his catheter up from Tamsin's groin through her heart and injected dye through each of the arteries supplying her heart in turn. Annabel talked Tamsin through the procedure and the pictures on the monitor above her head. When the problem became clear she looked quickly at Luke, acknowledged his nod, then motioned for a nurse to come and sit in her place.
The surgeon answered his bleeper immediately. 'Simon, it's Annabel Stuart,' she said urgently. 'She's dissected her left anterior descending,' she explained, meaning that the lining of the artery supplying part of Tamsin's heart had torn so that blood was now flowing down uselessly inside the wall of the vessel rather than though its central lumen. The condition was critical because, firstly, it meant that insufficient blood was reaching the heart muscle to keep it alive, hence Tamsin's heart attack, and, secondly, because the vessel could rupture at any moment and that would be fatal.
'Two minutes,' Simon told her tightly.
He was quicker than that and as soon as he saw the pictures he agreed to take Tamsin immediately to Theatre. Tamsin was drowsy from her pain relief and sedation but she seemed to understand the surgeon's explanation. As soon as Luke had withdrawn his catheter and applied pressure to her wound, the theatre porters transferred her to a theatre trolley and began wheeling her away.
'I'll explain to Tamsin's husband and bring him up to Theatres,' Annabel told Luke, leaving him and the nurses to accompany Tamsin. 'M ward's just rung to say he's waiting on the ward.'
Craig Winston, waiting in Tamsin's room on M, looked very young and obviously distraught. 'A heart attack?' he echoed thickly. ' A heart attack? But Tamsin's twenty-three. No one in her family's ever had heart trouble. How could this happen?'
'It's rare but this sort of damage to a blood vessel can happen sometimes after having a baby.' Annabel hurried him ahead of her and towards the stairs, rather than waiting for the lift, in the hope that they'd be in time for him to see his wife for a few seconds before her surgery.
'But she was fine yesterday.'
Annabel sent him a sympathetic look as they rushed down the stairs. 'It's all happened very quickly. There's very rarely any warning with this condition. What's good is that she's made it to hospital in time to be treated.'
'This operation,' he said sickly as she opened the door and directed him out onto the lower floor. 'Is it open heart?'
Annabel nodded. 'Mr Rawlings will want to do bypass surgery and that's open-heart surgery, yes. He'll probably take a blood vessel from either Tamsin's arm, leg or chest and transplant it to replace the artery that's torn.'
She ushered him towards the main doors into Theatres. There were clean gowns on a hook outside and she grabbed one for herself and passed him one to cover his clothes. Tamsin and the nurse looking after her were just inside the main entrance, one of the theatre nurses still busy checking through the paperwork and confirming Tamsin's identity with the details on her hospital bracelet.
Craig rushed past Annabel to embrace his wife and the couple had a few moments together before Tamsin had to be transferred into the operating theatre. Annabel put her arm around Craig's back, showed him gently through to the waiting area and sat with him for a little while, answering his questions.
When he seemed marginally more settled she fetched him a pot of tea from the adjacent kitchen and arranged for one of the theatre receptionists to keep a check on him and let Simon Rawlings know he was waiting so he could talk to him at the end of the operation.
She ran back downstairs to X-Ray, intent now on exchanging her theatre clothes for her normal clothes again, intending to make good use of the hour she still had left by getting some of her paperwork done. She was almost back at the changing room when one of the department's radiologists called out to her from his office at the far end of the
The surgeon answered his bleeper immediately. 'Simon, it's Annabel Stuart,' she said urgently. 'She's dissected her left anterior descending,' she explained, meaning that the lining of the artery supplying part of Tamsin's heart had torn so that blood was now flowing down uselessly inside the wall of the vessel rather than though its central lumen. The condition was critical because, firstly, it meant that insufficient blood was reaching the heart muscle to keep it alive, hence Tamsin's heart attack, and, secondly, because the vessel could rupture at any moment and that would be fatal.
'Two minutes,' Simon told her tightly.
He was quicker than that and as soon as he saw the pictures he agreed to take Tamsin immediately to Theatre. Tamsin was drowsy from her pain relief and sedation but she seemed to understand the surgeon's explanation. As soon as Luke had withdrawn his catheter and applied pressure to her wound, the theatre porters transferred her to a theatre trolley and began wheeling her away.
'I'll explain to Tamsin's husband and bring him up to Theatres,' Annabel told Luke, leaving him and the nurses to accompany Tamsin. 'M ward's just rung to say he's waiting on the ward.'
Craig Winston, waiting in Tamsin's room on M, looked very young and obviously distraught. 'A heart attack?' he echoed thickly. ' A heart attack? But Tamsin's twenty-three. No one in her family's ever had heart trouble. How could this happen?'
'It's rare but this sort of damage to a blood vessel can happen sometimes after having a baby.' Annabel hurried him ahead of her and towards the stairs, rather than waiting for the lift, in the hope that they'd be in time for him to see his wife for a few seconds before her surgery.
'But she was fine yesterday.'
Annabel sent him a sympathetic look as they rushed down the stairs. 'It's all happened very quickly. There's very rarely any warning with this condition. What's good is that she's made it to hospital in time to be treated.'
'This operation,' he said sickly as she opened the door and directed him out onto the lower floor. 'Is it open heart?'
Annabel nodded. 'Mr Rawlings will want to do bypass surgery and that's open-heart surgery, yes. He'll probably take a blood vessel from either Tamsin's arm, leg or chest and transplant it to replace the artery that's torn.'
She ushered him towards the main doors into Theatres. There were clean gowns on a hook outside and she grabbed one for herself and passed him one to cover his clothes. Tamsin and the nurse looking after her were just inside the main entrance, one of the theatre nurses still busy checking through the paperwork and confirming Tamsin's identity with the details on her hospital bracelet.
Craig rushed past Annabel to embrace his wife and the couple had a few moments together before Tamsin had to be transferred into the operating theatre. Annabel put her arm around Craig's back, showed him gently through to the waiting area and sat with him for a little while, answering his questions.
When he seemed marginally more settled she fetched him a pot of tea from the adjacent kitchen and arranged for one of the theatre receptionists to keep a check on him and let Simon Rawlings know he was waiting so he could talk to him at the end of the operation.
She ran back downstairs to X-Ray, intent now on exchanging her theatre clothes for her normal clothes again, intending to make good use of the hour she still had left by getting some of her paperwork done. She was almost back at the changing room when one of the department's radiologists called out to her from his office at the far end of the
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