"Unknown female, approximately 3 years old, passenger in an RTC, drifting in and out of consciousness due to painrelief given. Abdomen is distended, open fracture to the right radius, laceration to the forehead. Extracted from the car before we arrived. Head and neck immobilised from then on. Morphine administered on route, hypertensive at 132/80, heart rate 74, sats 96%" Iain shouted as he pushed a trolley into the ED.
"Let's get her through to resus" Dylan ordered, walking belong side whilst reading through the young girls chart.
"Where's the mother?" Jacob asked, as he opened the door ahead of them.
"Trapped in the car, Sam was working on her with the fire crew to get her out, I didn't see her but it didn't sound good" Iain replied.
"On my count, 1, 2, 3" Rita spoke as they moved the girl across onto a bed.
"I need a fast scan of her abdomen, let theatre know we may need them, and let's cross match 6 units" Dylan ordered.
Jacob handed him the fast scanner which he then moved over the girls abdomen, "free fluid in the abdomen, could be the spline, looks like her diaphragm may have perforated too, let's get her upstairs, page Levy and Naylor and a paediatric surgeon" Dylan said.
The girl was moved out of resus and towards the lifts when Elle put the phone down at the nurses station. She couldn't take her eyes off of the girl on the trolley, before looking up at Jacob, "come with me" she said gently.
"Gotta take this patient up to theatre, I'll let you know when I'm on my break and we can grab a coffee then?" Jacob replied as they waited for the lift.
Elle stepped towards him, placing a hand on his arm, "Jacob, you can't treat this patient" she told him.
Jacob looked confused, "why? Elle what's going on?" he asked.
Elle took a deep breath, "She's your daughter" she told him.
Jacob stepped back, letting go of the side of the bed as the doors opened and Dylan took her into the lift, "why would you say that? I don't have a daughter" he told her.
"The woman in the car, her mother, It's Connie. Jacob I'm so sorry, but this little girl, she's yours, she's got to be" Elle said gently.
Tears began to fall down Jacob's face, "no, no this can't be true. If Connie had been pregnant when she left she would have told me. That can't be my little girl, because that little girls hurt, she could die, and Connie wouldn't have let that happen" he insisted.
"I know this is a lot for you to take in, but that was Sam on the phone, they're bringing Connie in now, she's in a really bad way" she told him.
Jacob pulled his arm away from Elle's hand, rushing towards the entrance of the ED, he leans back against the wall, gasping for air, tears streaming down his cheeks.
Elle placed a hand on his shoulder as she reached him, and he looked at her desperately, she had never seen her best friend looking so distraught.
"How old is she? What's her name?" He asked weakly.
"Amira, she's 2 and a 1/2" Elle replied.
Jacob choked back a sob, "she's so little, she's just a baby, my baby" he cried.
Elle went to respond, but was cut off as the sirens wailed, the ambulance pulling up outside of the ED.
A paramedic jumped out of the front, running towards the back door and opening it as an array of doctors and nurses flooded out of the ED.
