Susan Carlisle - A Forever Family - Their Miracle Child

Her shift began at two. There was handover and she was informed of a new airlifted baby from Melbourne who would be in her care. She hadn’t been named yet so they referred to her as Baby Morey.

‘There was no alternative, considering they were short of incubators in Melbourne. The hospitals over there had a whole run of prem deliveries within a few days. They’re grateful the Eastern Memorial could accept her,’ Mandy told Jade as they neared the incubator. ‘She’s tiny but a fighter.’

‘Why didn’t the parents travel with the infant?’

‘The mother delivered her via Caesarean after a car accident,’ Mandy told Jade as they neared the incubator. ‘I saw the report that arrived. Four-car pile-up on the Tullamarine Freeway near the airport.’

‘Are the parents all right? Did they survive?’ Jade’s voice suddenly became shaky as her hands hovered nervously. She prayed they were both alive, she didn’t want to hear anything else. Déjà vu instantly made her skin crawl and her stomach knot.

‘They’re both stable and off the critical list. Her mother has a hairline fracture of her collarbone, a punctured lung and, of course, the postnatal effects of the Caesarean birth, and Cara’s father has damage to his vertebrae and a fractured hip. He’s in Spinal Injuries.’

Jade swallowed hard. The infant they were attending had entered the world the same way Amber had three years previously. The time peeled away in an instant as she looked at the baby lying innocently in the incubator, completely unaware of what had happened, all the while holding tenuously to her own life. But she did still have her parents. However injured they were, they would pull through and be a part of her life. Jade was happy for the little girl.

Mandy left Jade as she needed to tend to another tiny patient. NICU was at capacity, with all of the nursing staff, including Mandy, rushed off their feet. Jade was grateful the other nurse hadn’t had time to notice the tears welling in her eyes. Amber’s fight to stay alive and the battle her parents had lost hit home at lightning speed and brought emotions rushing to the surface.

‘The paediatrician had noted suspected respiratory distress, causing cyanosis, but I wasn’t convinced and I ran some additional tests,’ Mitchell told a small group of medical students as he approached the new arrival and Jade. ‘The bluish discoloration of the skin and nail beds would indicate respiratory distress but the degree of cyanosis was not proportional to what was shown in the X-rays that accompanied the baby from Melbourne. And it has not been decreasing with increased inspired oxygen and the tests quickly confirmed congestive heart failure.’

He then turned his attention to Jade. ‘Nurse Grant, can you move Baby Morey to a radiant heat warmer within the next fifteen minutes so we can maintain her body temperature?’

‘Certainly,’ Jade replied, trying to blink away the tears before they ran down her cheeks and anyone noticed them.

But Mitchell did. He noticed everything about Jade, even though he didn’t want to. He decided to release the students, who had been with him for most of the morning and were due to end their time in NICU. They looked exhausted and no doubt had information overload, which he suggested might be abated by a coffee in the cafeteria.

As the students left, he called another nurse to take over. ‘I need to speak with Nurse Grant for a moment but in her absence I want both cardiorespiratory and oxygen saturation monitoring and I’m prescribing digoxin. Dosages are in the notes and I want close observation until Nurse Grant returns.’

Jade had turned to walk away. She didn’t want to be confronted about her reaction. She didn’t want or need his concern.

‘Nurse Grant, please come with me for a moment.’ He kept his professional tone in front of the others then gently took her arm and directed her to a small office nearby used by consultants and residents when they needed to speak with parents in private. He closed the door and turned to her.

‘Jade, what’s wrong?’ he asked, releasing her from his firm hold but not the intensity of his gaze.

‘Nothing,’ she lied, and blinked even harder as she tried to look anywhere but at Mitchell. ‘I’m fine.’

‘You’re anything but fine.’

‘I’ll be okay. I don’t want special treatment.’ She looked up, and his expression wasn’t what she had been expecting. It wasn’t judgmental. It was empathetic and real and etched into every part of his face. And it suddenly and unexpectedly allowed her to give in to her feelings. Tears that had built up for so long began streaming down her face.

She hadn’t cried since the funeral. Her feelings had been bottled up inside. She had been strong because she’d felt she’d had no other choice. There was no one for her to lean on while she was Amber’s only support.

‘You’re so far from okay.’ Without hesitation, he reached out, put his arm around her and pulled her into his arms, and she didn’t pull away.

‘Is it Amber?’ He murmured the question as he gently stroked her hair. ‘Are you worried about her?’

Jade knew as the moments passed that, as much as it felt good to have a man’s arms around her, she couldn’t stay there for ever. And particularly not in Mitchell’s arms. He wouldn’t be there for ever; neither would she. It was crazy to let him into her heart. She slowly moved from his embrace and a place that had made her feel safe, if only for a moment.

‘Amber’s fine, honestly, Mitchell …’ She hesitated for a minute to gather her thoughts and put any growing feelings for him away. ‘It was the new arrival in NICU. The baby was delivered by C-section after a motor vehicle accident … and it just brought everything back. I have to toughen up. I’m working on it.’

Mitchell didn’t want Jade to toughen up at all. She didn’t need additional walls. He wanted more than anything to break down the ones she had. She might not be his usual fun-loving, easygoing type but suddenly he wondered if just a casual good time was enough any more. Being around Jade for the past few days, even putting Amber to bed and all it entailed, had not been the chore he had imagined. He had enjoyed every minute of that special time with his niece and with Jade.

His type was fast becoming a cute Californian girl with a pixie cut and the dress sense of someone’s maiden aunt but the soul and depth of no one he had ever met before.

‘The best nurses are those with empathy and compassion,’ he told her as she turned to face him. ‘You have both. Don’t hide what is inside you.’

Jade didn’t want to meet his gaze. She wanted to pull herself together and face the job outside. ‘I need to get back to work. We’re short enough on staff, let alone with me sitting in here, snivelling. I’m being self-indulgent and silly.’

‘You’re not being either, so take a minute,’ he continued. ‘And when you’re ready, head back out. If you prefer, I will switch your patient roster.’

Jade took a deep breath and gently shook her head. ‘I want to stay with my patient. I really do.’

‘It’s your call, if you’re up to it.’

‘I am,’ she said, crossing to the door, feeling the need to put space between them. He was much too appealing on a whole other level now. It wouldn’t just be his smouldering looks that would make it difficult. Now that Jade knew he had a heart, and a level of compassion and empathy she hadn’t thought he possessed, it would make it that much more difficult to be around him. But that wasn’t his problem. It was hers.

Jade walked back into NCIU and straight to her patient. Mitchell followed behind her. He admired her dedication and compassion, and although he wished she had taken some time out, he respected her wishes and acted accordingly.