The Single Dad's Marriage Wish (Bachelor Dads) by Carol Marinelli

dressed in his theatre gear just in case he was called back in, Hamish actually gotunder the covers instead of crashing on top and then was afforded the rare luxury of sleeping through the precious remains of the night.

CHAPTER FOUR
    ‘H OW long till he gets here?’
    Slightly breathless from running from day care and ten minutes before his day officially started, Hamish slammed into the resuscitation room with his pager still shrilling urgently to alert him to the incoming emergency and started pulling the necessary equipment off the wall in preparation for the patient.
    ‘Two minutes!’ Charlotte answered without looking up, too busy pulling up drugs for the imminent arrival of the patient.
    A man had been electrocuted at work and was on his way into the department, and everyone present, from porter to consultant, was racing to do their bit to ensure that this unlucky young man was afforded every possible chance when he presented in the department.
    ‘What do we know?’
    ‘Twenty-eight-year-old male in full cardiac arrest. Electrocution. CPR was commenced by his father—he was intubated at the scene by the paramedics.’
    ‘How long has he been down?’
    ‘Forty minutes from when we got there!’ theparamedic answered, bagging the patient with one hand, his face red with exertion as he and his partner sped the ambulance stretcher into Resus, cardiac massage being delivered now by Cameron, the resident. ‘Vince, his dad, was on the scene, but we could barely get a word out of him. No response to drugs or defibrillation—he’s in fine VF.’
    ‘Do we have a name for the patient?’
    ‘Ronan. Ronan King.’
    ‘Right, let’s get him over,’ Hamish said, giving the count. ‘Cameron, keep up the CPR till we get him onto our monitors…’ Connecting the ambu-bag to the wall source of oxygen, Hamish bagged Ronan himself as he listened for air entry with his stethoscope, checking that the tube was correctly positioned. Nodding, he handed over the important job to Charlotte’s fellow emergency nurse, Amy. Charlotte connected the unlucky man to the hospital’s monitors and other staff ripped through Roman’s heavy clothing with scissors, tossing the shredded garments into bags, pulling off his gumboots and alerting Hamish to two nasty burns on Ronan’s feet.
    ‘Sats ninety-four percent!’ Charlotte called out, relaying every bit of information as it flicked on the screen, while still pulling up drugs into a kidney dish, leaving the ends of the needles in the ampoules to ensure the contents of each vial but allowing for rapid delivery when the doctor requested them.
    ‘Good job, guys,’ Hamish acknowledged. That the patient’s oxygenation at this dire stage was so good showed the effectiveness of the resuscitation he hadbeen given by the paramedics—but it was what had happened prior to their arrival that was vital, that might well determine the eventual outcome for this young man. And everyone present knew it, but the paramedics didn’t even have time to accept his praise, their radios already crackling into life and demanding they move onto their next patient. ‘Pupils are fixed and dilated,’ Hamish said, shining a light into his patient’s eyes but nodding as the paramedic hastily reeled off the drugs that had so far been administered while he collected the equipment as his partner raced out to prepare the ambulance for their next call. Fixed and dilated pupils were an ominous sign of brain injury but atropine had been amongst the medications that had been given—a strong cardiac drug, it also had the effect of fixed and dilated pupils and allowed for the fateful sign to be temporarily ignored.
    ‘Hold the massage and let’s see what we’ve got.’ Hamish stared over at the monitor, his hand on the patient’s neck, straining to feel a carotid pulse as the monitor faded into fine VF. While the massage was being delivered strong green blips had formed on the screen, a femoral pulse felt, as a