The Angels of Lovely Lane (24 page)

*

For the remainder of the day, it felt to Dana as though her feet never touched the ground. For at least half of it, she scrubbed bedpans, washed out glass urine bottles and put into practice one of her first lessons from PTS, testing urine by using litmus paper. But as stomach-churning as all of that was, what preyed on her mind throughout the day were the tears shed by Mrs Townsend after losing her husband of forty-three years, who until his stay in hospital had never spent a night away from her since returning from fighting in the First World War.

‘He saw the worst sights, you know,’ she told Staff Nurse Rowlands and Dana. ‘I’ve got all his medals at home. He has one from Mons. He said they all saw an angel rise over the brow of the field before they went into battle and he reckoned it was the angel what saved them. He thought you were all angels, and you are. He said to me, “Don’t worry, Edna, whenever I’m in trouble there’s always an angel around. I’m surrounded by them here.” God knows, you were all so lovely to him.’ She put her cup back on its saucer. ‘Well, I’ll go and catch the bus, up to our Betty’s now. I could ring the phone in the pub until someone answers and ask them to go and give her a knock, but I don’t think I want to tell her that her dad has died over the phone. Best I go and get the bus.’

‘Will you be all right on your own?’ Dana felt brave enough to speak. Staff Nurse was holding Edna’s hand. Dana knew that she must have been worrying about everything that still had to be done. It was already nine o’clock, and yet, you would think she had nothing other than all the time in the world for Edna.

‘Thank you so much, nurses. I will be back with a present for you all.’

‘Oh no you won’t,’ said Staff. ‘You must only think about yourself now.’ She gave Mrs Townsend a big hug.

‘You’re lovely and kind and I’m glad you were both with him when he died.’

Dana almost gave a guilty start.

‘And you, little one,’ Edna went on, returning Dana’s hug. ‘I’ve not ever seen you before. Tom said last night the new probationer would be on the ward today. They know everything, that lot, don’t they, Staff? All I can say is, he would have been made up to have a nurse as pretty as you with him at the end.’

The nurses watched as Edna walked the lonely walk along the shiny polished wooden floor of the hospital corridor towards the main entrance. By the end of that walk, she would feel desolate, realizing that it was for the last time. She would never visit her Tom again, nor would he return home with her as he had so many times before, following his outpatient appointments.

‘God, how sad was that?’ said Dana. ‘We weren’t with him at the end, though, and she thinks we were. Is that all right? I felt terrible. I didn’t know what to say.’

‘Yes, thanks for not saying anything. That’s the worst part of the job,’ said Staff Nurse, ‘but you’ll get over it. It’s just nicer for her to think it was us with him and not a night nurse she has never met. Sometimes a white lie in this game can be an act of kindness. There are some patients who never leave you and you just can’t forget, and I’ll tell you what, I’ll never forget you chatting away to him thinking he was alive.’

‘Neither will I,’ said Dana, and with the feeling of sadness dispelled as rapidly as it often is, in a place where life and death frequently trade places, both nurses laughed as they walked back through the ward doors.

*

Dana was in the dirty utility room, putting the bed linen from Mr Townsend’s bed into the basket which would be taken to the laundry by two porter’s lads. Each time a dirty was taken away a clean one returned in its place, along with the twice per day fresh deliveries.

She was placing the used dressings in the drum for the sterilizer and feeling very pleased with herself that everything was going smoothly when the door opened and someone clasped their hands over her eyes in a blindfold.

‘Jesus, Holy Mother,’ she yelled as she spun round.

Teddy was laughing out loud. ‘Nurse Brogan, will you shush,’ he said mockingly, wagging his finger.

‘’Tis you again,’ she whispered. She tried to sound cross, but she could feel her heart banging and she knew without looking in a mirror that the colour was rising up her neck.

‘What do you want?’ she hissed in mock impatience.

‘A date with you,’ Teddy replied, ‘and if I don’t get one, I shall upend you into that dirty linen basket.’

‘No you will not. That would be just disgusting.’ Dana’s eyes were wide with the horror of such a thing.

‘OK, I won’t, but will you tell me when you can come out for a drink, then?’

‘I don’t think I can.’

‘Yes you can. You know you can. Come on, just give me a date and I’ll leave you alone. I promise you, I am a man who is nothing if not persistent. I won’t give up until you agree. I love those red curls, by the way. Do you know they have fallen out at the back and that they bob up and down on your shoulders when you are cross?’

