Read Newborn Needs a Dad for Free Online Page B

rehabilitation specialist, Jackie Pennington, who comes in from Salt Lake city two days a week. Oh, and an obstetrician on the way, but not for another few weeks. We have nurse practitioner Fallon O’Gara, whom you met earlier and who practically runs the hospital—she’s probably the most essential team member we have. And we have a couple of respiratory therapists, three physical therapists, and a dozen staff nurses. We also have a few doctors who come in to help out in the clinic on a rotating basis once or twice a month—a cardiologist and a rheumatologist. Then there’s Henry Gunther, a retired anesthesiologist, on call. He moved here to engineer the ski train—trains were his hobby—so he’s always close by when we need him. Then we have a number of volunteers and support staff, and that’s about it. White Elk Hospital. Struggling, but surviving.”
    “Seems adequate for the area.” And impressive. White Elk Hospital appeared to be a well-run medical facility, even if Neil did admit to a few shortcomings, and it was almost too bad she wouldn’t be part of it for long. It could have been what she was looking for, professionally, anyway. Someplace nice, where people cared about each other
    “Most of the time it is. And the one thing I failed to mention is that we all take our turns in the emergency department and trauma, even if that’s not our specialty. At present, we don’t have enough funds to staff it regularly, so we all get our chance to work there. I’m hoping that before the start of next year’s skiing I’ll be able to hire one more physician, another trauma doc, and bring in a couple of moonlighters. But Eric and I are still talking it over, crunching numbers, crossing our fingers.”
    “It sounds…compact.” And not at all complicated, like so many of the large hospitals were—hospitals where the doctors fit into their own little niche and rarely, if ever, wandered out of it. Some might say there were advantages to staying where you belonged, but she liked the idea of working different areas, especially if the doctors’ medical qualifications suited that. Her own father, an obstetrician, had been a general field surgeon in the army and she’d had training in general surgery, too, at his urging.
    “Coming from Chicago, the way you do, I suppose it would.”
    “Well, coming from Chicago, the way I do, I have a different appreciation for what medicine should be.”
    “Which is?”
    “Uncomplicated.”
    “In an ideal world,” Neil said.
    “In a real world, if that’s how you want it to be. Where I worked, everything was complicated. The more complicated it became, the further away the patients seemed to get. I got used to it, I suppose, but…” She frowned. Shrugged. “It was OK then, but not any more.”
    “What changed you?”
    “I’d like to attribute it to my pregnancy hormones but, to be honest, I haven’t been happy for a while. Not unhappy either. Just existing. Nothing was wrong, nothing was bad. But nothing made me happy about my work, and I think to be a good doctor…to be the best doctor you can be…you need to be happy about your work. My dad always was. He jumped out of bed in the morning and couldn’t wait to get started. He thrived in the complicated system, turned it into his playground and worked it to the advantage of his patients. I suppose I thought I should, too, which is why I stayed in practice with him so long, doing just that. But…” She shrugged again. “I wasn’t suited to the manipulations, I guess you could say. I became too restless to be as effective as I wanted to be and decided I finally needed to make a change. Getting pregnant was the last shove I needed. Don’t know what that permanent change is yet, but I’ll know it when I see it.” She was positive of that.
    “So you came here, to White Elk, looking for…happiness?”
    Not even close, but that was a complication she felt no pressing urge to discuss with him. “Handmade baby