Read Online A Proper Family Christmas by Chrissie Manby - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Chrissie Manby
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was little reason why they needed to be on alert. Thus the bottle of prosecco was followed by a bottle of red, so that when the phone call came, at three in the morning, neither one of them was in a fit state to drive.
‘It’s Kerry. Chloe’s mum. We’re at the hospital. Izzy’s been taken unwell.’
While they waited for a taxi, Annabel and Richard had plenty of time to sober up. Annabel kept in constant contact with Kerry Greenwood while Richard kept his line free for a call from one of the doctors at the hospital itself.
No one seemed to know for sure what had happened. Chloe Greenwood and the other two girls were fine. They’d got back to the tent after watching a band and found Izzy just lying there.
‘I just thought she was asleep at first,’ Chloe cried in the background while her mother talked to Annabel. ‘But then she started having a fit.’
Apparently, the St John Ambulance team covering the festival that weekend were on the scene within minutes. But whatever was ailing Izzy seemed to be beyond their capabilities. Izzy was hurried to the nearest general hospital.
‘Annabel,’ Kerry’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Jessica thinks that Izzy might have taken something. She thinks she had some sort of drug.’
‘Impossible,’ Annabel muttered as the cab sped them cross-country towards Northampton. ‘She wouldn’t do that. She promised she wouldn’t do that.’
Annabel refused to entertain the possibility that her daughter might have taken ecstasy even when they got to the hospital and were whisked straight to the ICU. She told the doctors who met them there that they were barking up the wrong tree. They should be testing for some kind of virus. Might not meningitis cause the symptoms Izzy was experiencing? Why weren’t they testing for that?
There was no time for a debate. The ICU team just stuck to protocol and went through their usual routines. Izzy was semi-conscious with a temperature of forty degrees. She’d had another series of convulsions in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Her heart rate was too high. The clinical team were working hard to establish some stability before anyone even started to think about how Izzy had got into such a state.
Annabel tried to get closer to her daughter.
‘You’re going to need to stay out of the way,’ she was told.
Thank goodness Richard was the kind of person who was calm under pressure. While Annabel made desperate phone calls to her mother and fielded other calls from Jessica and Gina’s mums, Richard had the difficult conversations with the doctors and filled out paperwork and gave signatures when asked. He refused to go down the ‘worst-case scenario’ route that always seemed to beckon to Annabel. Izzy would be fine. They just had to let the hospital staff do their jobs. They didn’t seem panicked so Richard and Annabel shouldn’t panic either.
Annabel got off the phone to her mother and fell sobbing into her husband’s arms. He stroked her hair.
‘She’s going to be all right,’ Richard said. ‘You know our little girl. She’s a fighter. She gets it from you.’
But they had a long night ahead of them.
Chapter Seventeen
The Buchanans
While Richard and Annabel could do nothing but wait, the medics battled to save Izzy’s life.
It had happened like this. After taking one of Saul’s tablets, Izzy had gone dancing. At first she felt exactly as Saul had promised she would, as though the volume had been turned up on the world. Music was louder; colours were brighter. She had never felt so happy to be alive. A little later Saul persuaded her to take another pill. And another. But the joy of Izzy’s first ecstasy experience was to be short-lived. Within an hour of taking the third dose, she’d suffered a rare reaction to one of the ingredients in the tablet. Perhaps the MDMA itself. Perhaps any one of a hundred contaminants the drug dealers had used to bring the cost of making the tablets down. Those pills
‘It’s Kerry. Chloe’s mum. We’re at the hospital. Izzy’s been taken unwell.’
While they waited for a taxi, Annabel and Richard had plenty of time to sober up. Annabel kept in constant contact with Kerry Greenwood while Richard kept his line free for a call from one of the doctors at the hospital itself.
No one seemed to know for sure what had happened. Chloe Greenwood and the other two girls were fine. They’d got back to the tent after watching a band and found Izzy just lying there.
‘I just thought she was asleep at first,’ Chloe cried in the background while her mother talked to Annabel. ‘But then she started having a fit.’
Apparently, the St John Ambulance team covering the festival that weekend were on the scene within minutes. But whatever was ailing Izzy seemed to be beyond their capabilities. Izzy was hurried to the nearest general hospital.
‘Annabel,’ Kerry’s voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Jessica thinks that Izzy might have taken something. She thinks she had some sort of drug.’
‘Impossible,’ Annabel muttered as the cab sped them cross-country towards Northampton. ‘She wouldn’t do that. She promised she wouldn’t do that.’
Annabel refused to entertain the possibility that her daughter might have taken ecstasy even when they got to the hospital and were whisked straight to the ICU. She told the doctors who met them there that they were barking up the wrong tree. They should be testing for some kind of virus. Might not meningitis cause the symptoms Izzy was experiencing? Why weren’t they testing for that?
There was no time for a debate. The ICU team just stuck to protocol and went through their usual routines. Izzy was semi-conscious with a temperature of forty degrees. She’d had another series of convulsions in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Her heart rate was too high. The clinical team were working hard to establish some stability before anyone even started to think about how Izzy had got into such a state.
Annabel tried to get closer to her daughter.
‘You’re going to need to stay out of the way,’ she was told.
Thank goodness Richard was the kind of person who was calm under pressure. While Annabel made desperate phone calls to her mother and fielded other calls from Jessica and Gina’s mums, Richard had the difficult conversations with the doctors and filled out paperwork and gave signatures when asked. He refused to go down the ‘worst-case scenario’ route that always seemed to beckon to Annabel. Izzy would be fine. They just had to let the hospital staff do their jobs. They didn’t seem panicked so Richard and Annabel shouldn’t panic either.
Annabel got off the phone to her mother and fell sobbing into her husband’s arms. He stroked her hair.
‘She’s going to be all right,’ Richard said. ‘You know our little girl. She’s a fighter. She gets it from you.’
But they had a long night ahead of them.
Chapter Seventeen
The Buchanans
While Richard and Annabel could do nothing but wait, the medics battled to save Izzy’s life.
It had happened like this. After taking one of Saul’s tablets, Izzy had gone dancing. At first she felt exactly as Saul had promised she would, as though the volume had been turned up on the world. Music was louder; colours were brighter. She had never felt so happy to be alive. A little later Saul persuaded her to take another pill. And another. But the joy of Izzy’s first ecstasy experience was to be short-lived. Within an hour of taking the third dose, she’d suffered a rare reaction to one of the ingredients in the tablet. Perhaps the MDMA itself. Perhaps any one of a hundred contaminants the drug dealers had used to bring the cost of making the tablets down. Those pills
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