Fenton's Winter Read Online Free PDF

he said. Once
again he was asked if the lab could cope. "Some of us won't be
going home too much," he replied, "But we'll manage."
    Despite the fact that Ferguson
had cleared most of the morning blood tests Fenton found himself
busy for most of the afternoon. He found it therapeutic for it was
impossible for him to dwell on anything other than the work in hand
but at four thirty he was disturbed by the sound of raised voices
coming from downstairs. He looked out from his room and asked one
of the junior technicians, what was wrong.
    "It's Susan," the girl replied,
"She's been taken ill."

CHAPTER TWO
    Fenton ran downstairs
to find Susan Daniels lying on the floor outside the ladies'
lavatory. She was surrounded by people giving conflicting advice.
Help her up! No, don't move her. Loosen her clothing! Keep her
warm!
    "What happened?" he asked.
    "She fainted when she came out
the toilet," said a voice.
    "She's bleeding!" said another
voice.
    "I've sent for Dr Tyson," said
Alex Ross. Tyson was the only member of the staff to be medically
qualified, the others being purely scientists.
    Fenton knelt down beside the
prostrate girl and felt her forehead; it was cold and clammy. "Who
said she was bleeding?" he asked.
    Liz Scott, the lab secretary
knelt down beside him and said quietly, "There's blood all over the
floor in the toilet."
    Fenton reached his hand under
the unconscious girl's thighs and felt her skirt wet and sticky.
"She's haemorrhaging!" he said, "Get some towels!" The crowd
dispersed. "Was Susan pregnant?" Fenton asked Alex Ross.
    "If she was she never said,"
replied the chief technician.
    "She seems to be having a
miscarriage," said Fenton.
    "Poor lass."
    Someone handed Fenton a bundle
of clean linen towels. He folded one and pushed it up between Susan
Daniels' legs then followed it with another. He was relieved when
Charles Tyson arrived on the scene to take over. He stood up and
noticed one of the juniors wince at the sight of his blood soaked
hand.
    "She's lost a lot," said Tyson,
"We'll have to get her over to the main hospital."
    Responsibility passed from
Tyson to two nurses in casualty who wheeled Susan Daniels into a
side room leaving Tyson and Fenton waiting in the long corridor
outside where they sat on a wooden bench in silence. Fenton leaned
his head back against the wall and turned to look along the length
of the corridor. An orderly was buffing the linoleum with an
electric polisher in a steady side to side motion some forty metres
away at the other end. A nurse, dressed in the pink uniform of a
first year student, flitted briefly across his field of view.
Distant sounds of children's voices echoed along the high Victorian
ceilings. He turned his attention to the posters of characters from
Disney which had been stuck up at intervals along the walls to
lighten the atmosphere. The sheer height of the walls swamped them
making them pathetic rather than effective.
    A figure hurried towards them,
white coat billowing open. His eyes fell on Tyson, "Sorry sir,
'couldn't get here any sooner, we've got a mini-bus accident to
contend with."
    Tyson nodded. "She's in there,"
he said.
    Fenton noticed Tyson visibly
swither whether or not to join the registrar in the treatment room
and decide not to. It had been over twenty years since he had last
been involved in direct patient care.
    A heavy trolley, being pushed
by two porters, swung erratically to the side as it passed them and
made them draw in their feet. Each porter blamed the other. Tyson
looked at his watch and displayed uncharacteristic irritation.
"Come on...come on," he muttered. Another two minutes had passed
before a nurse accompanied by an orderly appeared. They were
carrying transfusion equipment, the orderly weighed down on one
side by a green, plastic crate containing six blood packs. They
almost collided with the registrar who chose that moment to emerge
from the room. He ignored the new arrivals and came directly
towards Tyson. Fenton thought he