That she must have been crazy to think she would ever get over Daniel. ‘I’m thinking that it might not be a virus.’ Yanking her mind back to her work, Stella gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘I’m probably overreacting.’
‘I’ve never known you overreact.’ His voice was soft. ‘I have known you see things other people miss.’
Stella was silenced by the praise. Thrown, it took her a moment to focus. ‘She’s had this headache for a while,’ she croaked, looking past him down the corridor rather than at his face. ‘Yesterday her husband and the kids were sick—’
‘They saw their GP?’
‘Yes, and he said virus. Gastroenteritis.’
‘Sounds reasonable. There’s plenty of it going around.’
‘Yes.’ Stella rubbed her fingers over her forehead and sighed. ‘I’m definitely overreacting. If one member of the family has it then it’s perfectly reasonable for the whole family to go down.’
Daniel’s gaze was fixed on her face. ‘Why are you worried?’
‘Because when she left the house this morning she couldn’t wake her kids or her husband. She thought they were just tired, but—’
‘Are you telling me you think it might be carbon monoxide poisoning?’
‘I hope not. I—I’m sure it isn’t,’ Stella stammered, suddenly feeling foolish. ‘If it was just her husband who was tired, I wouldn’t have been worried, but it’s a bit odd not being able to wake a child who is normally bouncing around thinking of Christmas, don’t you think?’
‘How hard did she try?’
‘I don’t know.’ Stella waved her hand. ‘Will you take a look at her? See what you think? If there’s a chance I might be right, we should call the police and the paramedics.’ It occurred to her that she trusted his judgement implicitly. Whatever their differences, she’d never doubted his abilities as a doctor.
Daniel stared at her for a moment, his expression inscrutable. Then he turned and strode into the cubicle. ‘Diane? I’m Daniel Buchannan, one of the consultants here. Tell me about your headache.’ He questioned the woman as he examined her, his eyes sharp and attentive as he listened to the history and took some blood samples. ‘And the other members of you family had nausea, vomiting and headache?’
‘Yes,’ she groaned, closing her eyes. ‘I did wonder if it was something we’d eaten, but the GP said there is a gastric bug going around.’
‘Her sats are fine,’ Stella murmured, looking at the monitor.
‘The saturation level equals the sum of oxyhaemaglobin and carboxyhaemoglobin, so it’s unreliable. It isn’t going to tell us what we want to know,’ Daniel murmured. ‘I want to give her the highest concentration of oxygen possible—use a rebreathing mask. I want to check her COHb levels. And let’s do an ECG. Diane…’ Daniel turned back to the patient ‘…I don’t think this is a virus. I agree with Stella—I think you might have carbon monoxide poisoning.’
The woman looked at him blankly. ‘What?’
‘There’s been quite a lot about it in the papers. It’s a tasteless, odourless gas—it basically lowers the oxygen-carrying capacity of your blood. What sort of heating do you have at home?’
‘We’re in a rented flat,’ Diane gasped. ‘We have a gas fire in the living room. We tend to congregate there to save on heating bills. Do you think—?’
‘I suspect that the fire might be a problem.’
‘Oh, my God—the kids are in the house.’ Panic flaring in her eyes, Diane struggled to sit up. ‘My husband—’
‘We’re going to deal with it, Diane. Right now. Lie down and think about yourself for a moment.’ Her tone soothing, Stella put the oxygen mask on the anxious woman, adjusted the flow to maximum and then looked at Daniel. ‘Do you want me to call the house?’
‘I’ll do it. You do that ECG.’
Stella attached the leads to Diane’s chest and had just switched the machine on when Daniel strode back into the room.
‘Diane, there was no reply from your house,’ he said gently, ‘so I’ve called the fire brigade and the paramedics. It’s just a precaution, but if we’re right, we need to get the rest of your family in here as soon as possible.’
Diane’s eyes were bright with tears. ‘I had no idea! I just left them. I thought they were asleep!’
‘We’re getting someone round there now, Diane,’ Stella said soothingly, but Diane just shook her head. ‘What if it’s too late?’
Daniel’s mobile rang and he answered it swiftly, giving instructions to the paramedics.
‘They’re at the door now and there’s no answer—is there a key anywhere?’