Read Online MIRACLE ON KAIMOTU ISLAND/ALWAYS THE HERO by Marion Lennox - Free Book Online Page A

She was just...thinking about everything, as she always did.
    And then the phone rang.
    She answered it before Button could wake up.
    ‘Ginny?’
    Ben’s voice did things to her. It always had.
    No.
    ‘Ben?’
    ‘Ginny, I need you. Henry has a ruptured stomach ulcer. He’s been bleeding for hours. There’s no time to evacuate him to the mainland. Mum and Hannah are on their way to your place now to take care of Button. The minute they get there I need you to come. Please.’
    And that was that.
    No choice.
    She should say no, she thought desperately. She should tell him she’d made the decision not to practise medicine.
    Not possible.
    Henry.
    ‘I’ll come.’
    ‘Ginny?’
    ‘Yes?
    ‘How are you at anaesthetics?’
    ‘That’s what I am,’ she said, and then corrected herself. ‘That’s what I was. An anaesthetist.’
    There was a moment’s stunned silence. Then... ‘Praise be,’ Ben said simply. ‘I’ll have everything ready. Let’s see if we can pull off a miracle.’
    * * *
    Henry needed a miracle. He’d been bleeding for hours.
    Ginny walked into Theatre, took one look and her heart sank. She’d seen enough patients who’d bled out to know she was looking at someone who was close.
    Ben had already set up IV lines, saline, plasma.
    ‘I’ve cross-matched,’ he said as she walked through the door. ‘Thank God he’s O-positive. We have enough.’
    There was no time for personal. That one glance at Henry had told her there was hardly time for anything.
    She moved to the sink to scrub, her eyes roving around the small theatre as she washed. He had everything at the ready. A middle-aged nurse was setting up equipment—Margy? Abby was there, slashing away clothing.
    Ben had Henry’s hand.
    ‘Ginny’s here,’ he told him, and Ginny wondered if the old man was conscious enough to take it in. ‘Your Ginny.’
    ‘My Ginny,’ he whispered, and he reached out and touched her arm.
    ‘I’m here for you,’ she told him, stooping so she was sure he’d hear. ‘I’m here for you, Henry. You know I’m a doctor. I’m an anaesthetist and I’m about to give you a something to send you to sleep. We need to do something about that pain. Ben and I are planning on fixing you, Henry, so is it okay if you go to sleep now?’
    ‘Yes,’ Henry whispered. ‘You and Ben...I always thought you’d be a pair. Who’d a thought... You and Ben...’
    And he drifted into unconsciousness.
    * * *
    She was an anaesthetist. Who’d a thought? Henry’s words echoed through Ben’s head as he worked and it was like a mantra.
    Who’d a thought? A trained anaesthetist, right here when he needed her most.
    Ben had done his first part of surgery before he’d returned to the island. It had seemed sensible—this place was remote and bad things happened fast. He’d also spent an intense six months delivering babies, but if he’d tried to train in every specialty he’d never have got back to Kaimotu.
    Catherine had had basic anaesthetic training, as had the old doctor she’d replaced. For cases needing higher skills they’d depended on phone links with specialists on the mainland. It hadn’t been perfect but it had been the best they could do.
    Now, as he watched Ginny gently reassure Henry, as he watched her check dosage, slip the anaesthetic into the IV line he’d set up, as he watched her seamlessly turn to the breathing apparatus, checking the drips as she went to make sure there was no blockage in the lines, he thought... He thought Henry might just have a chance.
    Henry had deteriorated since Ben had phoned Ginny. By the time Ginny had walked into Theatre he’d thought he’d lose him. Now...
    ‘Go,’ Ginny said, with a tight, professional nod, and she went back to monitoring breathing, checking flow, keeping this old man alive, while Ben...
    Ben exposed and sutured an ulcer?
    It sounded easy. It wasn’t.
    He was trained in surgery but he didn’t do it every day. He operated but he took his time, but now