Billionaire Doctor (House of Kolovsky) - Carol Marinelli Page 0,9
the windows of his soul, all she could see was nothing, just nothing, as if every shelf had been stripped bare.
‘Thank you.’
He didn’t ask for more information, didn’t ask anything of her, just turned and opened the door and headed for Resus. Annie followed him, the rather breathless anesthetist arriving a second after them, but Iosef took immediate control.
‘He is not to be intubated. He is a terminal patient and for palliative care only.’
‘We’re just waiting on his notes.’
‘His notes are at the private hospital,’ Iosef responded, picking up a wall phone and tapping in a number. ‘I will get his oncologist to speak with you now.’
‘Thanks.’ Jackie gave a grateful nod. It was excruciatingly hard dealing with a colleague’s relative, especially one so sick, and it would be far easier to go through his history and prognosis with his doctor rather than his son.
‘He’s stopped seizing,’ Annie said.
The tiny spasms in his hands, the flickering of his eyelids, had all ceased now and Ivan fell into a heavy postictal state, his exhausted body dragging in air.
Jackie spoke to Iosef. ‘His stats are dire and his respiration rate is dangerously low.’
‘I can see that.’ He flicked a light in his father’s eyes, examining him carefully, and it could have been any other patient except that he spoke to the unconscious man in Russian, checking his reflexes before replacing the blanket. The only time his shoulders tensed, the only time she saw his jaw clench was when the family was ushered in, the receptionist apologetically introducing Nina Kolovsky whose loud, throaty sobs filled the room.
‘I asked if she’d wait in the interview room,’ Kath, the receptionist, said to Jackie as Nina’s knees buckled at the sight of her husband. ‘She insisted that she be with him.’
‘That’s fine, Kath,’ Iosef said, then spoke in Russian to his mother, abrupt words that halted her tears but had her arguing loudly with him. But Iosef wasn’t having any of it, taking his mother firmly by the elbow and leading her outside as Jackie spoke at length on the phone to the oncologist across the city before hanging up.
‘He’s not for intubation or resuscitation,’ Jackie relayed. ‘Iosef has been trying to get Nina to have him admitted to a palliative care ward, but so far she’s demanding that he be nursed at home. The ward here is more than happy to take him as, frankly, I think he’s way too ill to be transferred—let’s wait and see what Iosef has to say.’
Not very much.
After just a few moments he returned, his face a touch grey now but his voice extremely steady when he spoke.
‘My mother saw something on the news last night about a treatment.’ He shook his head at the hopelessness of it all. ‘She refuses to accept that he is dying—even with round-the-clock nursing and his doctor coming in, she panics all the time. She does not want him to be admitted to the private hospital, but he cannot stay at home like this.’
‘I don’t think he’s well enough to be transferred anyway,’ Jackie said softly. ‘Iosef, would you like to come to my office? We can—’
‘That will not be necessary.’ Again he shook his head, rubbed the top of his forehead with his index finger for a few seconds as he stared at this father, and for no apparent reason Annie felt a well of tears in her eyes, knew, knew that despite his cool demeanor, despite the fact he appeared supremely in control, detached even—somewhere deep inside this had to hurt. ‘I will ring his hospital and have him admitted to their medical ward. I should be able to get her to agree to that and perhaps then we can discuss getting him transferred to the palliative care ward.’
‘Iosef,’ Jackie said slowly, ‘I’ve told you—he’s not well enough to go in an ambulance.’
‘I am well aware of that.’ Grey eyes held Jackie’s. ‘I am also aware of the circus this will become once the media find out that he has been admitted. The private hospital is better equipped to deal with that. I also know my family, Jackie, and this is the only way I can think of to get my father the care he needs at this late stage. So give me whatever it is I need to sign and I will escort him in the ambulance.’
Which didn’t leave much room for maneuver.
Still, by the time the ambulance arrived, it felt like every Russian living in Melbourne had trooped through