‘She is having an asthma attack. Sit her down. Dr Marsh, as you are here you must help her. I will call Dr Petrakis...’ A flip of her finger towards Ben, and then Corinna picked up the phone.
He wasn’t licensed to practise in Greece, but that was a moot point at the moment. The blonde-haired girl was clearly in distress and this was an emergency. Ben hurried over to the girls, guiding them over to the seats.
‘Does she have an inhaler?’
‘Yes, but she forgot it. It’s back at our hotel...’ The girl’s companion’s eyes were wide with panic.
‘Okay. That’s okay.’ It wasn’t, but what he needed to do now was to calm both girls. ‘What’s her name?’
‘Helen...’
Ben turned to Helen, taking her gently by the shoulders. ‘Helen, I’m Ben and I’m a doctor. Look at me...’
Helen’s frightened gaze met his. Ben smiled reassuringly.
‘I want you to try to calm down. Try to breathe more slowly for me, yes?’
Helen nodded. The panic and the rush to the health centre hadn’t done her a great deal of good, and now that she was sitting down she seemed a little better. Helen turned as her friend started to cry and Ben put one finger on the side of her face, guiding her gaze back onto him.
‘Don’t worry about anyone else. Just look at me. Try to breathe with me.’
Corinna had finished her call. ‘Dr Petrakis will be here in five minutes. She will bring the inhaler from the chemist.’
Ben nodded. ‘Thanks. Perhaps you could look after this young lady?’ He indicated Helen’s friend and Corinna jumped to her feet, guiding the girl away from them and to a spare seat behind her desk.
‘What colour is your inhaler, Helen?’ Ben smiled again at her. ‘Blue?’
A nod.
‘Good. Albuterol?’ Ben hadn’t yet come across anyone with asthma who
didn’t know exactly what drug they needed, and he hoped this wouldn’t be a first.
Another nod. Helen was calming now and her breathing was slower, but she was still having to work too hard to get the oxygen her body needed.
‘Okay, that’s great.’ Ben turned to Corinna, who already had her phone in her hand, the other arm tightly around the other girl’s shoulders. ‘Will you tell Dr Petrakis...?’
‘Albuterol. I heard...’ Corinna shot him a stern look, clearly outraged at any implication that she didn’t have everything under control, and Ben turned back to Helen again.
‘You’re doing really well, Helen.’ Hopefully the promised five minutes before Arianna Petrakis got here from the pharmacy wouldn’t be as long as the five minutes he’d been asked to wait.
‘Don’t...let me...’ Helen was struggling to speak.
Die. Don’t let her die. The last few years had shown Ben that he was powerless in the face of life and death, but Helen didn’t need to know that.
‘I’m not going to let you do anything. Apart from breathe. That’s okay with you?’
This time Helen returned his smile, nodding.
‘Will you bring her through to surgery?’ Corinna had finished relaying the message and put her phone back down on her desk.
‘Yes, that would be a good idea.’ Anything to keep Helen quiet and away from any hubbub in the main reception area.
Corinna nodded, turning to Helen’s friend and telling her firmly not to move. Then she beckoned to Ben.
Helen wasn’t ready to walk yet. Ben grinned at her. ‘Let’s do this the easy way, shall we? Hold onto me.’
He bent, picking Helen up. He could feel her breathing against his chest, as she lay in his arms, and he followed Corinna to a modern, well equipped surgery, putting Helen down on the examination couch and operating the backrest so that she was sitting up.