Dana couldn’t believe this was actually happening to her. Teddy was the best-looking man she had ever laid eyes on. His teeth were intact and they all seemed to be his own. A rarity among Irish boys in the country, by the time they had reached twenty-one. He spoke beautifully and he was a clever and educated man. ‘Why the hell would you want to go out with me?’ she asked, genuinely puzzled.

Teddy didn’t waste a second. ‘Well, you see, Nurse Brogan, it’s because I like you and I truly would hate to see you being transported to the laundry in a dirty linen basket and never heard of again. It would be such a waste. It’s happened to nurses more experienced than you, you know.’ Teddy knew his strengths. He grinned at Dana and held her eyes.

‘Do you make a habit of this, doctor?’ Dana asked him tartly. ‘Do you ask all probationers out on the threat of contamination with dirty linen germs? Would I be thinking now that that is the only way you can get a nurse to have a drink with you?’

Teddy looked affronted. ‘I would have you know, I have never dated a nurse in my life. You would be the first, I swear.’

‘You swear? Seriously, you swear? You see, I am not the sort of nurse who would go out for a drink with a doctor who made a habit of dating nurses. We Irish girls have a great deal of self-respect.’ She wanted to roar with laughter at the change in expression on Teddy’s face.

‘Golly, you are a tough customer.’ He had been leaning against the door, but now he stood up straight and ran his hand through his hair. ‘Well, I did have a date with a nurse when I was just a medical student. But that was two years ago and anyway, she stood me up.’

Dana caught a hint of pain in his voice, but it was instantly replaced by his sudden infectious smile.

‘Go on, give an overworked doctor something to look forward to. Say yes, would you? You know, your mammy would want you to make a homesick and lonely doctor very happy, and there is no other nurse in St Angelus who comes near you. Go on, please.’

Dana felt as though she were dreaming, or had been transported to another planet and was living someone else’s life entirely. If Teddy hadn’t been staring at her so intently, she would have pinched herself. She smiled back.

‘Well, what can I say? You haven’t met Celia Forsyth yet. I think you might find that she is far more interesting company than me.’

Teddy looked puzzled and scratched his head. ‘But I don’t want to meet this Forsyth, whoever she is. Come on, don’t give a chap a hard time. You just have to say yes, or the dirty linen basket awaits.’ He took a step closer to her.

‘All right then, I might. Let me think about it.’

‘Gosh, you are infuriating,’ said Teddy. ‘Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you.’ Dana didn’t even see him move. One moment she was stuffing the last of the sheets into the basket, the next he had lifted her up and she was sitting on top of the laundry. As the sheets compressed under her weight, she slowly began to slip down.

‘Oh, my God, help me, you eejit, get me out,’ she yelled.

‘Was that a yes, then?’ said Teddy, grinning.

‘No, it bloody was not. Get me out, now.’

Dana was saved by Staff Nurse entering the room.

‘And just what is going on here?’ she said to Teddy, hand on hip. Then to Dana, who was struggling to get herself out of a wicker basket which was almost as tall as she, ‘Nurse Brogan, are you ready?’ She seemed barely able to contain her laughter. ‘Honestly, Davenport, couldn’t you think of something more original? Is there a doctor’s manual for this?’ She gave Dana her hand and helped her out. ‘Oh, and by the way, Mr Mabbutt is marching up and down the ward waiting for you and looking none too pleased. Nurse Brogan, straighten your apron, quick.’

Dana was fixing her cap back into place as she followed Staff Nurse out of the door and down the ward, trying desperately to push the escaped curls up and under.

‘The first case is ready for theatre, so I thought I would go through the checks with you first and show you how we administer the pre-med.’

‘Yes, Staff Nurse.’ Dana looked down and noticed that her apron had slipped round to the side. She felt more like killing Teddy Davenport than dating him.

‘Look, Nurse Brogan, I’m not going to say a word, but if I were you, I would be very careful there. Half the nurses in this hospital are after Dr Davenport. He is a hot favourite. If you were to bag him you would make more enemies than friends, and I’m not sure that’s something you want to do in your first year. Even as a medical student he caused chaos among the nurses.’

‘Is he a bit of a flirt, then?’ asked Dana, her heart sinking.

‘He’s that all right, but funnily enough he has never broken any hearts, as far as I know. He was famously stood up a couple of years ago by a second-year nurse. She married after she took her finals and so she left. Apparently he waited for her for over two hours in town, thinking she had got the wrong time. The medical students never stopped teasing him about it. They say she broke
his
heart.’

