Chapter 99.
Arriving back inside the surgery he went and restocked his bag before sitting down to write his notes of the earlier events. He knew he'd be called to the inquest into the boy's death. He reflected on the treatment he'd given, such as it was, and couldn't see a way to be more effective. The chances were that even the air ambulance wouldn't have made a difference to the outcome.
He went into the kitchen for a glass of water. Louisa appeared in the doorway to see who was down there. When she saw him, he looked dejected and so she knew he'd had a tough time.
"What are you doing up? Are you and the baby alright?" he croaked.
"Just my imagination when I hear noise downstairs. What about you?"
Martin just shook his head. "I can't talk about it."
"OK. Well don't be long, I want a cuddle when you come up." She turned around and went back upstairs.
He finished his drink and then went around to make sure everything was locked up. Switching the lights out he went upstairs and thence for a shower. When he came back into the bedroom, Louisa was on her side facing away from his side of the bed. He climbed quietly into his side and then worked his way across to her, before wrapping his arms around her. She murmured something but he couldn't make out what it was. Instead he kissed her shoulder and put his arm on the baby bump. He was rewarded by a kick to his hand. Smiling, he sighed and was asleep in next to no time.
The alarm going off the next morning woke him up. He reached for Louisa, but she wasn't there. He raised himself and looked around. She was nowhere to be seen and he couldn't hear the shower running. He glanced across to the clock and saw it was 7:30! A whole hour later than he normally rallied. "Damn and blast!" he swore. She'd deliberately put his clock back. He went to the bathroom to ready himself for the day.
When he got downstairs his breakfast was laid out on the table together with a cup of espresso. She turned from the sink, "Morning Handsome! How are you today?"
"Louisa, I'd be better if my clock hadn't been altered," he grumbled. "You know I like to get prepared for my patients by reading through their notes before I see them." He sat at the table.
She went across behind him before wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "You were very late and I could see you'd had a hard time. An extra hour in bed won't do you any harm. I'll make sure the dishes are put in the washer and you can go straight to work, but not before I've had my kiss!"
"Hmf. Come here Beauty. He grasped her wrist and pulled her close to give her a thorough kiss. See? If I'd been up at my normal time, we might have been able to do something more than that."
"Welll, I'll just keep that in mind and hope you're not called out tonight." Her smile lit up the kitchen and he felt his pulse quicken.
"Yes."
"Eat your breakfast, and I'll see you before I go."
She went and put on her make-up, combed her hair and then returned to the kitchen. She put his dishes in the washer and then went to find him. Knocking on his door, she heard his "Come in" before she entered.
"I'm just off, Martin. I won't be home for lunch as I'm on yard duty."
"Right. I'll miss you. See you tonight." When she came closer, he kissed her goodbye.
Walking down the hill she had a smile on her face as she remembered his grumpy face when he came down. The ready breakfast had mollified him somewhat and the promise of a romp tonight would certainly help.
She arrived at school and went in. "Morning Pippa," she greeted her friend.
"Hi Louisa, how's things?"
"They're good, thanks. Even the thought of Y5 isn't causing me any stress."
Pippa laughed as she knew Louisa was just joking. As the bell went, they strode to their respective classrooms, to face the day.
When the lunch time bell went, Louisa gave a sigh of relief. She looked forward to being out in the open air for a while. She was paired with Madeleine Simpson, who took the year 7's. They began discussing the new computers and the new software which would be arriving soon. As they walked around, they ate their lunches and watched the children playing. Several of the boys were playing football while there was a group of girls skipping in the corner of the yard.
As Louisa watched them, remembering what fun it had been for her, when she was their age, one of the girls tripped over the rope and banged her head on the floor. She didn't immediately get up and as Louisa walked over to see her, she began twitching and shaking.
There was a scream from another girl as she watched Maisy thrash about. Louisa realised that Maisy was fitting and called to Madeleine, "take the children inside, while I call Martin."
She had his private number on speed dial and was soon talking to him. "Martin! One of the girls is having a fit, can you come straight away?"
"I'll be there shortly, in the meantime put something under her head to protect her from damaging it." With that he put the phone down before grabbing his bag and making his way swiftly to the school. As he moved along several tourists got shouted at, "Out of the way!" he called as he quickly went past them.
Reaching the schoolyard he saw Louisa kneeling next to a little girl who was still moving spasmodically. "Call an ambulance, Louisa, and then her parents."
Recognising the authoritative tone, she did what she'd been asked but knew she'd have to go inside to get the number.
Pippa came out to see what had happened so Louisa asked her to phone Maisy Taylor's parents, explaining an ambulance had been summoned. Pippa hurriedly went back inside to go to the secretary's office.
"What happened?" Martin looked at her as he checked the child over.
