Susan Carlisle - A Forever Family - Their Miracle Child

‘Thirty-four weeks, so not critical, but there are two babies to consider. If you have your flight nurse ready I’ll bring a neonatal nurse with midwifery experience.’ Mitchell knew exactly whom he would take on the trip. He had spied her scrubbing in for her shift.

‘We can transport the three of you.’

‘Good, as I said, thirty-four weeks is not critical but twins can mean smaller babies so if there are complications I would prefer to have additional hands on board. Please let the pilot know I will arrange ambulance transportation to the airport straight away. ETA fifteen minutes.’

Mitchell hung up the phone and, looking around the NICU, quickly found Jade. With long, purposeful strides he crossed to her just as she was about to take Costa’s obs.

‘I need you to come with me. It’s urgent.’ He signalled Alli to come and take over Costa’s care from Jade.

Jade didn’t doubt for a second by the tone of Mitchell’s voice and the look on his face that it was something serious. His brow was knitted and his jaw rigid as he spoke.

‘I need you to walk as we talk,’ he said, leading her from NICU. ‘I want you to travel with me to the Outback, to near a small town in the central Flinders Ranges. It’s called Blinman and it’s about an hour’s flight from here. We have premature labour with twins and the town has no medical facilities. The woman was on a camping retreat with her husband and friends when her waters broke.’

‘Why me?’

‘Because you have both neonatal and midwifery skills and you have just scrubbed in, so you are fresh,’ he replied matter-of-factly. ‘Alli and Laura have some midwifery behind them but they are about an hour from finishing long shifts. They’re tired and you’re better placed to help.’

They had reached the doors of the hospital and the ambulance bay at a ridiculously fast pace.

‘But what about Amber?’

‘She won’t even know you’ve gone with me. It will be just over an hour’s flight time and by the sound of it the babies are close to being born so we will be back by dinner at the latest and I’ll let you knock off and go home the moment we get back. You’re not due to finish until late so you’ll be home earlier than usual.’

‘Isn’t there a flight nurse and doctor on board already?’

‘No, just a flight nurse. She will meet us at the airport. This is still deemed a high-risk delivery and there is enough room in the emergency retrieval aircraft for a three-person medical team, the mother and two portable cribs According to the RFDS, the mother is not fully dilated but well on the way so I’m thinking maybe four hours all up. Your shift has only just begun so we should return in plenty of time for you to get home to kiss Amber goodnight. I’ll text home and let them know we’re both in the air and we’ll be back in a few hours.’

‘Why would an expectant mother head to the bush? What was out in the middle of nowhere?’ Jade asked as she and Mitchell climbed into the ambulance.

‘Sounds like eastern suburbs hippies, doing yoga and meditation for a week,’ he returned with a roll of his eyes. ‘Eastern suburbs means nothing to you, I know, but basically they are well educated, financially secure people who head to the bush to centre themselves once or twice a year. I have nothing against it but travelling over rough terrain probably wasn’t the best idea. It may or may not have brought about the early labour but it’s happened and she’s in trouble. Last antenatal check, twin two was still breech.’

‘She’s definitely going to need our help, then,’ Jade replied.

They arrived at the plane fifteen minutes later. The pilot warned them of bad weather rolling in from a tropical storm in the northeast, bringing a high chance of turbulence. He had exchanged intermittent radio contact with the patient’s partner, Jeremy, on the ground as his mobile service coverage wasn’t great and the storm-clouds were interfering. He would be making his way to the nearest makeshift airstrip. The flight nurse had ascertained that the woman was coping with the pain, she was as comfortable as could be expected in a tent and had another female companion with her. Then radio contact had been lost.

‘Emma Kingston,’ the flight nurse introduced herself as she boarded and buckled up.

‘Mitchell Forrester, neonatologist, Eastern Memorial.’

‘Jade Grant, neonatal nurse.’

‘And midwife,’ Mitchell added, with a sense of pride for the woman sitting beside him.

‘Good to have you both on board,’ Emma said as she looked over the notes that had been sent to her phone and handed them to Jade and Mitchell to read. ‘Twins, one breech, in a bush delivery will be challenging.’

‘What are the biggest risks in your opinion?’ Mitchell asked Jade as they became airborne.

‘I have concerns with the safety of natural breech delivery and we obviously can’t perform a C-section. Natural birth requires at least the first foetus to be cephalic, which I’m noting here was the case at the last antenatal visit, but if the first baby is anything but this then a natural delivery is unsafe.’

‘The RFDS operator said her obstetrician is confident that hasn’t changed,’ Mitchell told her.

‘Then we just have the normal issues after the first infant is delivered. With the cervix still wide open, the umbilical cord can make its way down and this can be dangerous for the remaining foetus. Then there’s the risk that if the uterus shrinks rapidly with the delivery of the first twin, then the placenta can separate. As I said before, there’s always a small risk with twin delivery of the need for a C-section for the second twin, and we won’t have that option in the bush.’

Mitchell considered Jade’s concerns for a moment. ‘Then let’s hope for everyone’s sake that the birth is straightforward as I want both babies out ASAP.’

Emma nodded her reply. She had been a flight nurse for over fifteen years with the RFDS but twins in remote areas was a worry. Not wanting to overthink the situation, she slipped on her headphones, pulled out some reports and began reading and making revisions.

The increasing cloud cover made it a bumpy flight and a little nerve-racking for Jade. Each pocket of air that lifted and dropped the small plane sent Jade’s stomach into a tailspin. Her heart was beating at an alarming rate but she did her best to mask her concern.

‘Are you okay?’ Mitchell asked when he heard the sudden intake of air by Jade. ‘I thought this would be a piece of cake compared to the long-haul.’

‘Not a huge lover of small aircraft,’ she said, still trying to control her emotions.

Emma was engaged in her paperwork and didn’t seem perturbed by it at all. But there was more to it for Jade. She really didn’t want to discuss her recently acquired fear of nearly everything with a man who had daredevil on his résumé. He would never understand her love of thrills had flown out the window when Amber had arrived. She wasn’t scared for her own sake. It was the thought of Amber losing another person from her life that scared Jade to the core. No one deserved to experience loss the way Amber had without even being aware yet of what had been taken. One day she would understand more fully and Jade wanted to be there in one piece to help her though that realisation.

‘We’ll be fine. This weather might seem frightening to you but not to the pilot, who will be very experienced,’ his deep but still silky-smooth voice reassured her. Mitchell looked at Jade and realised that what he had deemed slight turbulence was really unnerving her. His bedside manner kicked in and he changed the subject. ‘How about you tell me why you chose the noble profession of neonatal nursing and midwifery and then I will bore you with why I became a neonatologist.’