Chapters (90)
- PROLOGUE
- 1849
- ONE
- TWO
- EDINBURGH
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- EIGHTY
- EIGHTY-ONE
- EPILOGUE
- HISTORICAL NOTE
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- Extract from A Corruption of Blood
- 1850
- ONE
As they closed in on it, something wasn’t right. He felt some instinct seize him as he noticed that the door was not closed. Hurrying towards it, he could see a pair of feet within the hall, the toes pointing upwards.
Sarah was laid out on the floor, unconscious.
SIXTY-THREE
arah was pale, drifting in and out of consciousness. Raven lifted her up and carried her through to the bedroom, where he placed her on the bed. Martha followed, looking blank-eyed at what had confronted them.
Raven loosened Sarah’s clothing. Her face was blanched, her pulse rapid, her abdomen swollen. His worst fears had been realised. He had not a second to waste.
‘Can you wait with her?’ he asked Martha.
She nodded. ‘Where are you going?’
Raven did not answer, already tearing off into the rain, bound for Queen Street as fast as he had ever run.
His recent reading about ovariotomy had reacquainted him with the current thinking regarding all ovarian and fallopian-tube pathologies. In response to Sarah’s episode of pain he had scoured the books and journals searching for a possible explanation, hoping to exclude the one he had immediately thought of, seeking reassurance but finding only cause for concern. Since then his bag had been packed with everything that he might need should the worst happen.
Raven bolted inside No. 52 and fetched the bag from his consulting room. He was almost to the front door again when he recalled his recent moment of apprehension visiting one of the outdoor patients. He checked to ensure he had chloroform. There was indeed a bottle, but it was close to empty.
Raven ran to Dr Simpson’s office and seized a replacement from the store cupboard. As he emerged with it gripped in his hand, he encountered Quinton coming up the stairs. Raven’s look was enough to warn him not to even open his mouth.
‘What is wrong with her?’ Martha asked when he returned to Albany Street, her features expressing a combination of horror and fascination.
‘I think she has an extra-uterine pregnancy,’ he said. ‘The foetus is growing in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus. Now the tube has ruptured, and she is bleeding.’
‘What can be done?’
Raven wondered how to explain the complexities of the situation that they had found themselves in: that Sarah was bleeding into her abdomen, that what was happening was almost uniformly fatal, that although the pathology was relatively well understood, suggestions as to how such a catastrophe might be managed were few. One such was in a passage he had read just a few days before: ‘Here is an accident which can happen to any wife in the most useful period of her life which good authorities have said can never be cured, but the bleeding vessel through which the stream of life is rushing away can be ligatured.’
The only problem was, to his knowledge, no one had ever done it.