Bumps and Bruises

The ambulance jostled me all the way to Truro, as the medic kept pushing the oxygen mask back onto my face. Each time he did, I pulled it aside so I could speak to Louisa, riding in the back with us.

The medics had tried to bar the way, but Louisa exploded. "I am his FIANCE!" she let out, waving my grandmother's ring in their faces. "I AM GOING WITH HIM!"

How here we are, where I did not want to be, in this white draped room – the Emergency Room of Truro Hospital. I wanted to be home in the village of Port Wenn with Louisa, my Louisa.

The emergency medicine resident looked into my eyes again with a brilliant lamp. "Hm," she hummed and she went on. "Hm… hm… yes, uhm, hm…"

I pulled the oxygen mask off my face and looked her in the eye, although the bright lights of the exam bay made my smoke tortured eyes sting. "Doctor…" I looked down at her name badge, "Dr. Frost. If you say hm, one more time…" I cleared my very sore throat. "I will be forced to…"

"Oh, don't mind him, doctor," interrupted Louisa. "He gets very grumpy when he's not feeling well. Martin, behave!"

The young blonde doctor looked at Louisa. "You're his?"

"Fiancé."

"So you understand him better than anyone." She said as a statement.

Louisa gave me a funny look and her voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. Over the hiss of the oxygen set I heard her say, "He's not a very good patient either, and no, I don't understand everything about him, not really…"

I started to protest but a nurse clamped the mask back on. This older lady looked hard at me. "Now, listen, Doctor Ellingham! You are here because you have suffered smoke inhalation. Now rest easy or I will be forced to use restraints!" She tucked the sheets in about me then patted my hand. "It's always the doctors who make the worst patients. Well take good care of you," she added with softness.

I sneered at her and her smile turned into a snarl.

"Ahem, now, Doctor Ellingham," began the resident. "It appears that you have a mild concussion, this blow to the head – she pointed to the lump on my forehead – started the fall."

"Fall?" I questioned through the mask.

"Yes, Martin," butted in Louisa. "We had just sat down at Large's for dinner. I'd started on my wine, you had water of course, when we heard Bert calling for help."

"And I went into…" I answered through the hissing mask.

"Yes you did. Seems Bert had been passing through the kitchen to mend a pipe and saw us seated. When he accidentally knocked over his blow torch, or so he told me, he called out for you. He said 'I knew Louisa, that Doc Martin, would come a runnin' if I called him!'"

The doctor asked, "And then he rammed his head into a door frame?"

"That's what we think. There's a good chunk of his hair stuck in the door frame at the restaurant. Well you can see he's pretty tall."

"Hm… and these contusions here and here," the doctor pointed to my shoulder and chest, skimpily covered by the hospital gown, "Look like you flew down those stairs on your chest. This one," now she touched my chin, is where you hit the basement floor."

I touched my face gingerly, remembering an automotive air bag going off in my face. "Hm, but…"

"Now you're saying hm, doctor?" Doctor Frost teased me.

Louisa laughed. "Sorry Martin," she added when she saw my face.

I glared at all three women in the room. "Why don't you finish your exam now, so I can go home?" I told her testily.

Doctor Frost looked at Louisa. "Engaged? Your funeral… Ok, so the head bump, fell, concussion, skidded down the stairs and then?"

"Well, started Louisa. "Bert Large, that's the plumber, well the restaurant owner, says that as the flames spread, Martin threw him to the floor and pushed him over to the stairs, both of them crawling along below the smoke."

"Ah…" Doctor Frost looked at the blood oximeter instrument, measuring my blood gases. "Your oxygen levels are nearing normal. The beds of your finger nails have pinked up nicely and we can't find any fractures or injuries." She crossed her arms and her tone became directive. "Now, I think you should stay overnight and perhaps we can discharge you tomorrow. There may be some memory lapses with this concussion – X-rays showed no fractures – but a headache and so forth are usual with this type of injury. You will have some shortness of breath until your lungs recover. But all indications are that your lungs are not damaged permanently."

"NO!" I shouted, starting another cough. "I won't spend the night here. Louisa, get me out of here!"

Louisa put her hand on my arm. "Now Martin, I think you should listen to Doctor Frost."

"NO! I am leaving. If I have no acute or life threatening injuries, I am leaving!" I started to rip off the monitoring instruments and sat up. The room spun but I kept moving.

The nurse shook her head as she stomped away. "Always the doctors – the worst patients, ever!"

Louisa looked at the resident and I saw her roll her eyes at me.