The Fling That Changed Everything

Besides...despite how focused he was on transferring a patient who was still critical and could potentially arrest again at any moment, there was a part of his mind that was aware of appreciating Lia being there.

It wasn’t due solely to the competence she’d displayed in handling an emergency situation and it certainly wasn’t because of some masculine instinct that simply enjoyed having an attractive female nearby. Maybe it was his better nature asserting itself and being prepared to give her a chance to prove his first impression wrong.

Or maybe it had something to do with that smile...

‘If I was at home, I’d be transporting to a facility that had a cath lab,’ Lia said as they manoeuvred the bed into the walkway. ‘Do you have the capacity to do angiography here?’

‘No,’ Ana told her. ‘We’ve got a lot of things that remote hospitals might dream of having, like a CT scanner, but a cath lab would be taking things a bit too far.’

‘So how do you treat your cardiac patients?’

‘We’ll take a twelve-lead ECG,’ Sam responded. ‘And a chest X-ray. We can check cardiac enzymes and we’ll administer thrombolysis if it’s indicated.’

The sound of a wolf-whistle made him blink but he ignored it.

‘As soon as we’ve got him stable enough, we’ll arrange a fixed-wing evacuation to a hospital on the mainland that can do angiography and angioplasty. Cardiac surgery, if that’s what’s needed.’

The wolf-whistle sounded again. Frowning, he looked up from the rhythm he was watching on the screen to see Lia reaching into the pocket of her cargo pants to pull out a mobile phone.

What the heck? Okay, she was still holding the patient’s mask in place with one hand but how inappropriate could you get? Had she even been listening to the response to her query?

She was actually texting as she stepped back to let the hospital staff position the bed and hook up the equipment they now had available. Any impression he’d had of Lia’s competence and professionalism was beginning to fade and maybe that was why he gave her the challenge of interpreting the ECG trace as soon as he’d put the chest leads on and printed it off.

He stepped close enough to hold the sheet of graph paper in front of her. ‘So what do you think?’

Lia jumped and her gaze jerked up from her phone but she still had it clutched in her hand as she turned her attention to the trace.

Her scanning was as rapid as his had been.

‘Hyperacute T waves, and there’s significant ST elevation in leads V3 to V5. Looks like a sizeable anterior infarction with lateral extension.’

He wanted to test her. ‘What about the bundle branch block?’

‘There is a left bundle branch block but the ST elevation is greater than you’d expect and we’ve got Q waves here...and here...’

He hadn’t noticed how delicate her fingers were before. Long and slim, with practical, unpainted nails and no rings. Her touch on the paper was light enough not to move it but he could feel the pressure transfer itself to his own fingertips.

‘And there’s some reciprocal changes in the inferior leads,’ Lia added. ‘It’s pretty conclusive.’

He should have been impressed. He might have even told her that except for the interruption of that damned wolf-whistle again.

Her cheeks went pink. ‘Oops, sorry. I meant to put that on silent.’

Sam glared at her. ‘Maybe you could save your personal messaging for out of work hours.’

‘I’ve got the bloods done.’ Ana had a handful of test tubes. ‘Some will have to go down to the lab but do you want me to do the benchtop cardiac biomarkers?’

‘I’ll do it.’ Sam turned away from Lia. ‘Set up the tenecteplase infusion, will you? And draw up some atropine. I’m not happy with his rate. It’s sinus but it’s too slow.’

A glance from the corner of his eye as he transferred some blood to the tiny, specialised tube that would slot into the sophisticated device he was now holding in his hand showed Sam that Lia was busy texting again. Maybe she already knew that they could measure things like troponin and creatinine kinase and myoglobin, which were all markers of whether someone was having a heart attack and how large it was, but surely she should be interested to know that she would have one of these units available in the helicopter she was about to start working in?

They hadn’t been cheap but, like a fair few other items here, they were important enough for Sam to have quietly provided them from his personal funds.

Not something he would want Lia—or others, for that matter—to know. Maybe it was better that she wasn’t showing any interest or asking awkward questions.

And at least she put her damned phone away when Jack’s pager sounded an alert.

‘Looks like we’ve got a call. Come on, Lia. I’ll show you how the radio system works.’

‘Holy heck...’ The straps of her harness tightened to hold Lia in the front seat of the helicopter as it fought the wind. ‘How far have we got to go?’

‘Only another five minutes.’ Jack’s voice was reassuringly calm inside her helmet but the sidelong glance he gave her was more concerned. ‘These are pretty marginal flying conditions. You okay?’

‘Are you kidding?’ Lia laughed aloud as they slewed sideways and rocked again. ‘I love it.’

The look she got now was impressed. ‘I’ve had a few guys in that seat who’d have white knuckles by now.’

‘How will we get to patients if it gets any worse than this? Do you think the cyclone’s going to be a direct hit?’

‘It’s looking more likely. We might well have a day or two when we can’t get airborne. If that’s the case, we use boats for the closer islands. How do you go in rough seas?’

Lia grinned. ‘I quite like them, too.’

Jack shook his head, silent for a moment as he focused on controlling his helicopter. The main island of Atangi was within sight now and Lia could see that it was far more populated than Wildfire. Somewhere in that cluster of buildings was the medical centre they were heading for after getting a call from the nurse who was working there.

‘I used to ride horses way back,’ Lia said. ‘What I loved most was a good cross-country course. Boats and aircraft in a bit of rough stuff is like competing in cross-country when you never know where the next jump is or how big it’s going to be.’

‘You still ride?’

‘No. It’s not exactly an affordable hobby. Besides...’ Lia let out a whoop as they were buffeted by some particularly big turbulence. ‘I get all the excitement I need these days from my job.’

‘Yeah...’ Jack was clearly in complete agreement. ‘Let’s get this baby on the ground and hope that our patient doesn’t get airsick on the way back. If she does, it’s your job to clean up.’

‘Don’t think so, mate.’ Lia was still grinning. ‘It’s your helicopter.’

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