Playing the Playboy's Sweetheart by Carol Marinelli Page A

witches around the cauldron, waiting for the show to begin, and at the end of her first week in the dreaded accident and emergency, they got what they wanted.
    Gina and Emily face to face.
    ‘Hannah Bailey.’ The paramedics rushed in an elderly lady who had collapsed with chest pain. The other staff were working on a cyclist who had been hit by a car and Emily knew that this patient was hers.
    Hannah was gravely ill and Emily took the handover as she connected the chest and ECG leads and Duncan, a resident, came over and examined her.
    ‘Let’s get her something for her pain,’ Duncan said as he read the ECG, and ordered morphine, which Emily quickly drew up.
    ‘You’ll be much more comfortable soon,’ Emily said to the elderly lady, and for a little while she was.
    ‘My husband...’ Hannah said. ‘He’ll be worried.’
    ‘We’ll take care of that,’ Emily said. ‘I’ll go and speak to your daughter soon. The paramedics said she came in with you...’
    Hannah nodded but even before the monitor started alarming, Duncan told Emily to call for the crash team and just as they started to arrive Hannah went into cardiac arrest.
    ‘What do we have?’ Gina came straight to the head of the bed and Emily didn’t even look up to acknowledge her as she was busy setting up for Gina to intubate her. As Duncan delivered cardiac massage he gave Gina his findings.
    Gina and Emily had worked together for years and, more importantly, worked well together so there was little need for conversation. Emily opened up an endotracheal tube as Gina suctioned the airway and then handed it to her, and in less than a moment the tube was in.
    Cardiology had arrived and were reading the ECG that Emily had run off before Hannah had gone into cardiac arrest, and Lydia had come in and taken over from Duncan and was giving chest compressions.
    ‘Did she have any family with her?’ Lydia asked.
    ‘A daughter,’ Emily said, relaying what the paramedics had told her. ‘She’s in the interview room.’
    ‘Could you go and speak to her, please, Emily? Let her know that things don’t look good at all.’
    ‘Sure,’ Emily said, though she would far rather be delivering chest compressions than going in to speak with relatives.
    Emily introduced herself to the woman and found out her name was Laura and asked what had happened.
    ‘We were actually on our way here,’ Laura explained. ‘I’d gone to pick up Mum to take her to visit my dad—he’s a patient on ICU. Mum’s been so worried about him. We were just ten minutes away from the hospital when suddenly she said she had a pain in her chest. I didn’t know whether to just keep on driving or pull over but she started to be sick so I stopped and called an ambulance.’
    ‘You did the right thing,’ Emily said, and then took a breath. ‘Your mum’s condition deteriorated rapidly when she arrived,’ Emily explained. ‘She went into cardiac arrest. The doctors are with her now and she’s been intubated and they’re working on getting her heart started again.’
    ‘What am I going to tell my dad? They were just moving him to a general ward today, she’s been so worried about him.’ Laura started to cry. ‘This is going to kill Dad.’
    ‘What’s your father’s first name?’ Emily asked.
    ‘Ernest.’
    ‘Did he have surgery for bowel cancer?’ Emily asked, because she wanted to be sure she had the right patient in mind, and she was sure that she did when Laura nodded.
    ‘He didn’t even want to have the operation, he just did it for Mum.’
    ‘I remember your dad,’ Emily said. ‘I was working in Theatre when he had his operation. He was very keen to know when he’d get a cup of tea.’
    Laura actually gave a small laugh. ‘That’s my dad.’ Then she started to cry again. ‘I don’t know how to tell him. I don’t know if he’s well enough to come down and see her but he’ll want to.’
    ‘Okay.’ Emily thought for a moment. ‘Let me go and see what’s