Page 3 of A Found Family at the Cornish Country Hospital

‘Have you found a surrogate already?’ The excitement in Danni’s voice was obvious and he almost felt guilty for shaking his head.

‘We’ve got a meeting with one of the agencies next month and Jase is convinced that us being at goal weight will make a difference.’ Aidan might be making a joke out of it, but nerves gripped his insides whenever he thought about the meeting. If the agency was willing to take them on, it would be the first big step on their journey to becoming parents, but there was so much that could happen to derail their plans at every stage. They had to get accepted first, then be matched with a surrogate, find the right egg donor, all before even starting treatment. Becoming parents was all they wanted, but there were no guarantees, and if they didn’t hold onto the fact that it might never happen, and consider a plan B, there’d be no way of putting their broken hearts back together. ‘Thank God we’ll have the chance to go to another one of the meetings with theinfertility support group before then, so we can be as prepared as possible. Some of the others in the group have already been through the process and they can let us know what to expect.’

‘I’m sure the agency will love you and Jase.’ Esther gave his waist a squeeze. ‘Do you know what?—’

The shrill ring tone of the red phone on the desk cut off her question. It meant there was a life-threatening emergency on the way, the very opposite of what Aidan had dealt with so far that morning, and he picked up the phone instantly. His heart sank as the paramedic team relayed the details, and he suddenly found himself wishing that he could have stuck to dealing with hiccups and paper cuts all day long.

Turning towards Danni and Esther, he grimaced. ‘We’ve got a two-year-old boy coming in with breathing difficulties, and a high fever, who’s become increasingly unresponsive since the paramedics arrived.’

‘Let’s get ready.’ Danni was already moving away from the desk, and a tiny bit of the tension left Aidan’s spine. Dealing with critically ill children was the scariest part of the job, but there was no one he’d rather face that with than the team he worked with, who’d leap into action the moment the little boy arrived. And he was already praying that would be enough.

By the time Felix arrived with his terrified parents, who the paramedics had introduced as Corinne and Jack, everything was in place to try and identify what was wrong with the little boy as quickly as possible, and to give him the treatment he needed. Felix had already been given oxygen by the paramedics, the paediatric team had been alerted and one of the consultants wason her way down. Isla had also joined Aidan and the rest of the team who’d be providing Felix’s initial care.

‘Do you know what’s wrong?’ Corinne looked almost as pale as her little boy, as she turned towards Aidan. He had a gut feeling what was making her son so poorly, but he wouldn’t have given her his best guess, even if it had been his place to do so. There were certain words that were capable of striking fear into the heart, and meningitis was one of them.

‘We’re going to run some blood tests, but it would help if you could tell us a bit more about his symptoms. I’m Aidan, and this is Danni, one of the doctors.’ Even as he spoke, Esther and Isla were busy attaching monitors to Felix, who hadn’t stirred despite being transferred onto a different bed.

‘He had a bit of a temperature, and I just thought it was a cold at first, but then he started to get really restless and wouldn’t let me comfort him. I called 111 and they said to take him to the out of hours GP, but he went really floppy, so they sent an ambulance instead.’ Corinne was crying and her partner put an arm around her shoulders.

‘That’s when his breathing went funny; fast and shallow. Like he was trying his hardest to get more air in, but it just wasn’t happening.’ Felix’s father looked from Aidan to Danni. ‘I googled the symptoms. It’s meningitis, isn’t it?’

‘It’s too early to say, but we are going to be testing for it. We can get the results really quickly and, if it is that, we can give Felix the right treatment as soon as possible.’ Danni had a knack for making it all sound so simple and Aidan had seen how reassuring that was to patients and their family members. Even if things turned out to be far tricker than that, it was what people in the midst of a traumatic situation needed to hear. ‘We’ll also give Felix a top-to-toe check over, to see if there are any other symptoms we need to take into consideration.’

‘I’ll make a start.’ Aidan moved closer to the end of the bed, turning back towards Danni within seconds. ‘Felix’s feet are very cold.’

