Fields of Blue Flax by Sue Lawrence Read Free Book Online Page B

be sharing with Nurse Myles.’ She rang the bell and turned round once more to gaze out over the water.

 
    Chapter Nine
    2014
    Christine and Gerry walked into the relatives’ room in intensive care in silence. The walls in the windowless room were bare except for a notice above the sink about hand washing and hygiene. Four chairs were arranged around a coffee table, which had nothing on it apart from a box of tissues. Christine sat down, staring at the one white tissue poking out from the top; inert, it looked like a sail on a flat calm sea. She chewed at her nails, thinking there was nothing calm about the way she felt.
    Gerry sat down next to her. ‘How long did the doctor say she’d be?’
    Christine looked at her watch. ‘Half an hour, but that was over an hour ago, so it must be soon.’
    ‘He’s going to be fine, you know,’ Gerry said.
    ‘We don’t know, Gerry, we just don’t know.’ Christine grabbed the tissue and blew her nose.
    ‘Do you think they’ll let Anna up here later?’
    ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure that’s a good idea.’ Christine balled up the tissue and flung it at the bin. She slumped back into her chair. ‘What did Doug say?’
    ‘Just that they’d be down in a flash if we needed them.’
    ‘But you didn’t tell them to drive down, did you?’
    ‘No, calm down. I said to wait until we had more news. I’ll phone him again after the doctor’s been. You still not ready to phone Mags?’
    She shook her head. ‘Not sure I’ll be able to hold it together on the phone.’
    ‘Okay, I’ll do the phoning. What about Charlie?’
    ‘Help, no. The least of our worries is telling Dad. We can let him know later, once everything’s fine. Don’t want to bother him yet.’ She looked at her watch again. ‘I can’t stand the waiting.’
    Gerry took her hand in both of his and held it tight. ‘I know, but it’ll all be fine, you’ll see.’
    The door burst open and Doctor Ali strode in, looking grave. ‘Sorry to have kept you waiting again.’ She was followed by a tall man with a closely shaven head. ‘This is Staff Nurse Yates.’
    ‘What’s happening?’ Christine cried out. ‘Why can’t we see him?’
    Doctor Ali sat down opposite them. ‘When Jack came in to us he was in a pretty bad way; I’m told he had to be cut out of the car. The air ambulance team intubated him and he’s been in an induced coma ever since.’
    Her beeper went off but she ignored it.
    ‘I wanted to do a CT scan to check for head injuries which would be consistent with the large gash and swelling on his forehead. We found there was diffuse axonal injury but only mild, which is surprising given the nature of the impact that must have caused the laceration on his forehead.’
    Gerry coughed and lifted his hand. Christine glared at him.
    ‘Doctor Ali, I’m sorry to interrupt, but this might be important. Anna was telling me earlier that Jack sustained an injury last night at rugby training. She said he had a big gash on his head and she was worried he might need stitches. He said it was nothing though, and that he wasn’t concussed or anything. He didn’t tell us on the phone lastnight as Christine would’ve just worried.’
    Dr Ali nodded. ‘Well, that makes sense. Had his injury occurred during the RTA, his head injuries would have been more severe.’
    ‘RTA?’
    ‘Road traffic accident, Mrs Wallace.’ She looked at her watch. ‘Well, that’s encouraging news. And his seatbelt burns imply that his seatbelt was functioning. Perhaps the jolt brought on repeat concussion and opened up the wound.’
    ‘Doctor Ali,’ whispered Christine, ‘he’ll be all right, won’t he?’
    ‘The signs aren’t as bad as we thought now. We were worried mainly about his head injury, which doesn’t seem to be as serious as we’d feared. There’s no internal bleeding. We’re looking into injuries to his pelvis, which we think has been fractured or broken. Do you want to see him before we take him