‘There’s a great dress shop right on the quay,’ Hannah said helpfully as they walked through the department. ‘You should be able to find something to wow him.’
A slow smile spread across Louisa’s face. ‘I might just do that.’
‘At least you’ve got someone to lust after,’ Hannah said gloomily. ‘I’ve given up finding anyone that makes my pulse race. The way I’m going, I’ll be stuck working on my own in A and E until I’m ninety.’
At that moment the doors to the ambulance bay crashed open behind them and a young man ran in, carrying a child in his arms. ‘Help me! She’s choking!’ He looked round, worry etched on his features, and then he spotted Louisa. ‘She can’t breathe—do something!
Louisa took one look at the child. ‘Quick—bring her into Resus. Hannah—call Mac.’ She took the child from the father and quickly knelt on the floor, laying the child over her knees with her head lower than her back. ‘What’s her name?’
‘Poppy.’ The father jammed his fingers through his hair, his eyes wild with panic as he looked at his child. ‘Is she going to die?’
‘Try and calm down,’ Louisa urged gently, delivering five sharp blows to the child’s back while her thighs supported the child. ‘Poppy? Poppy, I want you to cough—that’s it. Good girl. Do you have any idea what she swallowed?’
‘No.’ The father shook his head, sucking in air in an effort to gain control. ‘One minute she was playing with her toys on the carpet and the next she made a weird sound and started choking.’
The doors to Resus swung open and Mac strode in with Hannah. ‘What’s happening?’
‘Choking on a foreign body,’ Louisa said quickly, ‘she’s still breathing and she’s coughing but so far she hasn’t managed to clear it. I’ve tried back blows.’
‘Try chest thrusts,’ Mac said immediately, stepping forward and taking over. ‘Do we know what she’s swallowed?’
‘It could be anything,’ the father said as he paced backwards and forwards across the room, frantic with worry. ‘She had a whole pile of toys. She was really happy...’ His voice cracked and Mac shot Hannah a meaningful glance.
She stepped up to the father and touched his arm gently. ‘This is very distressing for you. Why don’t you wait outside?’
‘No!’ He shook off her arm in a violent movement. ‘I’m not leaving her. I want to stay. She needs me.’ His face contorted with guilt and panic. ‘This is all my fault.’
‘Children swallow things,’ Louisa said soothingly, helping Mac shift the child’s position so that he could administer chest thrusts. ‘It happens. You mustn’t blame yourself.’
He was so obviously traumatised by the whole episode that she felt her heart twist with sympathy. Where was the child’s mother? she wondered.
‘I should have been watching...’
Despite Mac’s efforts, the child continued to choke and Mac lifted her into his arms and laid her gently on the trolley.
‘Bleep the anaesthetist,’ he instructed calmly, and Hannah left the room swiftly. ‘Louisa, I want to check her mouth. Get me a laryngoscope and a pair of McGill’s forceps.’
Louisa lifted the choking child, noticing that her colour was worse. She lifted her gaze to Mac and he gave a brief nod of understanding.
‘I’m going to try abdominal thrusts. Let’s have her supine.’ He placed the heel of one hand on the upper abdomen and gave five sharp thrusts up towards the diaphragm but the little girl continued to choke.
Hannah hurried back into the room. ‘Anaesthetist on his way.’
‘Can’t wait,’ Mac muttered, his eyes still on the child. ‘Laryngoscope.’
Louisa placed it in his hand and held her breath while Mac tilted the child’s head back and tried to visualise the obstruction. ‘There’s nothing—Oh, wait a minute...’ He squinted and then held out his other hand. ‘I see something... Give me those forceps, Louisa.’
She did as he asked and watched while he carefully inserted them into the child’s throat. ‘That’s it!’ He withdrew the forceps, dropped the foreign body into the dish that Louisa was holding out for him and then exhaled slowly. ‘Let’s give her some oxygen.’
Thank goodness.
Louisa felt her knees weaken with relief.
It had been a close thing. A few
minutes more and they would have had to perform a tracheostomy.
The father stepped forward, his face chalk white as he stared into the dish. ‘A toy?’ He sagged slightly. ‘She swallowed a toy. Oh, no...’