War and Rescue

Raina Novak sat at the nursing station in the children’s ward filling in required documentation on each child in the ward on computer. She’d just accompanied the doctor making his rounds and needed to input his instructions into the hospital ward database. While she was reasonably competent in English now after six months at this London hospital there were occasions when she struggled with a word or phrase and had to ask one of the nurses to help her with the meaning.

She was highly qualified in the country she’d fled from in the Balkans and had in fact been elevated to in charge of the children’s ward in the city she’d fled from during the war for independence. Whilst on duty at that hospital there’d been a direct hit on her parent’s home killing parents and her siblings not engaged on the front line of the war. There was nothing to hold her to her country now as being in proximity to that place once her home and having happy memories of her childhood and grief over loss bought her continual distress. She began to look for a place to heal but lingered on waiting to see if her fiancé would return from the front line before taking that decision. He was resisting the invasion on his country. But the dreaded moment arrived when word filtered through that her Fiancé had been killed.

She’d been to London for work experience after her first nursing degree had been confirmed and had made good friends at this hospital, she was now working in. They’d been sorry to see her return to her homeland so, she contacted them urgently to see if it would be possible to get work there far away from proximity to her recent loss.

 She’d made an excellent impression during her short stay in London, and they hastily worked with immigration to get paperwork completed so Raina could join them quickly. There was a current nursing shortage, so it was common for hospitals to be recruiting from Europe, especially for those highly qualified as Raina was. These friends boarded her for a while until Raina could find an apartment for herself as close to the hospital as possible. Raina did not look at her transfer as an immigration move. She loved her country and wanted to contribute to its rehabilitation if the invasion was resisted and her country maintained its independence.

Raina glanced up to observe the other nurses on shift circulating among beds. They were dealing with a range of health issues and childhood ages and needed to be constantly alert. It was only recently Raina had been placed in charge of the ward during her allocated shifts. Despite her high level of training and administrative experience she’d been initially allocated nursing duties with someone else in charge of her shifts. The reason was a good one and Raina was quite happy to work at that level as she culturally adjusted. Having been away from London for a few years now her English language needed to be refreshed so it was wisely thought she’d need help to reorient to London. Besides that, London had equipment she was not familiar with as technology had advanced making diagnostics a little more accurate and this was one of the hospitals advanced cases were referred on to. That kind of equipment was not available in places she’d worked in her home country, so she was glad for the supervised learning experience.

But Raina was very intelligent and that was why the hospital had eagerly grasped the opportunity to bring her to London hoping she’d make that her permanent home now. She learned quickly and showed her value in decisions made on the spot under supervision. So, administration put her in a supervisory role just one month before her shift this day. Raina was enjoying the work pressure taking her mind off the terrible loss of family and her cherished fiancé. She welcomed the exhaustion at the end of her shift as it was the only way she could sleep when she returned to her apartment.

Her energies were now poured into the welfare of the children under her supervision. She’d seen so many of the children in her country killed in the war and was glad that at least she could contribute to the health of children in this ward.

As she viewed activities of the circulating nurses on duty, she noticed one of them Freya Nielsen seemed to be having some discomfort. She knew Freya was in the early stages of pregnancy and decided to check on her. She headed there quickly.

“Are you OK Freya?”

“I’ll be OK Raina, just a little discomfort that’s all. This is my first. I’ve got all the theoretical training as to what’s going on inside but now, I’m getting personal experience.”

Freya laughed but Raina detected some anxiety in the nurse’s answer, and this raised concerns. Raina was very experienced in reading people’s body language. Not wanting to embarrass Freya she decided to handle the situation diplomatically.

“Freya I’ve completed my desk work, but someone needs to tend the emergency phone. Could you sit at the nursing station for me as I want to do a quick round of our patients and confer with the other nurses to see how they are getting along with their sections. I’ll keep an eye on your section while you do this for me too.”

Freya looked relieved and nodded in agreement and this was noted by Raina who decided to keep an eye on this nurse too. Losing the baby at this stage of pregnancy would be devastating to a woman and perhaps she’d advise Freya to check with her doctor to confirm everything was progressing normally.

“Raina I’ve been keeping an eye on Brenna Cartwright in bed twelve. She’s very restless despite something we gave earlier to help her sleep and speaks to me in a language I don’t understand sometimes. When she’s fully awake we can converse in English but when sedated she speaks in another language that sounds like German, but I can’t understand it all. I know her father is English so that’s a bit of a puzzle. I’ve never seen any woman visit her which is a further puzzle.”

Freya headed for the nursing station to stay close to the phone and Raina did the rounds talking with the nurses on duty and discussing the current situation with each child patient. She then returned to Freya’s section and Freya seeing her there quickly came to join her.

“I’m feeling fine now Raina so I’ll take over here so you can return to the desk.”

“Freya, I want you to consult with your doctor tomorrow and make sure everything is progressing well with the little one. Your first duty is to the little one and this is strenuous work which you can do for a while yet but only if the little one is developing as, it should be. Promise me you’ll do that.”

Freya nodded and patted Raina’s arm in appreciation. Raina was the leader of the team but showed an empathy for all the nurses under her supervision that made her approachable and they loved working with her. Not all supervisors were loved as well as being respected for their position.

“What’s the latest on Brenna Freya?”

