Patient Nurse by Diana Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

brains?” she ventured, and smiled. “Come on. We’ve got treatments to give and lunch on the way, and doctors about to make rounds. Let’s get this show on the road.”
    â€œAfter you,” he said with a flourish.
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    A female valve patient was brought up to the ward an hour before Noreen was due to go off duty. She supervised the porters as they got the woman to bed, and then connected the oxygen and the drip, checking the chart for any other medications that the surgeon had ordered. This was one of Ramon’s patients. She knew the signature scrawled on the white form.
    The woman’s eyes opened. She looked white and sick and frightened.
    Noreen put a hand on her forehead and gently stroked her gray hair back from the clammy skin. “You’re on the cardiac ward. We’re going to take wonderful care of you. I’m Noreen. If you need anything at all, just push this button.” She guided the woman’s thin fingers to the button on the bed rail. “Okay?”
    â€œDry,” the woman croaked. “So…dry.”
    â€œDo you have any family to stay with you?” Noreen asked.
    â€œNobody,” came the wan reply. Her eyes closed on a sigh. “Nobody…in the world.”
    Noreen’s heart ached for the poor soul. That’s how she felt, and this was how she was going to be after surgery, too—all alone without even a friend to sit and hold her hand. She was going to have her surgery in Macon, to be sure that Ramon knew nothing about it. So even Brad wouldn’t be there to sit with her. It was a sobering thought.
    â€œI’ll get you some ice,” she promised the woman. “It will help a little. You’re due for medication, too. I’ll bring that back with me.”
    â€œThank you,” the woman whispered hoarsely.
    â€œIt’s my job,” she replied with a gentle smile. “Back in a jiffy.”
    She went to the ice machine and found one of the other patient’s wives there filling a bucket.
    â€œI’m superfluous,” she told Noreen with a weary grin. “He can pour his own juice and get his own ice now, so I’m just company in between television programs.”
    Noreen’s eyes twinkled. “I don’t suppose you’d like to feed cracked ice to the new patient down the hall from you? She has no family and she’s dying of thirst.”
    â€œI’d love to” came the reply. “Poor soul. There are so many of us in my family that we had volunteers for every hour of the day, but Saul just wants us to stop bothering him so that he can watch his soap operas.” She chuckled. “You don’t know what a joy it is to see him sitting up in bed and smiling again. I thought we were going to lose him.”
    â€œHe’s tough. I’m glad he came through. Mrs. Charles would be very grateful for any time you could spare to sit with her.”
    â€œI’d love to. It will give me something to do with all my spare time.”
    They filled ice buckets and Noreen took her in to introduce her to the elderly woman. They struck up an immediate friendship, as well.
    Noreen went back to the circular nurses’ station that she shared with the other people on her shift, pausing long enough to sip some coffee while she keyed the vital information about Mrs. Charles into the computer.
    Brad paused beside her chair. “Should you be ingesting all that caffeine?” he asked so that only she could hear.
    She grimaced. “I didn’t think. No, I probably shouldn’t.”
    â€œYou need looking after, honey child,” he teased, and laid a big hand on her shoulder as he smiled down at her.
    Ramon, coming onto the ward, saw the way Brad was leaning over Noreen, saw the smile and the familiarity of that hand on her shoulder. Fury shot through him.
    He stopped in front of the nurses’ station and glared at Noreen, who noticed him belatedly and stopped