‘Oh, I don’t want to bag him,’ Dana lied. ‘I told him to get lost. That’s why he dumped me in the basket, but honest to God, it was so fast I didn’t even feel him do it.’

‘No, I think they practise their technique over in the doctors’ residence. I can assure you, it’s been done a hundred times before. Right, theatre have rung for Mr Davis. We’ll go through the motions and then take him down with the porters, and when we get back it’s backs, beds and pans for you. You can give me a shout if there is anyone you need a lift with; don’t struggle on your own. Lifting a fifteen-stone man on to a bedpan is something you should avoid doing by yourself, if you can.’

The two nurses came to a halt at the end of their patient’s bed. ‘Go on then,’ said Staff. ‘I’ll let you go through the checks.’

Dana nervously picked up the notes which were ready on the bedside table.

‘Er...’ She racked her brain. This was her first test. ‘Can you tell me your name please, Mr Davis?’ For a moment, Dana had no idea why Staff Nurse and Mr Davis were laughing.

‘Here we go, let me show you,’ said Staff. ‘Mr Davis. Inguinal hernia repair. Can you tell us your address, Mr Davis, and your date of birth?’ She walked to the bedside locker and checked that his clean water jug and glass were ready inside for his return.

As they went through the pre-operative checks, Dana took and recorded Mr Davis’s pulse just as Charge Nurse arrived at the end of the bed with a small glass gallipot.

‘Here you are, Nurse Brogan, chlormethiazole for the pre-op.’ He handed Dana the gallipot.

‘I can’t, nurse. Me throat’s as dry as the bottom of a parrot’s cage.’

‘Really, Mr Davis, lovely.’ Staff Nurse laughed. ‘I’m afraid you are going to have to. It will make you woozy and relaxed. It’s like having six pints of Guinness, all in one jug.’

Once Staff Nurse had left to call the porters’ lodge to tell them they were ready, Mr Davis grabbed hold of Dana’s hand.

‘Eh, nurse, would you do me a favour? Only I’m a bit stuck like.’

‘Of course, Mr Davis. What can I do?’

Mr Davis looked around the ward to see if anyone was listening.

‘I have to tell you though,’ Dana added, ‘it’s my first day. I’m afraid I don’t know very much.’

Mr Davis looked slightly agitated and Dana thought it might be because he was nervous about going down to theatre.

‘Apparently everyone is very nervous before being taken to theatre, so you mustn’t worry.’ Dana was quoting from her textbook word almost for word.
Reassure the patient at every stage of the pre-operative procedure
, Sister Ryan had taught her. ‘I would offer you a cup of tea, but I would be kicked out within minutes. My first day would become my last.’

He squeezed her hand tightly. ‘I’m a bit worried, like. I don’t like hospitals. Had enough of them during the war, but it’s not that. The thing is, you see, it’s me wife. Charge Nurse has told her to come in at visiting, at six o’clock.’ Dana nodded. She had been told at morning report that there was no afternoon visiting on operation day and visitors had to wait until six p.m.

‘Yes, that is what they like to do on operation day. Charge Nurse likes to concentrate on the patients coming back from theatre and not deal with visitor enquiries.’

‘I know that, love, he told me. The thing is, there is someone else who will want to see me, but she can’t come in at the same time as the wife.’

‘Oh, yes, she can,’ said Dana, delighted that she could answer so many of Mr Davis’s questions. ‘You are allowed two visitors at the bed from six until seven. That’s not a problem at all, Mr Davis.’ A smile of sheer delight spread across her face. Her day had been a rollercoaster of new experiences and now here she was, truly putting into practice all she had been taught in PTS. ‘You really mustn’t be anxious. In half an hour, you will be fast asleep and—’

‘No, you see, nurse, me wife, well, she doesn’t know about me other visitor, if you know what I mean.’ He gave Dana a nervous wink, as though imploring her to understand what he had failed to put into words.

Dana met his look with a puzzled frown. ‘Well, that’s not a problem. If you are under the anaesthetic still, I can tell her.’

Mr Davis became quite agitated. ‘No, no, don’t do that. If you do that, nurse, I’ll have to go back down to theatre by the time the wife’s finished with me. Look, love, if you could just tell me wife she has to go at about twenty past six. Tell her I’m not very well or something. That would be smashing. Would you do that for me, queen? Just in case I’m out of it. Ah, your name is embroidered on your apron. Brogan, is it?’