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He met the paediatric nurse halfway back to the reception desk. ‘Any news on Denise’s parents?’
‘Not good,’ Lynne said. ‘Her mum’s still in Theatre, and her dad’s not answering his mobile phone.’
‘How about grandparents? Aunts and uncles? A family friend, even?’ he asked. ‘Denise’s mum must have had an emergency contact number somewhere—even if the paramedics couldn’t find one on her mobile phone, maybe there was something in her diary or a notebook. Even a scrap of paper. There has to be something.’
‘They’re snowed under in the emergency department. I had a word with Eve—’ one of the senior nurses in the emergency department ‘—and she says she’ll get one of her juniors on it as soon as she can. She suggested trying the GP.’
‘That’s assuming we can get in touch with the GP in the first place. And even then it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll have emergency contacts.’ Rhys shook his head impatiently. ‘Katrina’s doing a brilliant job, but she can’t stay with Denise indefinitely. She’s due in clinic in half an hour and we don’t have anyone to cover her—Will’s in surgery and I’m in clinic myself. I know Tim’s shadowing Katrina, but we can’t chuck him in the deep end and make him do a clinic without supervision or back-up. It isn’t fair to him or the patients.’ And cancelling the clinic wasn’t an option either.
‘If Denise has bonded with Katrina, she’s not going to want to let someone else take over,’ Lynne said with a sigh. ‘And screaming the place down really isn’t going to be good for the little one, let alone the fact it’ll upset the other kids.’
‘She needs a familiar face,’ Rhys said. And although they could probably send someone down from the ward to try and find a contact, it’d be quicker for him to do it because he could give an update on Denise’s condition at the same time and answer any questions for anyone he managed to get in touch with. He folded his arms. ‘I’ll go down to the emergency department myself. Bleep me if you need me, warn Reception that this afternoon’s clinics are going to be running late—and if there’s a problem, I’ll take the flak. I’ll let Katrina know the situation on my way out. Can you ring Eve and tell her I’m on my way down?’
‘Will do.’
‘Thanks, Lynne. You’re a star.’ And it was good to know he could leave everything in the nurse’s more than capable hands.
This was definitely a scenario where Katrina’s hearing loss came into its own, he thought. Because he’d be able to mouth the message to her so the little girl didn’t hear and get worried, but Katrina would be able to understand him. He dropped by the cubicle to explain the situation, then headed to the emergency department.
Eve, who’d been primed by Lynne, got Denise’s mother’s handbag out of the department safe for him.
‘The paramedics tried the ICE number,’ Eve said, referring to the ‘in case of emergency’ number that some people had included on their mobile phones. ‘But apparently it’s the same as her husband’s number. There’s just no reply.’
‘Let’s try the diary.’ He flicked through the pages until he found the addresses section. ‘Oh, hell. Either she hasn’t written down her parents’ number because she knows it off by heart, or she’s not in contact with them. But there’s a number here under “Nursery”.’ He gave Eve a relieved smile. ‘That means they’ll know Denise—and they’re bound to have emergency contacts in addition to Denise’s father.’
He managed to get through to the nursery manager and explained the situation. ‘So do you have an emergency contact number we could use, please?’
‘I’m sorry,’ the nursery manager said, ‘I can’t give out a number.’
Rhys sighed. ‘I rather think that a car accident ending up with a frightened little girl in a hospital bed following surgery, while her mother’s still in Theatre and her father’s not answering his mobile phone, counts as an emergency. Surely you can give me someone I can contact?’
‘We can’t give out a number,’ the nursery manager repeated. ‘It’s a breach of the data protection rules and we’d get into a lot of trouble.’
Rhys was very tempted to yell at the woman that sometimes rules needed to be broken, for the sake of common sense and kindness, but kept a lid on his temper. ‘Then would you be prepared to call your contacts on my behalf? And, just so you know this isn’t some kind of stupid prank, you can call the children’s ward here and check. I imagine, as a local nursery, you’d have our number anyway—but, just in case, do you have a pen?’
