Needed: Full-Time Father (Medical Romance) by Carol Marinelli Page B

as she did so to check the controlled drug with her.
    ‘Yes,’ Madison admitted. ‘But I’ve believed her on many occasions and been proved wrong. If anything, she’s not as convincing today as she has been in the past. She’s given so many Oscar-winning performances…’
    ‘Judith Baker!’ Alanna said, rolling her eyes. ‘The hospital is only two days old and already she’s trying it on. Mind you, I’m surprised she wasn’t waiting on the doorstep when we opened yesterday, hoping to convince someone she hadn’t seen before that she was really sick this time.’
    ‘It looks as if she could be genuinely ill this time,’ Madison said, as Guy picked up the phone to ring the lab, but Alanna just groaned.
    ‘Last year, at my old hospital, she was rushed to Theatre ahead of a five-year-old with appendicitis, and while she was being operated on, for what turned out to be nothing, the poor kid perforated. It was touch and go—all thanks to Judith.’
    ‘I know,’ Madison said wearily, pulling out the drugs and checking them with Alanna. ‘But she is still a patientand sadly Judith is her own worst enemy. I’ve warned her over and over that one day she’s desperately going to need help and no one’s going to believe her. I’ve a feeling this time is it.’
    As predicted by Guy, the surgeons didn’t exactly drop everything when they were informed that Judith Baker was waiting to be seen. In an unfortunate turn of events, it was the very surgeon who had unwittingly put her ahead of the little boy with appendicitis the previous year who was the surgeon on take that morning. Checking Judith’s obs, Madison didn’t like the picture that was being painted, didn’t like what she was seeing.
    ‘Get Guy—now,’ Madison called to Alanna, snapping off the gurney brakes with her foot and guiding the trolley out of cubicle two and over to Resus. Thankfully he was in the corridor and already coming over, and from the expression on his face he had clearly been anticipating the sudden commotion.
    ‘Let’s get her straight over,’ he said, steering the trolley, deftly pulling an oxygen mask from the wall and placing it over Judith’s mouth, even though she was still complaining loudly about the pain she was in.
    ‘Her temperature and blood pressure have dropped,’ Madison explained, turning on monitors and attaching red dots to her chest, then connecting the leads to them to give a cardiac tracing of her heart. She noted that Judith’s heart rate was extremely rapid.
    ‘I just came off the phone from the CT department. She’s got a large collection in her abdomen, probablypus. She’s going into septic shock. Alanna, page the surgeons and tell them to get down here now. And while you’re on the phone, page the theatre sister and tell her to expect an urgent laparoscopy.’ His orders were rapid, all delivered as he opened packs, giving out instructions to the gathering staff yet somehow finding the time to reassure Judith.
    ‘Judith, I need to get some more fluid into you and I don’t hold out much hope of finding another vein quickly so I’m going to put in a central line. Do you know what that is?’
    ‘A line in my neck.’ Judith’s eyes were wide with fear, her grey face beading with sweat. Perhaps she realised that this time, it really was a genuine medical crisis she was experiencing.
    Though Madison didn’t understand her, even if Judith had brought this on herself, that wasn’t the issue. Judith was her patient, desperately ill and terribly scared, and as the team swung into action, Madison took a moment to hold Judith’s hand amidst the controlled chaos and offer some emotional support as Guy laid her flat and started to swab her neck with an iodine solution.
    ‘You have a nasty pocket of infection in your stomach, so I’m going to get some fluids and antibiotics into you. The surgeons are going to take you to Theatre to drain the infection and find out where it’s coming from.’
    ‘I’m