by Barbara Ebel
“Shit, I forgot her number,” he said.
“Just hit redial,” Toni said.
He did but there was no answer.
“And put on your seat belt,” she said.
He strapped in and ran his hand over his head. “But I’m a faster driver than you.”
“You ain’t tonight,” she said.
She pressed the accelerator and the ambulance rushed down the boulevard. Catching most of the lights in a synchronous fashion, she slipped through a handful of yellow lights and avoided putting on their siren. Casey squirmed in his seat and fidgeted with his phone.
Ten minutes later, Toni pulled the ambulance to the front door of the suburban hospital’s ER. Casey threw open the door and lurched to get out.
“Unbuckle your seat belt first,” Toni said.
He pulled the buckle and then swung away the strap.
“Now get out of here,” she said, “and go become a father.”
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Casey stopped at the front desk where a volunteer told him where to go. He ran up to labor and delivery, knocked on the door, and entered. The female obstetrician sat on a stool at the end of Mary’s bed; Sara was holding Mary’s hand.
“Are you okay?” Casey almost yelped.
“No, I’m not okay,” she said between breathing and pushing.
“It’s not going to last long,” Casey said. “I promise.”
“Easy for you to say,” she squealed.
“Sara,” Casey said with a frown, “I haven’t called Danny yet.”
“I did. And he’s on his way. Now, coach, you take over and good luck.” She gave Mary’s hand a squeeze and left the room.
When Danny arrived, he paced the hallway like the day his own daughters were born while Sara sat on a chair watching him. She rubbed her hands and rotated a ring around her finger with enough nervous energy for the both of them.
A half hour after the pediatrician had run into the room, the door finally opened. The obstetrician poked her head out. “Your presence is requested,” she smiled.
Danny hurried in with Sara following. Mary lay in the bed with a baby in her arms and Casey stood holding one as well, swiping a tear from his eyes.
“Just another minute,” the pediatrician said. “We’re taking them away for their more definitive physical. But, so far, they’re looking great. Apgars 8 and 9 and 7 and 8.”
Looking through tears, Mary signaled to her brother. “Take this beautiful bundle,” she said.
Danny leaned forward and cuddled the baby in his arms. “Boys or girls?” he asked.
“And what are their names?” Sara asked, peering at the baby Danny held.
“This one’s Tommy,” Casey said.
“And the baby you’re holding is Melissa,” Mary said.
“I’m almost speechless,” Danny said. “They’re fantastic and so are their names.”
“We’re going to have a blast raising these identical twins,” Mary said. “All of us.”
“We’ll be helping, sis,” Danny said. “But Melissa and Tommy aren’t identical twins. They’re fraternal twins because boy-girl twins are always formed from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.”
“Huh?” she said.
They can’t be identical,” Danny said, “because those types of twins – monozygotic - are always formed from a single zygote that contains either male XY or female XX chromosomes.” He rocked the baby in his arms and then handed her to Sara.
Mary watched the family’s enjoyment and the passing of her babies from one to another. She nodded her understanding of Danny’s explanation. “I’m glad my brother is a doctor,” she said.
“So am I,” Casey said, while stroking Tommy’s face. “So am I.”
-END-
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Rebecca Stroud for her fine editing.
From the Author
If you’d like a release alert for when Barbara Ebel has new books available, sign up here. This is intended only to let you know about new releases as soon as they are out.
Barbara Ebel is a physician and an author. Since she practiced anesthesia, she brings credibility to the medical background of her plots. She lives with her husband and pets in a wildlife corridor in Tennessee but has lived up and down the East Coast.
The following books are also written by Barbara Ebel and are available as paperbacks and eBooks:
If you enjoyed Dr. Danny’s daughter, Annabel, in Secondary Impact, be sure to check out the Dr. Annabel Tilson series:
The Dr. Annabel Tilson Series: (6 individual books and/or 2 box sets)
The Dr. Annabel Tilson Novels Box Set: Books 1-3
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2MZgJ3q
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2m0zlV4
Amazon CA: https://amzn.to/2zl8sVD
The Dr. Annabel Tilson Novels Box Set: Books 4-6
Dead Still (A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novel Book 1); excerpt follows.
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2ai7H1T
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2a37GL3
Deadly Delusions (A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novel Book 2)
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2gE7R3D
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2gXlsGb
Desperate to Die (A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novel Book 3)
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2ta1GeH
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2tyZEHV
Death Grip (A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novel Book 4)
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2mDfoUu
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2EQqFIz
Downright Dead (A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novels Book 5)
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2MkSixv
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2n9ZgKG
Dangerous Doctor (A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novels Book 6)
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2SFrURS
Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2s6PknW
Outcome, A Novel
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2mMzZrF
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2mw0Wj0
The Dr. Danny Tilson Series: Available as 4 individual books and/or a Box Set:
The Dr. Danny Tilson Novels Box Set: Books 1-4 (The Dr. Danny Tilson Series)
Find it on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2nDTy3J
Find it on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2DYNwW9
Find it on Amazon CA: http://amzn.to/2nyPLFA
Operation Neurosurgeon: You never know… who’s in the OR (A Dr. Danny Tilson Novel: Book 1).
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1fYfPh7
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/k4xol9
Silent Fear: a Medical Mystery (A Dr. Danny Tilson Novel: Book 2).
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1fTlicS
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1lA2DSE
Collateral Circulation: a Medical Mystery (A Dr. Danny Tilson Novel: Book 3 – excerpt follows). Also an Audiobook.
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1BrINiE
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1CNTgta
Younger Next Decade: After Fifty, the Transitional Decade, and What You Need to Know
(nonfiction health book).
