CAROL MARINELLI - Australian Affairs - Tempted - Tempted by Dr. Morales

‘Her name’s Elsie Delaney,’ the on-call nurse explained. ‘We had the doctor in to see Elsie last night for her cough and she was started on antibiotics for a chest infection. When I went to check on her this morning, she didn’t look well and finally admitted she had chest pain. She’s very independent and didn’t want me to call you, of course.’

‘Hi, Elsie!’ Matthew walked in first and greeted the patient.

‘What are all of you doing here?’ came an irritated voice as the room started to fill up.

‘You’re getting the works today, Elsie,’ Louise said. ‘We had a doctor and nurse already with us, so that’s why there are so many of us.’

The bedroom was as full of furniture as the rest of the house and, with Juan walking in front of Cate and his shoulders taking up most of the doorframe, it took a moment before Cate glimpsed Elsie.

She was tiny, sitting up in bed, her straggly white hair held back with a large, jewelled hair clip. She had a pink shawl around her shoulders and was wearing an elaborate necklace, and on her gnarled fingers were several rings.

She looked absolutely gorgeous, but she was wary and disgruntled and complained as Louise and Matthew did obs and attached her to a monitor while Juan slipped in an IV.

‘I’m feeling much better,’ she kept protesting.

Really, they weren’t needed at all. Cate and Juan were completely supernumerary as Louise and Matthew had it all under control. They soon had a heart tracing and were giving Elsie some medication for pain and, despite having said she had little pain, as it took effect she lay back on the pillow. Elsie finally agreed that, yes, they could take her to hospital.

‘Are there any family for us to inform?’

‘She has a daughter, Maria, who lives nearby,’ the nurse said, and spoke then to Elsie, ‘I’ll ring Maria and let her know what’s happening.’

‘She’ll be very disappointed that I’m only sick and not dead,’ Elsie said. ‘It’s the truth!’ Elsie turned to Cate and winked, and Cate found herself smothering a smile. ‘Does Maria even have to know that I’m going to hospital?’ Elsie asked.

‘Of course she does, Elsie!’ the nurse answered. ‘And you’re wrong, Maria will be ever so worried.’

Elsie gave a huff to indicate that she doubted it. ‘I’m not going out on a stretcher,’ Elsie said.

‘Fine.’ Louise smiled. ‘I’ll go and get the chair.’

‘Do you want to leave your jewellery here?’ Cate suggested, knowing that one of the first things that would happen when they got to Emergency was that they would take it all off and lock it up in the safe. But Elsie wasn’t going anywhere without her finery.

‘And I want my photo album too…’ She pointed to a shelf and Juan went over to fetch it.

‘You might only be there a few hours,’ the nurse pointed out.

‘Then I’ll have something to look at while I’m waiting,’ Elsie retorted.

‘Where’s this, Elsie?’ Juan asked, pointing to a picture in a frame where a younger Elsie was smiling into the camera against a stunning backdrop of houses and a glimpse of the ocean behind her.

‘Menton,’ Elsie said. The medication wasn’t stopping her from talking! ‘They call it the pearl of France. Have you been?’

‘To France, yes,’ Juan said. ‘To Menton, no, but I want to now!’ They chatted about it even as she was loaded into the ambulance and transferred from the chair to the stretcher. She was in a seated position for comfort and she and Juan chatted all the way to Bayside.

‘I was there for six months,’ Elsie said. ‘Then I went back, oh, ten years ago now and it’s still just as lovely.’ She looked at Juan. ‘Are you Spanish?’

‘I’m from Argentina.’

‘Well, I’ll try not to hold it against you,’ she said, and Juan laughed. Elsie peered at him for a while, slowly looking at his hair and then down to his boots before looking at Cate.

‘He’s a good-looking one, isn’t he?’ Elsie said.

‘You just caught him at a good time,’ Cate answered back.

‘That’s what I’m here for,’ Juan responded, and Cate felt her cheeks burn a little, because a good time was all that he was here for—and she would do very well to remember that fact.

‘So you don’t live in Australia?’ Elsie asked him.

‘No,’ Juan said. ‘I am here for a working holiday.’

Elsie frowned for a while before speaking. ‘You’re a bit old for all that, aren’t you?’ And for the second time since meeting Elsie, Cate found herself suppressing a smile. Elsie was funny and wise and old enough to say what she liked and not care what others thought.

‘Never too old, Elsie,’ Juan said. ‘Surely you know that?’

For the first time since their arrival it was Elsie smiling—at Juan. ‘You’re a charmer, aren’t you?’

‘Am I charming you, Elsie?’ Juan smiled back.

Of course he was.

Christine didn’t seem too impressed when they arrived back at the department. ‘Finally, the wanderers return!’ And she wasn’t too pleased to have been forced out of her office during Cate’s absence. ‘I’m going to go and do some work now,’ Christine said. ‘There are incident forms to fill in. I don’t want to leave them for you.’

‘Sure,’ Cate said, as Christine handed over the drug keys to her.

‘She’s a sour one!’ Elsie muttered, as she was moved over onto a gurney.

Cate made no comment. ‘I’m just going to go find you a gown,’ she said to Elsie when she realised that there wasn’t one. Now, that was one thing that was going to change when she was in charge. Cate really hated it when the cubicles were not properly tidied and stocked.

‘Can’t I just wear my nightdress?’ Elsie grumbled, but Cate explained that she would need to take off her bra and necklace as the doctor would probably order a chest X-ray.

First, though, Cate did a routine set of obs and then headed off in search of the elusive gown. The linen trolley was void of them—the staff from the wards were always coming down and pinching linen from the emergency trolley and so Cate often hid a few pieces as soon as they were delivered. She went to her secret stash in the storeroom, where she kept a few gowns hidden behind the burn packs.

The phone was ringing as she made her way back and, with the ward clerk not around, Cate took the call—it was Maria, Elsie’s daughter.

‘She only just arrived in the department,’ Cate explained. ‘The doctor should be in with her soon.’

‘She’s talking?’ Maria checked.

‘Oh, yes!’ Cate smiled, because Elsie hadn’t stopped talking since she had laid eyes on her. ‘Should I tell her that you’re coming in?’

‘No, no,’ Maria said. ‘I’ll call back later this afternoon to see what’s happening. It doesn’t sound as if it is anything too serious. I don’t know why they called an ambulance.’

‘She developed chest pain,’ Cate said. ‘I’m quite sure it was more severe than even Elsie was letting on, though she’s very comfortable now.’

‘Still, I think an ambulance is taking things a bit far. We don’t want any heroics.’

Cate blinked for a moment at the matter-of-fact way Maria addressed a rather sensitive issue. ‘Is that something that has already been discussed?’ Cate asked carefully. ‘Does your mother have a DNR order?’

‘No, but at her age surely we should just let nature take its course?’

Cate continued the difficult conversation, explaining that Elsie was lucid and comfortable and that it was something Elsie could discuss with the doctor if she saw fit. ‘Is there any message that you’d like me to pass on to your mother?’ Cate asked.

‘Just tell her that I’ll call back later,’ Maria said, and then rang off.