Free Nursing The Doctor by Bobby Hutchinson Page A

herself feel pampered. And for the rest of her time off?
    Nothing spectacular came to mind, and she concluded that she wasn’t really good at holidays.
    The truth was, it would be a relief to get back to work on Monday morning.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
    By Monday afternoon Lily was both comfortable with and impressed by Dr. Joanne Duncan, the senior physician who’d taken over Greg’s position in the ER. She’d seen Dr. Duncan around St. Joe’s, but she’d never worked with her before.
    Dr. Duncan was attractive, somewhere in her early forties and had a curly head of premature white hair. The way she was dealing with the young girl she and Lily were presently treating, and the way she’d efficiently narrowed down the list of possible reasons for Maria’s symptoms illustrated her patience and compassion as well as her medical acumen.
    Her voice was soft and gentle, and she laid a comforting hand on the girl’s arm as she spoke.
    “We’ve tested the blood sample I drew from you earlier, Maria, and it definitely indicates a pregnancy.”
    “But I can’t be pregnant. My boyfriend and I never even did it,” the fourteen-year-old wailed.
    “I mean, we never, you know, he never really put it in me, so I can’t be, right? You guys don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. Your fancy tests are all garbage. Besides, what’s that got to do with this pain in my shoulder?”
    She glared at Lily and Dr. Duncan with coal-dark eyes that were both defiant and terrified.
    “Maria, I absolutely believe you when you say you and your friend didn’t have vaginal intercourse, but he probably ejaculated near the entrance to your vagina, right?”
    Maria flushed. Eyes downcast, she mumbled, “Maybe. Sometimes.”
    “Sperm are determined little creatures, and they’ve managed to swim up through the secretions in your vagina and impregnate one of your eggs. Now the reason you’re having such severe pain in that shoulder is because you have what we call an ectopic pregnancy, and shoulder pain sometimes goes along with that condition. That means that the fertilized ovum has implanted itself outside of the uterine cavity, which is here.”
    Dr. Duncan had taken the time to dig up an illustrated chart of the female reproductive system and was using it to illustrate her words. “Yours is in the fallopian tube, Maria, right about here, and that’s what’s causing the hemorrhaging. What we have to do is get it out of there, and in order to do that we have to operate. And I’m so sorry, dear, but we must have your parents’ consent for that.”
    “But my dad’ll kill me if he finds out,” the girl cried, bursting into tears. “Both of them will. My mom, too.”
    Joanne Duncan shook her head in emphatic denial. “No, they won’t. I’ll speak to them if you like. They’ll naturally be upset at first, but they love you, Maria. They want the best for you, and that means an operation as soon as possible. Now please, dear, give us your parents’ phone number. This procedure needs to be done right away.”
    Together, they soothed Maria as best they could, and in a few more moments, Lily was hurrying to the phone with the number Maria had reluctantly supplied.
    “Her mother’ll be here in half an hour,” Lily informed Dr. Duncan a few moments later. “Her husband’s at work. He’ll come down when he’s off shift.”
    “Good. We’ve got her blood cross-matched for possible transfusion, and the OR knows she’s coming up soon.”
    Just then there was a flurry of activity at the triage desk, and Lily and Dr. Duncan hurried over. A short man with a protruding belly, middle-aged and obviously in severe pain, had just vomited all over the desk. His skin had a distinct yellow tinge, and he moaned and clutched at his midsection as Lily and another nurse helped him into an examination cubicle.
    The clerk hadn’t had a chance to fill in the information form, so Lily asked questions as Dr. Duncan