Fiona Lowe - Australian Bachelors - Outback Heroes - Top-Notch Doc, Outback Bride / A Wedding in Warragurra / The Outback Doctor's Surprise Bride

He gave an inward grimace. Perhaps it was well and truly time to send Madeleine’s photograph back to her parents. No doubt they would find a space for it among the unopened wedding presents and uncut wedding cake.

He gave himself a mental shake and reached for his keys. ‘Let’s get moving,’ he said, and led the way out to his car.

THEY had barely travelled a kilometre or two on the way into town when Matt got a call on his mobile. Because he used his hands-free device to answer while he was driving, Kellie heard every word of the exchange.

‘Matt, there’s been an incident at Coolaroo Downs,’ a female voice said. ‘Apparently one of the jackaroos had some sort of altercation with a bull. I’m not sure how serious it is. You know what Joan Dennis is like these days—she panics if someone falls off a fence. It might be just a graze for all we know. The volunteer ambos are on their way but I thought you should see what gives before we call in the flying doctor.’

‘Thanks, Trish,’ Matt said. ‘I’ll head back that way now. I have the new GP with me but rather than drop her in to the clinic I think she’d better come with me just in case this is serious. Can you let the clinic patients know I might be half an hour or so late?’

‘Sure,’ Trish said. ‘So …’ An element of feminine intrigue entered her voice. ‘What’s she like?’

Matt tried to ignore the way Kellie’s toffee-brown gaze turned towards him. He couldn’t see it but he sure as hell could feel it. ‘She’s … er … with me right now,’ he said.

‘Yes, I know, that but what is she like?’ Trish probed. ‘Is she good-looking?’

‘All right, I guess,’ he said, wincing when he felt the laser burn of Kellie’s look.

‘All right as in what?’ Trish kept on at him. ‘As in girl-next-door or model material?’

Matt mentally rolled his eyes. ‘Somewhere in between,’ he answered, chancing a glance Kellie’s way and then wishing he hadn’t. Didn’t he know enough about women to know they all wanted to be considered the most beautiful woman that ever walked the planet? Not that Kellie wasn’t beautiful or anything. She was absolutely gorgeous now that he came to think about it. She had a natural elegance about her—in fact, he reckoned she’d look as fabulous in a slinky evening gown with full make-up and exotic perfume and glittering jewellery as she did in a ripped pair of running shorts with her hair limp with perspiration and her cheeks pink from exertion.

Ever since Matt had felt the slim slide of Kellie’s body down his that morning out by the fence, he had been having some very disturbing and rather erotic thoughts about her. But he didn’t like being manipulated and it seemed to him the whole town was conspiring to hook them up as a couple. When it came time for him to think about another relationship he would do it his way, the old-fashioned way, not because everyone felt sorry for him and had brought in their version of a mail-order bride.

Trish’s voice cut through his private thoughts. ‘So do you think you might ask her on a date or something?’ she asked.

‘Trish, I’m on hands-free here and Dr Thorne is hearing every word,’ he said, wishing he’d thought to say it earlier, like about three sentences back.

‘Oh … Well, then …’ Trish quickly recovered and added, ‘Hi, there, Dr Thorne. I’m Trish, the receptionist. We’ve been looking forward to having you join us.’

‘I’ve been looking forward to being here, too,’ Kellie said. ‘In fact, so much so I’m prepared to get my hands dirty straight away. Dr McNaught has asked me to start a few days early.’

‘Well, thank the Lord for that,’ Trish said. ‘We’ve been run off our feet while Matt was away on the weekend, and my husband David is supposed to be taking it easier these days. You’re just what this place needs—a bit of new blood and young and single and female to boot.’

‘Got to go, Trish,’ Matt said curtly. ‘Keep the phone line as free as you can until we see what gives.’

‘Will do,’ Trish promised, and promptly hung up.

Matt drove a few more kilometres down the seemingly endless road before he took a right turn into a property marked as Coolaroo Downs, the car rumbling over each of the cattle grids making Kellie rock from side to side in her seat.

He frowned as the cattle yards eventually came into view. ‘This looks a little more serious than I thought,’ he said. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, he added, ‘I hope to God the ambulance isn’t too far behind us.’

Kellie felt a tight knot of panic clutch at her insides as Matt parked the car a short distance from the small cluster of people hovering around the body of a young man lying on his back, a dark stain of blood spreading from his abdomen to the dusty ground beneath him.

Matt went round to the rear hatch to retrieve his emergency bag and drug pack. ‘Here, take this,’ he said, handing Kellie the drug pack, as they were met by Jack Dennis, the property owner.

‘It’s Brayden Harrison, our junior jackaroo,’ Jack said, his face pale beneath his leathery tan. ‘Didn’t see our stud bull coming straight for him. When he turned, he got gored and thrown into the air. It’s bad, Doc. I don’t think he’s going make it.’

From what Kellie could see, she thought Jack could be right, and sending a quick glance at Matt she could see he thought the same. Brayden was on his back, as white as a sheet and unconscious, hardly breathing. There was a large pool of dark blood still collecting by his side, coming from a wide slash in his abdomen, with a loop of bowel visible through the torn flannelette shirt.

Matt set his emergency pack down beside Brayden, and opened it out to reveal the colour-coded sections for trauma management. ‘Jack, has the air ambulance been called?’ he asked.

‘Yes, Joan called them soon after she called you, but they told her they were on another call to Roma.’

‘Have someone go up to the house and tell Joan to ask them to divert here now. There’s every chance this is going to be a fatality unless we can pull off a miracle here,’ Matt said. Turning to Kellie, he went on, ‘He’s in shock and unconscious. Put on gloves and goggles and come round to the side and stabilise his neck while I intubate him.’

Kellie held the neck steady, while Matt, now also with gloves and goggles on, gathered the laryngoscope and size 7 endotracheal tube. There was no suction, and the sun was bright, flooding out the light of the laryngoscope.

‘Jack, hold this space-blanket over his head to make it darker so I can see down his throat,’ Matt instructed with a calm confidence Kellie couldn’t help admiring.

Under the cover of the blanket, Matt inserted the endotracheal tube, inflated the cuff and attached the respirator bag. There was no oxygen, only air to ventilate with.

‘OK, I’ll ventilate while you fit a hard cervical collar, Kellie. They’re in the airway section,’ Matt instructed.

Kellie retrieved and fitted the collar, then under Matt’s instruction took over ventilation with the bag. Matt listened to the chest with his stethoscope, and then percussed the chest.

‘There’s very little air entry on the right and it’s dull to percussion. I’d say he’s got a haemothorax. He’s also losing a lot of blood from the abdominal wound.’

Taking a pair of scissors, Matt cut away the front of the patient’s shirt to reveal a ragged gash in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen, with a loop of bowel protruding and dark blood oozing out. Taking a pack of gauze dressings and a few ampoules of saline, Matt covered the bowel and compressed it back into the abdomen, then covered the whole wound with several large dressing packs and taped them down. He then inserted a 14-gauge cannula into a vein in the arm, and attached it to a litre bag of normal saline.