Jennifer Taylor - A Night To Remember

‘Clear!’

Seb Bridges placed the paddles on the boy’s chest and sent another surge of electricity arcing through the nine-year-old’s body. Young Liam Baxter had had a fight with a bus on his way home from school and he had come off worst.

‘Come on, come on,’ Seb muttered, his dark brows drawn into a frown as he willed the child’s heart to start beating again.

‘Sinus rhythm,’ the nurse beside him announced, and a collective cheer went up. Seb grinned at his team.

‘Well done, you lot. That’s another one we can chalk up as a success. Carry on like this and we’ll start winning awards!’

Everyone laughed at that. The idea of them being afforded any credit for their efforts was a pipe dream. With government targets to meet, not to mention patients’ increasingly high expectations, they were lucky if they received the odd thank you most days. Cathy, the senior charge nurse on the trauma unit, rolled her eyes at him.

‘You still haven’t got rid of those high-faluting southern expectations, have you, Seb?’

‘Are you calling me a dreamer, hen?’ he demanded in his best imitation of the local accent.

‘If the cap fits…’

Cathy stuck her nose in the air and whisked past him. Seb laughed. One of the best things about this job was the camaraderie he enjoyed with his team. They were a great bunch, every single one of them as dedicated as he was. He really had struck lucky when he’d made the move north. Not only had he found his dream job but he’d made a lot of good friends, too. It had helped make up in a small way for all that he’d lost.

A familiar pain stabbed his heart at the thought of Libby and he swung round so his colleagues wouldn’t see his anguish. There were patients waiting to be seen, and there was no time to waste by thinking about the mess he had made of his marriage. All the regrets in the world wouldn’t change things now.

He left Resus and went to check the whiteboard. Every single cubicle was occupied and there was a patient in the treatment room as well. It had been an exceptionally busy day, even by their standards. The closure of several smaller accident and emergency units in the surrounding area had put extra pressure on them. The Grace Darling Hospital’s trauma unit was not only a centre of excellence, it was the main provider of emergency care for several hundred thousand people. Now he glanced round when his junior registrar, Gary Parr, came hurrying over to him.

‘Looks like your average day in the madhouse,’ he observed drolly.

‘And it’s about to get worse, by all accounts.’ Gary looked worried as he drew Seb aside. ‘We’ve just had the coastguard on the phone. Apparently, there’s a tanker adrift in the North Sea and it’s on course to hit one of the offshore gas platforms.’

‘Hell! What’s the tanker carrying?’ Seb demanded.

‘Some sort of chemicals, although they’re not sure exactly what yet. The coastguard is still trying to get the information out of the tanker’s owners and they aren’t being very co-operative, it seems.’

‘Does the coastguard think they might be able to head it off?’ Seb asked, frowning as he considered the implications of such a scenario. Obviously there would be casualties from both the tanker and the drilling rig if there was a collision, but that wasn’t his only concern. If there was a chemical spillage, it could spread for miles along the coastline and that would put many more people at risk.

‘There are tugs on their way to it but it doesn’t sound very hopeful.’ Gary grimaced. ‘The coastguard says there’s a storm brewing and it’s going to be a bad one, too. The guy I spoke to didn’t rate their chances of avoiding a collision very highly.’

‘In that case, we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario.’ Seb swung round and headed for the office. Gary followed him inside and closed the door.

‘You think it warrants major incident status?’ the younger doctor asked, going pale at the thought.

‘I think it’s worth putting everyone on standby,’ Seb told him firmly, picking up the phone. ‘The last thing we need is to be caught flat-footed.’

He dialled the major incident headquarters and asked to speak to the duty officer. He was put straight through, although he didn’t need to explain why he was phoning—the coastguard had beaten him to it. He nodded when the duty officer explained that an announcement was being prepared and that it would be aired over local radio within the next half-hour.

He hung up and opened the top drawer of the filing cabinet. He took out the file that contained the names of all the staff who were designated to work during a major incident and handed it to Gary.

‘Check who’s already here then make a list of the others so the switchboard can contact them, will you? I’ll go and tell everyone what’s happened and start winding things down in here. The last thing we need is a waiting room full of patients if we end up with a major emergency on our hands.’

‘What about the air ambulance service?’ Gary asked hurriedly as Seb made for the door. ‘Do I need to get in touch with them, too?’

‘You may as well, although they probably know about it by now.’ Seb turned and stared out of the window, sighing when he saw the black clouds that were massing overhead. ‘It looks as though it’s going to be a very long night.’

Friday: 4 p.m.

THE storm broke just as Libby was turning in through the gates of the hospital. Raindrops as big as golf balls struck the windscreen, forcing her to slow down to a crawl. She switched on the wipers to their fastest setting but even then they couldn’t cope with the deluge.

Rubbing the back of her hand over the glass to clear away the condensation that was forming on it, she peered out. There was a sign up ahead, directing her to the car park, so she cautiously headed in that direction, surprised by the size of the hospital complex. Seb had told her that a whole new wing had been built to house the trauma unit during the recent renovations but she’d not realised before just how impressive it was.

No wonder he’d wanted to work here, she thought as she searched for a parking place. He had always enjoyed being in the thick of things and thrived in a crowd, whereas she preferred to be with a small group of people whom she knew well. She frowned as she manoeuvred the car into an empty space. She’d never realised before how different they were in that respect.

She switched off the engine then found her umbrella. Opening the car door, she stepped out and gasped when the wind immediately tore the umbrella from her hand as soon as she tried to open it. It went bouncing across the car park, its spokes getting battered and broken as it was tumbled around. She sighed as she locked the car doors. There was no point going after it so she would just have to get soaked, although it was annoying when she’d wanted to appear totally in control when she saw Seb.

She made her way from the car park and followed the signs directing her to the trauma unit. Even though it was barely four o’clock, the light was fading fast. The storm was gathering momentum and she was relieved when she spotted the entrance up ahead. If the wind got any stronger, she doubted if she’d be able to stay on her feet and that would be the last straw—to turn up at Seb’s place of work covered in mud!

Libby hurried inside the building then paused to get her bearings. The reception desk was straight ahead with a large waiting area to the right. Rows of chairs were neatly lined up in there and there was a drinks machine in the corner next to a rack of magazines. The place looked exactly as she had expected it would do, apart from one major omission: there were no people.