She returned to the back of the pontoon with her meagre supplies. ‘Symptoms?’ she queried, wanting to know whether the patient’s status had changed.
‘Pulse rate irregular and possibly slightly elevated,’ cute guy said as she squatted beside him. He smelt of salt and sunshine and Georgie could feel the heat of the sun bouncing off him. ‘Shortness of breath,’ he continued speaking, ‘but that could be exercise related. Left-sided chest pain but not extending into his extremities.’ He turned to look at her and the movement made his abdominals ripple along his side.
‘How long since his symptoms started?’ she asked, forcing herself to concentrate.
He glanced at his watch. ‘We’ve been out of the water for four and a half minutes and his pain’s no worse.’
‘Angina?’ she queried.
He nodded in agreement. ‘Most probably.’
‘I found this.’ Georgie held up the spray. ‘I think it’s our best option.’ She expected the doctor to move over and let her administer the spray but he reached out and took it from her. She was a little bit taken aback. She had no idea what sort of doctor this man was but, as a paramedic, she was almost certain she’d have more experience in these situations than him and she wasn’t used to playing second fiddle. But she wasn’t going to have an argument about it—after all, it was a fairly simple exercise and he’d already given Nigel the spray. All that was left was to monitor him and hope his condition improved.
Georgie saw Nigel’s wife waiting anxiously nearby. She swallowed her irritation. Someone needed to talk to the wife. ‘I’ll call QMERT and put them on alert but hopefully we’ll get him stabilised,’ she told the doctor as she stood up. ‘And I’ll explain what’s happening to his wife.’
To save time she spoke to a crew member and Nigel’s wife together so she only had to explain things once. ‘Nigel’s symptoms aren’t worsening so hopefully it’s just a case of angina,’ she told them. ‘He’s been given medication and we’ll monitor him for the next ten minutes. If it is angina, we expect his symptoms will have eased considerably in that time.’
‘And if they don’t? What do we do then?’ Nigel’s wife asked. ‘We’re out in the middle of the ocean.’
‘I’m going to radio QMERT, that’s the Queensland Medical Emergency Retrieval Team.’ Georgie kept her voice calm as she wanted to stem the rising panic she could hear in the wife’s voice. ‘I’ll explain the situation and get a helicopter on standby to evacuate him if necessary.’ She didn’t mention that she worked with QMERT, it wouldn’t make any difference to anyone else.
Georgie got a few more details from Nigel’s wife and put a call in to the Clinical Coordination centre in Brisbane to advise them of the situation. All calls to QMERT went through Brisbane. It was up to the central command to find the closest available crew from one of the bases located throughout Queensland. It was more than likely that Cairns, which was her base, or the Townsville crew would be put on standby.
She finished the call and returned to the patient. The cute doctor looked up at her with his gunship-grey eyes and Georgie forgot she was annoyed at him.
‘He’s recovering well, chest pain abating and respirations normal.’
‘So you think we’re okay to bring him in on the boat?’ Georgie asked.
‘How long will that take?’
Georgie frowned. Had she misheard him? Hadn’t he come out to the reef on the boat? Was his cool grey gaze interfering with her concentration?
‘About ninety minutes,’ she replied, ‘but it’s not due to leave for another hour. There’s time to alter plans if things change. I’ve put the QMERT chopper on standby.’
He stood up. ‘Can I speak to you over here?’ he asked, inclining his head towards the side railing of the pontoon.
Georgie wondered what he couldn’t say in front of Nigel and his wife but she nodded anyway. He held out a hand. She reached for him and he clasped his fingers around her wrist to help her to her feet, but when his skin met hers a spark shot through her. It made her catch her breath. It made her heart race. It must have something to do with the adrenaline coursing through her system after the excitement, she thought. He let go of her hand and walked over to the edge of the pontoon, away from Nigel, his wife and the crewman, who was still hovering waiting for any further instructions. Georgie followed him, she didn’t think she could do anything else. Her feet seemed to be behaving independently of her brain, following his lead.
He leant on the railing and Georgie could see each bony prominence of his vertebrae where his spine curved as he bent forward.
‘Are you happy to monitor him and make that call if necessary?’
Her frown deepened. ‘Of course.’ She had no problem with that but she wondered why he was handing total patient care over to her.
‘I flew out to the reef on a helicopter charter,’ he explained, ‘and I’ve just been told it needs to take off as there’s another chopper coming in onto the landing pontoon shortly. But I can stay to help monitor Nigel if you like. I need to know what you’re comfortable with before I tell him what’s happening. I could come back on the catamaran with you if you’d prefer.’
Did he think she couldn’t handle things? Was that why he’d offered? He didn’t need to do her any favours.
‘Thank you but I can manage. I’m used to working in these conditions,’ she said as she looked around the pontoon and the expanse of water surrounding it. ‘Well, perhaps not these exact conditions, but I’m certainly used to coping outside a hospital environment. If I’m at all concerned I’ll call QMERT in. They can do an evacuation from the catamaran if things get really dicey. It’s fine. Go.’
Go and let me concentrate. She knew it would be better if she was left to work on her own. After all, she’d wanted to be in charge.
There was a stretcher fixed alongside the stairs that led to the upper deck, and she instructed the crew to bring it to her as she swapped places with the doctor. She watched him as he gathered his things and boarded the little dinghy that would ferry him across to the helicopter pontoon.
She watched him as he left her to monitor Nigel. That wasn’t an issue. She was more than capable. She didn’t need his help. She could work more efficiently without the distraction. But as the dinghy pulled away from the pontoon, she wondered where he was from and, as he raised a hand in farewell, she realised she had no way of finding out. She didn’t even know his name.
CHAPTER TWO
GEORGIE parked her car beside the airport building that was the headquarters for the Cairns division of QMERT. She climbed out and pulled her white singlet top away from her body, looking for some respite from the heat. A quarter to eight in the morning and the north Queensland humidity was already stifling. She could feel the perspiration gathering between her breasts. She’d been in the tropics for months now but after moving from the cooler climes of Melbourne she still hadn’t got used to feeling hot and sticky ninety per cent of the time. But despite the sometimes intolerable humidity she was thoroughly enjoying her secondment to the Queensland Ambulance Service and QMERT.
And the weather wasn’t always so oppressive, she reminded herself. It had been remarkably pleasant out on the reef yesterday. It was only on the mainland that she noticed the humidity. The scenery yesterday had been very pleasant too, she recalled with a smile. It had been a pity the cute doctor had left before she’d got his name.
She still hadn’t decided whether she was more annoyed or intrigued by him. She had to give him credit for his quick reaction to the crisis yesterday. Nigel had made it safely back to the Cairns hospital and he had the doctor to thank for that. She supposed he’d only been doing what he’d been trained for and she couldn’t hold that against him. But, still, she wished she knew who he was.
She’d