Chapter 21: Outermost Limits
Christian changed into his jeans he had in his locker along with the denim shirt. It wasn't as hip as the suits he used to wear, but he didn't want to look too out of place in the small town hospital where he had been working over the last couple of weeks. As he was walking down the hallway toward the exit he waved so long to some fellow doctors and nurses just starting their shifts and he went out the big double doors of the hospital heading for his car out in the lot, also not even half as flashy than the one he used to drive back in Miami, just so he could blend in. He wasn't going to hide out forever, oh no, but if this was supposed to be one of his tricks Abby suggested he should use to get Kimber back, so be it. The only obstacle in the way of pretending to be just an ordinary surgeon was the manager who hired him as the old, conservative grandpa did hear about the reputation of McNamara Troy and had no trouble trusting his expertise in the surgical field, but was rather concerned about the reasons of a hot shot winding up in such a job, well above the average, but nowhere near to what he used to earn. Christian had cashed on his other kind of reputation with women and told Mr. Hamlin he wanted a fresh start from women who would jump on him just because of the way he looks. With that not so well given answer he had to pull out Abby's reference letter she wrote about Dr. Troy's helpfulness in India as an emergency surgeon, proof that he did recently meet all kinds of patients, not just the ones that wanted plastic surgery. He never though it would be so hard to conform to small town expectations for a respectable doctor, but finally there he was, exhaused after the long shift he was never used to at his own practice, not even when Sean was having one of his midlife crisises, just so that the same Mr. Hamlin, nicknamed paper pusher downstairs, could call him back.
"Dr. Troy!" The moderately overweight baldhead moved his legs as fast as he could, making Chirstian turn back and intercept him with half running steps as to make sure the manager didn't overexercise himself all of a sudden and ended up with a heart attack. "What was the last time you performed a C section?"
"About fifteen years ago, before I finished my specialisation. Why?"
"Well, I hope you remember it well," Mr. Hamlin took a hold of his arm and virtually pulled him back into the building, "you have met Dr. Norton, our consultant obstetrician. He's in surgery doing the same for triplets. You have to believe me, this never happens, in a rural area like this where young people move away we hardly have any babies, let alone two emergencies at the same time. Thing is, you have to handle our second one. The mother, one of the pilars of our community, a teacher, is in the ambulance on the way here right now."
"Yes, and can she not be airlifted some place people know exactly what to do?"
"It's life threatening as it is. You still don't understand what your job description was? Did you not read it? It's handling surgical emergencies! Any kind! I hired you as you have got the qualifications! Are you able to handle it or not?"
"Can you tell me what the reason for the emergency is?" Christian asked, annoyed. Although the doctors had specific areas where they usually worked, the hospital expected them to help out where it was neccesary, especially true for surgeons. Out of hours duties were also very common, the community had to use all the resources it had, as the manager said, it wasn't a very popular thing to live out in the country, but those who consciosly chose it, did it with all their hearts.
"Ella will let you know all you need while you scrub in. She'll be better at it than I am," Mr. Hamlin smiled at a middle aged nurse waiting for them in the reception area, one he met a few times before.
"Mrs. Walker is a thirtyone year old practiced mum, this would be her fourth child, all were normal delivery before so she actually rolled in our program of home deliveries. Fivemiles is out in the middle of real nowhere there anyway. But our midwife thinks there are symptoms of fetal distress, baseline fetal heartrate unstable 100-120."
"Dropped since then," the midwife intercepted just arriving rolling in the patient just as Christian barely managed to clean his hands, "she's fully dilated with caput at +1, but not advancing."
"There's no time for a section," Christian said hesitantly, looking at the midwife for confirmation. As he didn't see anybody objecting he added, "we're going to attempt vacuum delivery," immediately spotted the suction cap placed on a tray next to him as a precautionary tool for the delivery and placed on the baby's head.
It was when an unmoving, blue baby covered with vernix slid out into his hands a moment later, along with the pool of blood indicating that the mother needed emergency surgery anyway, that he panicked.
Tbc