A Dublin Student Doctor - Hardcover

1

It’s a Long, Long Road from Which There Is No Return

 
Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, Doctor Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly, edged the long-bonnetted Rover out of the car park. “Lord Jasus,” he remarked, “but this twenty-fourth day of April in the year of our Lord 1965 has been one for the book of lifetime memories.” He smiled at Kitty O’Hallorhan in the passenger’s seat. “For all kinds of reasons,” he said, “and now that the Downpatrick Races are over, it’s home to Ballybucklebo.” He accelerated.

Kitty yelled, “Will you slow down?” then said more gently, “Fingal, there are pedestrians and cyclists. I’d rather not see any in the ditch.” The afternoon sun highlighted the amber flecks in her grey eyes. She put slim fingers on his arm.

“Just for you, Kitty.” He slowed and whistled “Slow Boat to China.” “All right in the back?”

“Fine, Fingal,” said O’Reilly’s assistant, young Doctor Barry Laverty.

“Grand, so.” Mrs. Maureen “Kinky” Kincaid was O’Reilly’s housekeeper, as she had been for Doctor Flanagan. Fingal had met Kinky when he’d come as an assistant to Thómas Flanagan in 1938. She’d stayed on when a thirty-seven-year-old O’Reilly returned in 1946 from his service in the Second World War and bought the general practice from Doctor Flanagan’s estate.

They’d been a good nineteen years, he thought as he put the car into a tight bend between two rows of ancient elms. So had his years as a medical student at Dublin’s Trinity College in the ’30s.

“Jasus thundering Murphy.” O’Reilly stamped on the brake. The Rover shuddered to a halt five yards from a man standing waving his arms.

O’Reilly’s bushy eyebrows met. He could feel his temper rise and the tip of his bent nose blanch. “Everyone all right?” he roared, and was relieved to hear a chorus of reassurance. He hurled his door open and stamped up the road. “What in the blue bloody blazes are you doing standing there waving your arms like an out-of-kilter semaphore? I could have squashed you flatter than a flaming flounder-fish.”

The stranger wore Wellington boots, moleskin trousers, and a hacking jacket. He had a russet beard, a squint, and was no more than five foot two. O’Reilly expected him at least to take a step back, apologise, but he stood his ground.

“There’s no need for youse ’til be losing the bap, so there’s not. There’s been an accident, and I’m here to stop big buggers like youse driving into it, so I am. See for yourself.” He pointed to a knot of people and the slowly rotating rear wheel of a motorbike that lay on its side.

“Accident?” said O’Reilly. He spun on his heel. “Barry. Grab my bag and come here.” He turned back. “I’m Doctor O’Reilly. Doctor Laverty’s coming.”

“Doctor? Thank God for that, sir. A motorcyclist took a purler on an oil slick, you know. Somebody’s gone for the ambulance and police.”

“Here you are.” Barry handed O’Reilly his bag. “What’s up?”

“Motorbike accident.” He spoke to the short man. “You’d be safer back down the road where drivers can see you before they’re on top of you.”

“Right enough. I’ll go, sir.” He started walking.

O’Reilly yelled, “Kitty. Kinky. There’s been an accident. Stay with the car.” Kitty would have the wit to pull the car over to the verge. “Come on, Barry.” O’Reilly marched straight to the little crowd. Time to use the voice that could be heard over a gale when he’d served on the battleship HMS Warspite. “We’re doctors. Let us through.”

Ruddy-cheeked country faces turned. Murmuring people shuffled aside and a path opened.

A motorbike lay on the road, an exclamation mark at the end of two long black scrawls of rubber. The engine ticked and the stink of oil and burnt tyre hung over the smell of ploughed earth from a field and the almond scent of whin flowers.

A middle-aged woman knelt beside the rider. The victim’s head was turned away from O’Reilly, but there could only be one owner of that red thatch. A duncher lay a few yards away. It irritated O’Reilly that Ulstermen wouldn’t wear crash helmets but favoured cloth caps, worn with the peak at the back.

He knelt beside the woman and set his bag on the ground. “He’s unconscious, he’s breathing regular, his airway’s clear, his pulse is eighty and regular, and he’s not bleeding. There don’t seem to be any bones broken,” she said, and added, “I’m a first-aider, you know.”

