Luke and Alice were walking through the ED.
"Morning." A voice behind them said.
They turned to see that it was Nick Jordan. Nick was the new clinical need in the ED. Much to the disappointment of both Adam and Zoe who had both applied for the job. They both put their stuff in their lockers and got to work. Luke's first patient of the day was a young boy.
"Hiya buddy. I'm Luke and this is Ruth and Kelsey. What's your name?"
"My name is Noah."
"That's a cool name." Luke said as he sat down next to him.
"I'm Jennifer, his mum."
Luke did some basic observations.
"Ok. Nothing is shouting out as serious at the moment but obviously we'll some tests just make sure that its nothing underlying that I can't detect at the moment." Luke smiled.
"Thank you, doctor."
Luke and Ruth walked out of the cubicle and pulled the curtain around.
"What next, Dr Winters."
Ruth listed off some tests that she thought would be beneficial to finding out what was up with Noah.
"Good. Come and find me when you get the results back."
"Yeah no worries." Ruth said walking away to order the tests.
Luke was walking through the ED, when he saw Dixie filling out some paperwork at the nurses station.
"Dixie. Good to see you mate."
Luke hugged Dixie.
"Oh its good to see you too." She replied.
Luke could tell that she was trying to act braver and stronger than she really was.
"How are you doing?" Luke asked.
"As well as can be expected considering. I hear you did a pretty good job saving her."
"Yeah well it was a team effort."
"Stop being so humble. You got a promotion off the back of that evening. You need to give yourself more credit than you're really worth."
"Thanks mate. It's good to have you back."
Luke hugged Dixie before walking off again and getting back to work.
Toby heard Zoe call out.
"Hey anyone. I need some help."
"She's probably just broken a nail." Jess sarcastically commented.
"Nah it's bound to be something more important than that, come on." Toby replied pulling on a pair of gloves.
Jess and Toby found themselves in the upstairs ladies' toilet. There was an unconscious lady sat on the toilet, Zoe was checking her over.
"This is Alison and this about to give birth on the toilet floor. The prospect of gas and air for her weren't tempting enough for her because she self-medicated herself on smack. I think she might have overdosed."
"How long has she been like this?" Jess asked taking over from Zoe.
"A couple of minutes."
"Found a pulse." Jess smiled.
Toby turned around to see Zoe packing her bag.
"Hey we could do with a bit of help."
"I finished my shift 20 minutes ago." Zoe picked up her bag and walked out.
"Right ok. Let's get her on the floor and check her airway. Might lose mum and child."
Toby and Jess got her on to a trolley and out of the toilet and down to resus. As they were walking through Toby got hold of Luke to assist.
"Right this is Alison, she is a drug addict and is about to give birth." Jess told Luke.
"Ok let's try and wake her up and deliver this baby and hope its not too late." Luke said as they moved Alison across and on to a bed. "Where did they find her?"
"Upstairs in the toilet." Toby told him.
"Lovely."
Luke worked to get Alison ready for delivering her baby. When she was ready, Luke began to deliver.
"Ok. Baby's out cut the cord and start bagging her. We might already be too late."
"We got her here as quick as we could." Toby said.
"I'm saying its your fault mate. Just saying it's the best start to a baby's life. You've got the mum ok.
Luke went over to help Jess with getting baby breathing. He watched nervously as Jess tried to clear the baby's throat. Then suddenly, she started to cry.
"Ok, she could still deteriorate fast so let's get special care down here just to make sure but well done guys." Luke smiled.
Just at that moment, Ruth came rushing into resus.
"It's Noah. Something's up."
Luke pulled his gloves and ran with to Noah.
"Dr Stone, what's happening to him?" Jennifer asked crying.
"I don't know."
"My body hurts." Noah cried.
"Ok part of your body Noah, your chest or your tummy."
"My chest."
Noah then turned to face his mum.
"Woah, look at his jugular."
Ruth pointed to the vein on Noah's neck and it was huge. Luke got out his stethoscope and listened to Noah's chest.
"Muffled chest sounds."
"Beck's triad." Ruth said.
"Yeah I think you're right. We need to move him into resus now."
"They haven't got space." Kelsey said as she hung up the phone.
"Damn. How long?"
"I don't know."
Then Noah's heart monitor began to beep.
"He's in P.E.A. He's bleeding into the bag around his heart. Kelsey get back on to the phone and get me a bed. I need to evacuate the blood from around his heart."
"Hold on they just got freed up a bed." Kelsey said.
"I don't have time. He's going to have died before we even get there."
Luke got a syringe and put it in to Noah's chest. The beeping on Noah's heart monitor increased.
"Damnit I hit the heart."
"Stop!" Jennifer called out. "You're hurting my son. Someone stop him."
"Get her out of here." Luke called out in replied.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Luke began to pull the syringe out and the blood came with it. The beeping got worse. Then it normalised. Noah was back into a steady sinus rhythm. Then a paediatric cardiologist came in to take Noah away.
"Mediastinal haemorrhage. I attempted pericardiocentesis and saw PVCs."
"You hit his heart with a needle?" The cardiologist asked.
"I backed it out and evacuated as much blood as possible."
"Well let's hope you haven't killed him in the process."
Jennifer glared at Luke as she followed her son. Luke took a deep breath. Adam came in.
"Don't worry about him mate. He's so full of himself. Wife's finally leaving him as well. From what I saw you made the right decision."
"Thanks Adam."
It was coming to the end of his shift when he heard a voice call out.
"Luke! Ruth!"
Both of them turned around to see who it was. It was Nick.
"Which of you put a needle in a girl's heart?" He asked.
They both looked at each other.
"My office. Now."
They both walked in to Nick's office and stood in front of his desk.
"Tell me what happened."
"Noah's heart rate was worsening and I did what I had to do it."
"It was the right decision." Ruth backed up Luke.
"Dr Shay disagrees." Nick took a deep breath. "Dr Stone you are very lucky that Miss Wallace doesn't want to pursue this any further. But what you did was incredibly dangerous and could have resulted in the death of a child. Now get out of here."
Ruth and Luke left Nick's office. They both looked at each other and just broke out in smiles and started to laugh when they were a suitable distance away from his office.
"What's tickled you two?" Alice asked.
"Oh nothing." Luke said whilst trying to catch his breath.
Alice shook her head and linked her arm through Luke's.
"Come on you." Alice begun. "You promised me and Maisie dinner and cinema tonight."
"See you later." Luke said to Ruth whilst Alice waved.
"Have fun." Ruth replied before walking into the staff room.
