S6 E2 (14 Oct 03) : Read My Lips by Martin Jameson
Episode Summary
Tying in with British Sign Language week, deaf actress Sarah Beauvoisin plays Sian, who is brought in to Holby by her sign-language student, Ade, after collapsing at work. Profoundly deaf, she needs Ade to interpret as the staff cannot communicate with her. Her husband, Ian, also deaf, cannot speak and has a deep-rooted distrust of Ade, who declares his love for Sian. Sian is taken into surgery to fix her heart and while in surgery they realise that she is about ten weeks pregnant. The child is Ian’s and though she wants to be with Ade she foresees insurmountable problems if she chooses a hearing man over her husband, ending up in her choosing her husband in the end.
Patients and staff become paranoid as the police declare an official murder investigation into the recent unexplained fatalities. Agency nurse Dawn Smyth annoys Chrissie and Kath with her constant questions about who it might be and the police presence unsettles many, including Nic and Kelly. When the police check the lockers of the staff, Nic gets annoyed and says they are not allowed to check his locker, but DI Archer explains that they are hospital property and therefore they have permission to check them through. They talk to Nic and he explains that he was in many foster families as a child and they used to go through his stuff, which is why he got so annoyed. DI Archer starts talking more about his past, upsetting him by talking about his foster family past and about his father dying when he was seven. She also mentions his mother disappearing and when she asks him about her, he says that she is dead. She also wonders why Nic had not told the hospital about him having worked for Maybury hospital, where his contract was not renewed after he ended up in a dispute with a patient, who was accusing him of stealing her necklace. They also interview Kelly, who gives them a good impression, but when they start asking her about Nic and about her parents, she says it is none of their business and walks away. Later she has a go at Nic for telling them that their mother is dead, saying that she thought they had agreed not to talk about their parents and she says that he does not have to answer any personal questions. Nic mentions the Maybury hospital and Kelly says that they needed the money to pay for the flat. Nic, angrily, apologises for not being as strong as she is and storms off, but when he leaves Kelly is not as strong as she pretends to be and starts crying.
It’s a soul-searching day for Kath when ex health-care assistant Stan Ashleigh (Paul Shane) is admitted as a patient with an abdominal aortic aneurysm and is adamant that he is not to be resuscitated if anything goes wrong in theatre. Stan does not seem bothered about his health and even goes down to the basement to smoke, instead of lying in his bed, waiting for his operation. Kath finds him there and he explains how lonely he is and that no one has even contacted him after he left the hospital, not even Danny who was like a son to him. Kath apologises and says that Danny is travelling around Australia. Suddenly Stan admits that he has got a son, surprising Kath, who never knew about this. He explains that he was in the army in 1961 and met a girl for a couple of times. Sixteen years later he found out that she had got a son, Andrew Conyard. Stan did never tell his wife Hattie about this, assuming that she would be upset because she could not have any children herself. Therefore, he met Andrew at a nearby café and after a while Andrew got angry at him, blaming him for being ashamed of his son and he walked away, throwing a brick into their window on the way, and Stan never met him again.
Stan is taken into surgery and even though he arrests there, Ric decides to resuscitate him, saying that it was his fault Stan arrested. When Stan wakes up and finds out about this, he is not happy and says that he wanted to go and that next time they should do what he has told them to. No one is there for him anyway and there is no reason to carry on living. Kath finds out that Andrew has moved to Vancouver in 1988 and for a while Stan seems happy about the thought of finally getting a chance to go to Canada. He, however, arrests and even though Kath tries to save him so that he could meet his son, Lisa stops her, because that was what he had wanted. Soon afterwards Kath gets a phone call and finds out that Andrew had died two years earlier in an industrial accident and that even if Stan had survived, he could never have met his son again.
Owen is torn between mother and daughter who both vie for his commitment. On Chrissie’s suggestion that they “take things slowly ”, he promptly bows out of going to a concert with Tricia. Tricia sells Chrissie the concert tickets, knowing that Chrissie is going on a date in the evening and Chrissie buys them, without telling Tricia who the date is. Chrissie later asks Owen to come to a concert and asks him to pay for the tickets, ending up with him paying for the twice, because Tricia had already asked him to pay for them! Ed is wise to Chrissie’s intentions and warns her to be careful, but she does not listen to him and seems to be happily in love, once again.
Heather Nixon comes into hospital with an inflamed gall bladder, which requires surgery. At the same time her husband, Geoffrey, has decided to leave her after many years of misery, but on the way to the railway station he is involved in an RTA and is taken to hospital with concussion and glass in his arm. When Heather returns from surgery she notices him, because they are on the same ward. When Heather is not around, Geoff tells Nic about their marriage and that she is always around, bossing him and even though he has wanted to leave many times, she has always got him to stay. He also tells Nic that they have known each other since they were children, because she is her step sister and used to be taking care of him even as a child, after his father had died. Nic seems to recognise himself and Kelly in the story and is very sympathetical, while Kelly finds the whole thing disgusting. Heather finds out about Geoff being about to leave, but she once again talks him into staying. Later, however, Geoff walks out of the hospital when no one else than Nic notices. Heather soon sees his empty bed and tells them to look after him. Nic runs after Geoff, but when he finds Geoff he just wishes him good luck in life. Kelly tries to stop him, but Nic tells her to leave it.
Patients
Heather Nixon, inflamed gall bladder
Geoffrey Nixon, Heather’s husband and step brother, concussion and glass in his arm after an RTA
Sian Goodhew, a deaf woman, collapsed at work and need heart surgery. They find out that she also is ten weeks pregnant
Stan, abdominal aortic aneurysm, after surgery he arrests and dies, because he had not wanted to be resuscitated
First Scene/words
[DI Archer and some of her colleagues are walking onto the ward, while Kath is telling Nic about the patients]
DI Archer: Just wait here until it sorts out.
Kath: Mrs Gowan can get dicharged, Mrs McCaffrey to elderly care, all the rest to AAU, please.
Last Scene/words
Zubin: How is it going?
DI Archer: You can have your ward back, we’re pretty much done here.
Zubin: Made any progress?
DI Archer: Well, we couldn’t find any faults in any of the equipment.
Zubin: That’s not good, is it?
DI Archer: Given that all the fatalities were stable at the last 15 minute obs and that they were all women, I think there’s a connection between the deaths.
Zubin: And?
DI Archer: And, I would say this is now officially a murder investigation.
Guide by Karin.
