room. His arms hung limply over the sides and she watched him for a moment. His hair was tousled and his skin was paler than usual. ‘I’ll make us a cup of tea,’ she said quietly.

  A sudden weight on his chest roused Jack and he realised Dulcie’s cat had jumped up. He pushed the cat down onto his lap and stroked it absently.

  Life was strange.

  If the woman today had been Lydia, if he could have saved his wife and their baby, would their marriage have been different? His son would be three years old now and he didn’t suppose that grief would ever go.

  But had he really been at fault for the breakdown of their marriage and ultimately Lydia’s and his son’s deaths?

  It was time to let go. He really had loved his wife in the beginning. But she’d been harder to love when she’d become bitter. He’d wanted his baby, ultimately more than Lydia had, but he hadn’t known pregnancy would ruin their marriage. He’d actually thought it a wonderful surprise when Lydia had told him.

  He’d tried to be there for her. Not work such long hours. But she’d really only been happy when she’d been in Sydney. Goodness knew what sort of mother she’d have been. Perhaps he’d be going through a messy divorce, child access problems. He’d never know.

  But Lydia’s death, and his son’s death, had not been in vain. Because of them he’d known what had to be done today, and another woman and her baby would live.

  He and Eliza had done a good job. So had Rhonda and the ambulance officers. They had all achieved an amazing feat.

  He could hear the kettle whistle in the kitchen. Eliza was in there. He wished Eliza was here. Now. In his lap instead of the cat.

  ‘Sorry, cat!’ He grinned at the purring animal and gently pushed her off so he could stand up.

  He followed the kettle’s whistle into the tiny kitchen.

  Eliza didn’t turn as he came into the kitchen. He trapped her against the sink as she put cups on a tray. ‘The kitchen’s too small for two, Jack. I’ll bring the tea out.’

  ‘There’s more room if we stand like this.’ He took the cups from her hands and pulled her around and into his arms until her nose was buried in his chest.

  Her body felt sof
t and luscious beneath his hands and his fingers tightened on her wrists as he closed his eyes. He dropped his chin down onto the top of her head. Her hair smelt like smoky citrus and he sighed as he relaxed. She felt so good in his arms.

  Eliza frowned. ‘Right,’ she said, and pulled her head back with a touch of impatience. Her mind was full of what she could whip up for dinner and she missed the change in Jack’s focus.

  When she tried to step back she realised he still had hold of her wrist. ‘What are you doing, Jack?’ Then she looked up and saw the expression in his deep brown eyes and unexpected heat hit her low in the stomach like a kick from the donkey.

  He just held her, and held her, for several minutes, and it was wonderful to rest her head against him and draw comfort from his arms. Then his mouth came down in slow motion and when his lips grazed hers she couldn’t help but sigh into him. She needed this and by the feel of Jack against her, he needed her, too.

  What started as a gentle comfort kiss slowly deepened into something much more. Strong, slow strokes from his tongue, mirrored by his hands on her body and her hands on his, ignition of flames that had been simmering below the surface for both of them. Suddenly there was no ‘both’, no ‘two people’, there was only mutual hunger and a raging desire to oust their shared demons.

  When Jack’s pager went off, it took a few seconds for him to realise what the sound was. It took Eliza even longer and he had to hold her away until she opened her eyes.

  They stared at each other and neither could believe the state of undress they’d achieved in so short a time.

  Eliza brushed her hand over her mouth and took a deep breath. ‘You’d better answer the page.’ Then she turned back to the sink and leant over the cold metal to breathe the fresh air coming through the window.

  Jack stared at the back of her neck. Her skin was still pink from where his hand had cupped her, and her white lace bra hung loosely open at the back. He shook his head and picked his shirt up from the floor then went into the other room to phone the hospital.

  He’d never behaved like that in his life before. It was as if someone else had shifted into his body and demanded he kiss Eliza, and once he’d started he hadn’t been able to stop. She was his oasis in the madness of today but he’d almost created a bigger madness with his lack of control.