They both proceeded to Brenna’s bedside and stood there. Freya spoke softly to try and not disturb the child, but the tossing child opened her eyes and stared at the two nurses. She spoke but it was not in English as she studied Raina’s Slavic features. Raina stepped back in surprise. She’d completed some of her early education in Vienna when her father had been assigned there as part of a diplomatic mission and knew Austria was a melting pot of many ethnic groups. She recognized the German dialect of Austria but there was an accent to show a Slavic influence in Brenna’s upbringing. Raina was reasonably fluent in the Austrian brand of the Germanic language group and having played with children of the different ethnic groups in her stay there during her father’s diplomatic posting she was tuned into the different accents too. So, she spoke to the girl in response in that language and the girl smiled and reached out to be picked up. Raina turned to Freya.

“One of the dialects of Austria Freya so you were tuned in to the Germanic influence correctly. What is her status? I see from her notes at the foot of the bed she’s almost ready to be released to go home so presume it’s OK to sit her up.”

The girl was still holding up her arms to be picked up. A sudden wave of empathy washed over Raina and against protocols in dealing with children under nursing care she reached over and began to stroke the child’s hair then sat her up and gave her a hug talking soothingly to her to try and draw out her story. She found out the girl’s mother had died, and her mother’s young sister had flown in from Austria to temporarily care for her but for some reason Brenna hated this woman in her late teens and the grief of her mother’s passing and dislike of her aunt had impacted the child’s immune system so that she’d become susceptible to a potent virus sweeping London. She loved her father and could not understand why he was not with her in the hospital except for his daily visits. Freya spoke gently.

“Raina we are not supposed to be creating a potential dependency with the children under our care. You need to be careful.”

Raina nodded. That was part of the nursing code. Empathy yes, dependency no. She kissed the child and released her instructing her to sleep now as the nurses would be watching over her to see she came to no harm. Brenna relaxed and stopped tossing around and went back to sleep with a smile on her face. Freya smiled.

“You worked a miracle, Raina. The child has been anxious and tossing around on the shifts I was assigned in the last week. It slowed down her progress toward recovery, but I think this is a turning point and the doctor will probably clear her to leave us tomorrow. She is perfectly relaxed now and all it took was a familiar language.”

Raina went home when her shift finished early the next day feeling a sense of happiness she hadn’t experienced for some time. She identified with each child under her care and was happy to see them recover and leave for home, but this was a special occasion and it bought back happy memories of her own growing up years in Vienna while her father was working in her countries diplomatic mission. She loved her own country, but it was now associated with sad experiences she was trying to deal with in a foreign country.

She liked it in London and felt her current nursing environment was a family environment rather than a workplace. She was accepted and treated well and with respect but there was something missing in not being able to converse in her native language. The Austrian dialect was not her own language, but it was a language of her childhood, and it carried many happy memories. On reaching home she enjoyed a meal then relaxed in front of the TV for a while but soon found her eyelids drooping and headed for a quick shower and grateful appointment with her bed. Hours later she awoke and dressed for a trip to the supermarket returning home to replenish her refrigerator and pantry. She’d finished her assigned night shifts for a few weeks so had time to relax again that evening and found some of the grieving beginning to diminish to the point where she could occupy her mind on hobbies and self-improvement. She’d be on day shifts for a few weeks when she returned to work.

Eventually her welcome long break from work ended and she reported for her day shift where she’d be in charge. It was usually much busier than the night shifts but alternating between night shifts and day shifts even with a period of extra time in between did mess around with her sleeping schedule. She didn’t want to use medications to counteract that jet lag kind of adjustment so where possible got as much sunshine as London would allow with its peculiar weather patterns as a natural remedy. She also valued the exercise equipment crammed into her small apartment and was particular with her diet. No fast foods for her as a regular meal practice. She missed the cuisine of her own country but had found a couple of places in London that approximated what she was used to at home and now and then headed there for a special treat.

As she received instructions from the handover she glanced over to where the child Brenna had been cared for. A new child was now occupying that place. She called the team together for a quick conference before they commenced taking over for the shift and rapidly reviewed instructions from the previous supervisor with them. She knew most of them as over the past six months their rotations had coincided with her shift. There were always a couple of student nurses to be mentored so Raina called them aside quickly and checked on their competency levels before assigning them to an experienced nurse for mentoring. Then she returned to the nursing station to check on the list of patients and a brief review of their status.

On the notice board was an envelope pinned with her name on it. She took it down curiously and opened the envelope. There was a note inside from Brenna’s father Donald Cartwright. Apparently, Brenna had told him about the kind nurse who spoke her language and looked after her, so she was not frightened anymore. She was a much happier child than she’d been since her mother’s death and was constantly pestering him to see the kind nurse again. He wanted to know if she’d be so kind as to phone the girl and speak to her as she made a transition from her grief at the loss of her mother as he felt it would be an important part of her renewal. He’d taken a leave of absence from his work for a year to help with her recovery from the loss of her mother and he also felt the need to bond with his daughter so they could recover together. Would she do that? If so, here was a telephone number through which she could be contacted. He hoped she’d continue to speak to the girl in the familiar language her mother taught her.

Raina smiled to herself. Was this an attempt by this Donald Cartwright to find a substitute mother for his child and was he hitting on her. She’d had this tried on her in her own country and in London during her first visit to the hospital years ago and had rejected all those advances. The only one who’d tried that and succeeded was her fiancé now deceased and memories of him were still too precious to even have an interest in any other man. She did have an interest in his daughter Brenna but in case the father had motives not so innocent as his letter implied, she’d better avoid making that contact. Pity, as it had revived happy memories of her time in Austria. She blocked the request out of her mind and poured herself into the profession she loved finding her fulfillment in that and welcoming everything she learned as new technology made its appearance to ensure decisions made were more accurate for patient outcomes.

To be continued

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