Buy now on Amazon US: http://amzn.to/sjJeEL
Buy now on Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/19W3D2s
Visit the author at her website: http://barbaraebel.weebly.com
Also written and illustrated by Barbara Ebel (a children’s book series about her loveable therapy dog):
Chester the Chesapeake Book One
Chester the Chesapeake Book Two: Summertime
Chester the Chesapeake Book Three: Wintertime
Chester the Chesapeake Book Four: My Brother Buck
Chester the Chesapeake Book Five: The Three Dogs of Christmas
The Chester the Chesapeake Trilogy (The Chester the Chesapeake Series); eBook only
Visit Chester at his website:
http://dogbooksforchildren.weebly.com
Excerpt from Dead Still:
Dead Still
A Dr. Annabel Tilson Novel
by Barbara Ebel
(copyright 2016)
Chapter 1
She had started the surgery rotation the day before so Annabel Tilson barely knew her patients from the list of names that had been shoved into her hands. As a third-year medical student, the day had been hectic; therefore, a short introduction to them and a quick listen to their chests with her first shiny Littmann stethoscope had sufficed. But this morning as she squeezed in close to the bed and looked down at a dead corpse, she remembered the sixty-five-year-old woman, Mrs. Hardy, with clarity from visiting her in her room and watching her surgery in awe.
During the first surgery that Annabel had witnessed on her clinical rotation, the chief resident performed a minimally-invasive gallbladder removal - or laparoscopic cholecystectomy - causing the long mechanical instruments to protrude from her patient’s belly like the squirming arms of a squid. No one indicated at the time or postoperatively that anything had been complicated about the case, so why was her patient dead? She admonished herself for missing the resuscitative attempt before she’d walked into the room; medical supplies, carts, and equipment were scattered about the bed and floor but personnel paid no attention as they began exiting through the doorway.
“Most likely a heart attack,” Marlin Mack said, waving an EKG and signaling her to follow him out of the room. Excluding the chief resident, he was one of the two residents on the team, an unkempt-looking fellow with a ridiculous mustache for his age and a lab coat that needed ironing.
Annabel lagged, taking a last impressionable stare at the deceased woman: mucus smudged her cheeks, urine soaked the bed, and the smell of bowels having opened up was pervasive. A nurse moved the patient’s stocky legs closer together and covered them with a sheet, hiding the unnatural way they seemed to lay. Someone else jammed a pillow under her head before housekeeping came in and started removing the black bags from the trash cans.
As she peeled her eyes away, Annabel tried to shake off her conflicting thoughts of sadness, unsettled nerves, and nausea before rushing out like a puppy after the resident. This was her second day out from the two first years of course work during medical school and the second day on clinical rotation in hospitals. She shuddered. Already this was emotionally difficult.
Outside, Dr. Mack waved her over to a desk in a small cubbyhole. “You’re going to deal with life and death,” he said. “It’s not all a bed of roses. Do you know that blood pools at the bottom of a dead body, whatever area is most gravity dependent?”
Was that something she needed or wanted to know? She didn’t see the relevance of him telling her that and she shook her head.
“Furthermore, since there’s no more circulation and no more heat, the muscles harden, thrusting a corpse into rigor mortis which sets in after about four hours. Then you better do something with it because if it’s left for a day it’ll start to bloat and blacken. And I won’t even mention the smell.”
Annabel gulped. She was beginning to regret that she’d been assigned to surgery right off the bat. Were all the residents as blatant and cold as he was?
Marlin glanced her way. “Oh, sorry. My dad owns a funeral home. It’s natural for me to know about cadavers. Anyway, now comes the second part. I have to go talk to the deceased’s sister. The patient wasn’t married, no kids, not much of anybody in her life it seems.” He got up and brushed past her.
“What’s the matter, Annabel? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The other female medical student on her team, Ginny Young, sat on the edge of the main desk’s counter and gave Annabel a warm smile. She was thirty years old compared to Annabel’s twenty-three and had sought admission to medical school after reconsideration of her first career in biological research.
Annabel leaned over. “Mrs. Hardy, one of my few patients passed away,” she said in a low voice so no one overheard her. “She went from being a living, breathing person with whatever past and with whatever ties to family and friends, to not leaving the hospital. Dr. Mack makes it sound like she’s a lifeless disposable sack of flesh.”
“Sorry to hear about your patient,” she agreed. “That’s too soon after we just started. She frowned and, in a few minutes, settled her eyes on Marlin Mack as he walked towards them.
“Good morning, Dr. Young,” he said. “Annabel’s gone and lost her first patient before official rounds with our attending doctor. Anyway, the sibling of the deceased doesn’t want to see her sister but wants to wait until she’s beautified by the funeral home. She’s pretty much in shock.”
While Marlin grabbed the patient’s chart, Annabel and Ginny stole a glance.
“Come on, don’t just stand there,” Marlin said. “Let’s assemble the team in the office and be ready for Dr. Burk.”
They filed out and, as they passed the dead patient’s room, stopped so Marlin could talk to the transporters waiting in the hallway. A nurse in the room put a blouse on Mrs. Hardy, holding her forearms with a tennis-racquet grip; the body fell quickly back on the mattress when she let go.
Two male transporters filed into the room while Annabel dawdled in the hallway. They lifted the dead woman and her head, arms, and legs fell away as they put her in a big black bag. Annabel closed her eyes for a moment. In the last few years, her physician father had been a role model with his religious overtones. She thought of him and then gave a little blessing for her patient to rest in peace.
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