"Maisy was skipping when she tripped over the rope. She fell, hit her head and didn't get up. As I came across to her, she began fitting."
He had noticed the developing bruise on Maisy's forehead and the scrape on her hands as she'd tried to break her fall.
"Louisa, contact the ambulance service and see how long they'll be. Also are her parent's coming?" He helped her to her feet and watched as she left to go inside. She appeared none the worse after having sat on the floor for a while. Martin checked Maisy's breathing and noted that her fitting had stopped.
When Louisa entered the building, Pippa was hurrying towards her. "Contacted Maisy's mum. She said she would get hold of her dad and she would come straight away. What happened?"
Louisa outlined the events leading up to Martin being called and then went back out, phoning the ambulance service as she did so.
Reaching Martin's side she told him the ambulance would be another 20 minutes. "What's happened to her Martin?"
"There could be a number of explanations, but in order to investigate further she will have to go to hospital. She may be having an epileptic fit, or it might be the injury to her head which is causing this."
Louisa saw that he'd put Maisy into the "recovery position" that is, turned her onto her side whilst still cushioning her head, in order to assist her breathing. Her leg was out to her side to prevent her rolling over.
Louisa looked about her to see if Mrs Taylor was coming. She was biting her lip, something she tended to do when under stress.
At last Mrs Taylor came hurrying through the gate. "What's happened, why is she on the floor?"
"Mrs Taylor, Maisy has had a fit and we've called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. She will have a number of tests and they will determine just what has occurred. At the moment she has just had the one fit," he turned to Louisa, lifting his eyebrow in a mute question.
Louisa said "Yes, just the one, but it lasted more than a few minutes. The ambulance is now about 10 minutes away."
Martin resumed his talk with the mother. "She may be having an epileptic fit, or some other seizure brought on by the fall. Has she had a fit before? Or hit her head recently?"
"No Doc, she's always been healthy." Mrs Taylor looked very worried.
"As I say, at the moment I can't be sure just what has caused this, but after tests at the hospital, a more accurate diagnosis will be given."
They heard the wailing of the ambulance siren and eventually it arrived. The paramedics came across to see the casualty for themselves. "What we got here, then Doc?"
Martin outlined the scenario in more detailed language for them and one of the men went to get a stretcher. They were careful to put Maisy gently on it before taking it to the ambulance. "You can come too, Mrs Taylor." They invited Maisy's mum to accompany them on their way to hospital. "It will be better for her to have a familiar face around her rather than us," they explained.
As they were loading Maisy in, her dad turned up and rushed to see what was happening. The incident was quickly explained to him and he said he would follow in the car. "Thank you, Doc, Mrs Ellingham," he gratefully said.
Martin's crisp "Yes," and Louisa's hesitant smile showed their concern.
Martin returned to the surgery, realising he'd missed his lunch, so he got a glass of water and went to sit behind his desk and call for the next patient.
The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully. For Louisa as well, there were no further incidents. She filled out the report sheet as to what she'd seen and done. Added the fact that she'd called Doctor Ellingham who in turn had ordered an ambulance. She took the form to Mr Wallace who'd returned from a Governor's meeting.
He asked for a brief synopsis and nodded in approval at her actions. "I'll wait for the Doc's explanation of the hospital outcome before I close this report," he told Louisa.
Louisa returned to her classroom and resumed her afternoon schedule. She was glad when the end of day bell rang.
She did some shopping on the way home, but stuck to just light things so she didn't have to carry heavy bags. Once back in the kitchen she put the things away and made herself a drink.
"Only me," called Joan as she came in the back door.
"Hello Joan. How are you?"
"Pretty good. I'm feeling a lot better. Mind you, I had a decent night's sleep last night."
"Hm. Do you want some tea? I've just made it."
"I thought you'd never ask!" Joan smiled and sat down.
Louisa picked a cup and saucer from the dresser, and poured out a cup of tea. "Do you want a biscuit?"
"Better not, I don't want to upset the applecart, again."
"So, Joan. What's new?"
"Well, I found out that Mary Popple is expecting, at last! It's been at least 6 years since they got married, and I know they've been trying for some time."
"That's good news. When is it due?"
"End of November, early December. They are over the moon!"
"Yes, I was too. Mind you, I didn't expect it would be so quick." Louisa beamed.
Joan laughed, "Indeed. Took us all by surprise, that did."
"We had an incident at school, today. One of the girls tripped over the skipping rope, bashed her head on the ground, and went into a fit! I called Martin and he came straight away. She went off to hospital in the ambulance."
"Ohh, I bet that was frightening to see?"
"Yeah. Especially with some of the other girls screaming and making a fuss. I got them all sent inside while I called Martin."
They finished their drinks, and Joan left.