“Thank you, Mrs.?”

“Meehan. Rosie Meehan.”

O’Reilly smiled at her. “Donal? Donal?” he said gently. Fifteen minutes ago he’d seen Ballybucklebo’s arch schemer, Donal Donnelly, riding the motorbike from the car park.

No reply.

O’Reilly grabbed the man’s wrist. Good. Mrs. Meehan was right; the pulse was strong and regular. “Donal,” he said more loudly, “Donal.”

Donal’s face was chalky. He wore his raincoat reversed and buttoned over his back. It was the practice of country men when riding motorbikes. It stopped the wind of passage getting through.

O’Reilly was hesitant to move Donal. He could have a broken neck. Better to wait for the ambulance. The first law of medicine was Primum non nocere. First do no harm. O’Reilly bent lower. “Donal?”

Donal’s eyelids fluttered. “Numuh?”

Better, O’Reilly thought. Donal might only be concussed. If that were the case he should start regaining consciousness. But you could never be certain about head injuries. The damage might range from a simple concussion with complete recovery through to serious brain injury leading to paralysis, permanent brain damage, and even death. O’Reilly gritted his teeth. Donal had a new wife and a wean on the way. O’Reilly’s heart went out to the pregnant Julie Donnelly, née MacAteer. He heard the nee-naw of an approaching siren. O’Reilly leant over. “Donal?”

Donal’s eyes flew open. “Doctor O’Reilly? What are youse doing here?” He struggled to rise. “I shouldn’t be in my bed.”

Donal recognised O’Reilly. That was a good sign even if he was unclear where he was. O’Reilly put a restraining hand on the man’s shoulder. “Lie still. You had an accident.”

Donal put his hand to his head. “I must have hit my nut a right clatter,” he said. “It’s pounding to beat Bannagher, so it is.”

“Do you know what day it is?” O’Reilly asked.

Donal frowned. “Uh? Saturday. We made a wheen of money on the oul gee-gees at the races.” He grinned like a small boy who had answered the teacher’s question correctly. “And this here’s the road to Ballybucklebo.” A look of concern crossed his face. “Jesus, is Paddy Regan’s motorbike all right? It’s only on loan.” Donal tried to rise.

“Stay put,” O’Reilly said, and smiled. If Donal knew about events immediately preceding his accident it was probable he had suffered only a minor concussion. Even so, O’Reilly would never forget a footballer who’d been knocked out, recovered, gone back to finish the match, and died from a brain haemorrhage two hours later.

The nee-naw, nee-naw grew louder.

“I don’t need no ambulance,” Donal said. “I’m for going home, so I am.”

“Sorry, Donal,” O’Reilly said, “but you’ll be spending tonight in the Royal Victoria Hospital.”

“Och, Doctor—that’s daft. I’ve a motorbike to get back to—”

“The Royal. For observation,” O’Reilly said. “No arguments. I’ll take care of the bike.”

“But—”

“Donal, you’re going to hospital,” O’Reilly said as if speaking to a not overly bright child. “That’s final.” He stood and spoke to Barry. “I’ll do a quick neurological exam once he’s in the ambulance. Establish a baseline in case he gets worse. I’ll go up to the Royal with him. Kitty’s the senior nursing sister on the neurosurgical ward there. She’ll want to come too. She can go with Donal in the back of the ambulance. God knows she’s observed a hundred times more head injuries than you and I put together. She’ll keep an eye on him and warn me if his condition deteriorates. You drive Kinky and the Rover home.”

“I’ll go and get Kitty.” Barry started to turn as a yellow Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority ambulance drew up and its siren was turned off.

“In a minute,” O’Reilly said. “Once the police have come and done whatever they have to do, measure things, take photos and statements, they’ll have you fill in forms. When you’re done, get them to give you a hand to load the bike into the boot of the Rover. At least Paddy Regan won’t need to come all the way here to collect it.”

“Paddy? I’ll let him know,” Barry said.

O’Reilly turned. “Do you hear that, Donal? We’ll get the bike home for you.”

“Thanks, Doc. But what about Julie? She’ll go spare if ...