‘I’ll check his hands.’ Danni moved further up, but before she could even give her verdict, Aidan caught his breath, spotting a sign that made his heart sink all over again. Just below the bottom of the little boy’s pyjama trousers was the start of an obvious rash.

‘Danni.’ Keeping his voice low, he shot her a look and pulled Felix’s pyjama leg up slightly higher.

‘Okay, we need to organise a lumbar puncture and a CT scan.’

‘I’m on it.’ Isla was already on her way out of the cubicle, and Corinne started to sob.

‘We’re going to lose him, aren’t we.’ She turned towards Felix’s father. ‘We’re going to lose our baby.’

‘No, we’re not.’ Jack looked at Aidan. ‘I was right, though, it’s meningitis, isn’t it?’

‘It looks like it, but the lumbar puncture will tell us what kind and how it needs to be treated.’ Aidan kept his tone level, despite the emotion pulsating in the air.

‘Is it going to hurt him?’ Corinne’s question was punctuated with shuddering breaths after each word, but Aidan could at least give her some reassurance about that.

‘Felix will be given a local anaesthetic and he might feel a bit of pressure, but he won’t feel any pain, and you can stay with him during the procedure.’

‘Good, because neither of us are going anywhere.’ Corinne moved to the side of Felix’s bed, with Jack just behind her, and Aidan knew that nothing on earth could have moved them from their son’s side. This was what parenting was all about. Seeing it, even in the toughest possible moments like this, Aidan was more certain than even that he wanted to share that experience with Jase. And he’d do whatever it took to make that happen.

The Friends of St Piran’s shop not only served the best coffee in the hospital, it also had a couple of bistro tables outside, making it almost like a pavement café. It was part of the reason why it had become the place where the A&E staff would go to unwind at the end of a shift. The other reason was that the shop was run by Gwen, a retired midwife, and unofficial agony aunt to anyone who walked through the doors of the hospital – whether they were patients or staff.

The lumber puncture had confirmed that Felix had bacterial meningitis and he’d been put on IV antibiotics and fluids. He’d been moved to the children’s ITU, and Maxine, the paediatric consultant, had seemed confident that Felix would make it, much to everyone’s huge relief. There was no way of knowing yet whether there’d be any complications, and his parents had obviously made the mistake of consulting Dr Google again, once the diagnosis had been confirmed.

Aidan had seen them in the corridor outside the children’s ward, when he’d gone up to get an update. Corinne was leaning on Jack’s shoulder, her body shuddering as she sobbed, looking every bit as emotional as she had down in A&E. Fearing the worst, he’d briefly considered turning around and going back down the corridor. Felix’s parents hadn’t seen him, and he didn’t have to face their naked grief, but he’d never been that kind of person. And he certainly wasn’t that kind of nurse.

‘Jack.’ Aidan said the other man’s name softly. He didn’t want to intrude, but he had to find out what was going on and whether there was anything he could do to help; even if it was getting in touch with the hospital counsellor, or one of the team from the chapel. It barely seemed possible that at the worstmoment in someone’s life, the actions of hospital staff could make a difference, but he knew from experience that they could.

‘I was going to come and find you.’ Jack still had his arms around Corinne, but they both turned slightly in Aidan’s direction. ‘It’s because you spotted the rash and got Felix’s test results so quickly that we’re eventually going to be able to take our little boy home with us again. And I just wanted to say thank you.’

‘I’m so glad he’s going to be okay.’ Aidan’s whole body felt as if it had slumped with relief. He’d been almost certain that things had taken a turn for the worse, and he was still confused about why Corinne was so upset. Although maybe it was no surprise given what Felix’s parents had been through. ‘It’s been a hell of a day for you guys and you must be exhausted. I know you won’t want to leave Felix, but have they said anything about you using the parents’ accommodation?’

‘They’ve said we can, thankfully.’ Jack breathed out slowly. ‘It’s Corinne I’m most worried about; she’s five months pregnant with our second and she didn’t sleep at all last night. Felix only wanted his mummy, until he got too poorly to even know what was going on.’

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