‘How much?’
‘Don’t know that,’ Nicky muttered, checking her notes, ‘just that he’s six years old and he’s swallowed his mother’s tablets. Big panic. On their way in as we speak. Off you go, guys. Save lives. But do it in English or no one will have a clue what you’re talking about.’
And with that she stalked down the corridor, still juggling the X-rays and muttering about her grumbling stomach as the sound of an ambulance siren grew louder.
‘I’ll bleep the paediatricians and an anaesthetist,’ Christy said, and Alessandro gave a nod.
‘I’ll meet the ambulance and see you in Paediatric Resus.’
The child was crying miserably and Christy felt her heart twist. He reminded her so much of Ben. Instinctively she stepped towards the little boy but Alessandro was there before her.
‘There, now,’ he said softly, squatting down so that he was at the same level as the boy. ‘Today is my lucky day because you have come to visit me in my special wizard’s laboratory.’
The little boy’s lip continued to wobble but he stared at Alessandro with wide eyes. ‘Wizard?’
‘Of course.’ He waved a hand around the room. ‘This is where I do all my experiments.’ He reached into the pocket of his trousers, removed a coin and promptly made it disappear. The boy gasped in delight when it was ‘retrieved’ from his ear.
Christy grinned. That was Ben’s favourite trick, too.
‘Hide something else,’ the little boy said in a small voice, and the mother gave a wobbly smile.
‘Luke’s always hiding things. You should see what I find in his pockets.’ She bit her lip and looked at Christy, her expression full of guilt. ‘I can’t believe this has happened. I didn’t even know those tablets were dangerous,’ she whispered as she moved closer to the trolley. ‘You can buy iron over the counter so I didn’t really think it was too bad, but I had a friend with me and she said that iron can be lethal.’ She covered her hand with her mouth and Alessandro gave Christy a sharp frown.
Interpreting his look, Christy took the mother to one side. Alessandro was successfully calming the child down—he didn’t need the mother upsetting him again. ‘The important thing right now is to find out how much he has taken and treat him,’ she said gently. ‘Did you bring the bottle?’
‘Oh, yes…’ The woman stuck her hand into her coat pocket and pulled out a bottle. ‘It’s supposed to have a childproof cap.’
‘Some children are born dexterous and inquisitive,’ Christy said dryly, thinking of Ben’s antics.
The mother reached for a tissue and blew her nose. ‘I can’t believe he took them,’ she whispered, her face blotched with tears. ‘Or that I was stupid enough to leave them on the kitchen table. He said they looked like sweets. I only turned my back for a moment—’
‘All drugs, even vitamins, should be kept well out of reach of children, but the important thing now is to assess how many he’s taken,’ Christy said. ‘Let’s just concentrate on sorting him out. Try not to be upset because your distress will make him worse.’
Alessandro took the bottle and examined it. ‘Do you know how many were in here?’
The mother shook her head. ‘It was a full bottle last week and I haven’t missed a dose, so quite a few.’
‘And has he been sick?’
Again the mother shook her head and Christy held out her hand. ‘I’ll count the tablets,’ she suggested, ‘and that will give us an idea how many he’s swallowed.’
At that moment, Billy hurried into the room to help, closely followed by the paediatric registrar.
‘The important thing is the amount of elemental iron that has been ingested,’ Alessandro told Billy in response to his question about iron poisoning.
Christy counted the tablets. ‘Eight missing.’ It was a lot, but Alessandro’s expression didn’t change.
‘All right,’ he said calmly, removing his jacket. ‘We need to check his serum iron, glucose, do a full blood count. And let’s get a plain, abdominal X-ray.’
Billy looked at him. ‘X-ray?’
‘Iron is radio-opaque,’ Christy said quickly, ‘the iron will show up on X-ray.’ But as she studied the child, a thought flickered to life in the back of her mind. ‘Luke, what did the tablets taste like?’
Alessandro frowned at her, clearly anxious to progress, but she lifted a hand and waited for Luke to answer.
‘Sweets.’ But he didn’t quite meet her eyes and an instinct made her step closer to the trolley.
‘Luke.’ She kept her voice gentle. ‘Did you swallow the sweets or did you hide them?’ She saw something in his eyes and her conviction grew. ‘No one is going to be angry with you, sweetheart,’ she said softly. ‘But we need to know the truth. Are they in your pockets?’