Heart Stopper

by R J Samuel

  Priya gulped down the drink. “Thanks, yes. Sorry. We’d better go in.” She had to keep calm. There was no way anyone here could have known about her experience on Saturday morning, but she felt like they could read every guilty emotion on her face. Aidan and Clodagh were both looking at her face and she realized they were noticing her eyes that were swollen from the weekend of crying.

  “I had a flu, in bed most of the weekend. I hate getting flus, I’m a terrible patient.” She rubbed at her nose that was redder than Clodagh’s.

  “You poor thing. Don’t give it to me though, I hate it too,” Clodagh said.

  Aidan held out his arm for Priya and she leaned on it grateful for the support. Clodagh grabbed his other arm and led him down the glass-lined corridor to the boardroom, Priya in tow.

  ∞

  The other members of staff were in the boardroom, all except one sitting solemnly around the large table. The clinical staff of two doctors, four nurses, and Priya’s closest colleague, and the other electrophysiology technician, Tara McFadden, were there as well as the two secretaries. One of the two doctors in the room, Dr. James Reddington, was also one of the co-founders of the clinic, Daniel being the other. James was standing at the window of the boardroom when Priya and the others trailed into the room. He looked tense and drawn, his thin face breaking into a frown when he saw them, but he just inclined his head in greeting. The three latecomers hastily grabbed a chair each and nodded greetings around the silent table. James moved to take his seat at the head of the table.

  “You have all probably heard the news by now. Daniel is dead. He was found in his apartment by his mother on Sunday afternoon.”

  The buzz around the room sounded like bees in Priya’s head. Sean Brady, the other doctor, asked, “What did he die of?”

  “Myocardial infarction. Ironic, isn’t it?” James rubbed his eyes. “He’s one of the leading cardiologists in the world, he saves people’s lives on a daily basis, and he dies at 45 of a heart attack.”

  Priya felt a queasy sense of relief. The niggling worry at the back of her mind all weekend that she might have had something to do with Daniel’s death now seemed unwarranted.

  “Who found him?” Sheila Hughes, a nurse at the clinic since it opened, was a small dynamo of a woman; this morning she seemed drained of her usual excess.

  “His mother.” James looked irritated at having to repeat himself. “She was visiting him; as usual it seems, for Sunday lunch. She found him, called the ambulance, who in turn called his GP. The GP signed it off as a heart attack. Daniel seems to have been there for the weekend. I just found out late last night when she called me. I thought it would be better to wait till this morning when you were all in and tell you together.”

  Tara blurted out, “That’s why he didn’t turn up for my birthday on Friday night.” She put her hand over her mouth when James looked at her.

  “Daniel’s body is going to be flown back to New York in the next few days. The Fairers are arranging to have him buried in the family plot. Anyone who wants to go to the funeral will be accommodated obviously.” James looked around the table. “I’ll be meeting his mother later today and I’ll have more details for you tomorrow, but I think with all the arrangements that have to be made, the funeral will probably be at the end of the week. We have patients who are already booked in for pacemaker implants and programmer checks over this week and I don’t think Daniel would have wanted us to cancel anyone without proper notice.”

  James continued through the murmurs of assent from around the table, “However, I think we can arrange it so that the clinic is closed from Thursday. I will be going to New York for the funeral obviously and I will arrange to meet with Daniel’s grandfather a bit later on to discuss the future of the clinic. I don’t think it will be appropriate to disturb him at this difficult time, but I know you will all want some idea of what is going to happen.”

  James got up from his chair. “Aidan, will you come to my office. We need to prepare a press release and get it out as soon as possible. The rest of you, it is going to be a very tough day and if you don’t have any patients in you are welcome to leave. Priya, obviously the research work will be stopped completely until further notice; we’ll need to meet the team at Research as soon as possible.” He muttered to himself, “I need to talk to Gerry and Valerie again,” and then sought out his secretary. “Mary, will you come in to me too, we need to draw up a list of people I need to call before the press release goes out.”

  The noise level in the room went up immediately the door closed behind James, all the staff expressing their shock in repeated meaningless expressions that seemed to Priya to rub on every exposed nerve in her body. She nodded her head in the right places all the while desperately waiting for the right amount of time to pass before she could escape to the relative isolation of the office she shared with Tara. She knew some of the staff were looking at her curiously, but it seemed inappropriate to mention her flu again. She knew they were wondering whether she had been as close to Daniel as the rumors suggested. The atmosphere was starting to weigh heavily on her and she excused herself and rushed to her office.

  ∞

  Priya sat at her desk feeling the nausea hit her in waves. She could hear the murmur of conversation continuing to roll around the clinic as people wandered back to their offices. She heard footsteps outside the room and Tara walked in shutting the door behind her.

  “You don’t look good, girl.” Her short blond hair tousled, her pale pretty face now rubbed clean of make-up Tara didn’t look too good herself, but Priya didn’t feel like pointing that out.

  “Are you going to go to New York for the funeral?” Tara asked.

  Priya nodded. She had just made up her mind. She needed to see this through. She had a sense that she was missing something.

  Tara said, “Did Daniel seem sick to you? It’s strange; he was so into all that healthy living stuff, exercising all the time. And he ate healthy too, do you remember that time at the French restaurant when he would only eat the salad, none of that cream sauce he said. Seems a bit weird to me, having a heart attack at his age, and he never smoked, didn’t drink much. And look at me, drinking all the time, smoking. At least I eat healthy and the Pilates has been great.” She smoothed down her knee-length skirt and patted her stomach. “Priya, you’re really not looking good. Why don’t you go home, do you have any patients in for checks, do you want me to do yours?”

  Priya shook her head. “I’ve got Jacintha coming in, I need to be here.”

  “Hmm… yeah, you’d better do her check. Wouldn’t want to upset the old biddy again.”

  “You know, one day one of the patients is going to hear you calling them names and report you.”

  “Nah, my patients love me too much. It’s just your Jacintha that prefers the exotic brown Doctor Joseph to do her programmer checks. Funny how she trusts you in a medical capacity, but would probably cross the street otherwise. And she doesn’t realize you’ve got a PhD not a medical degree.”

  Priya smiled. “You know she wouldn’t, you’re too hard on her, she’s just old-fashioned. But she loves hearing an Irish accent coming out of an Indian looking woman. Besides I prefer her to the ones that say one thing, but look like they’d rather not have me near them.”

  “I probably doesn’t help that her son had a heart attack right there when I do her check, I mean, why couldn’t that happen when you’re doing it. Now she crosses herself when I pass her.”

  Priya stared at Tara, her eyes pensive, and said, “I worked with Daniel on Thursday and he was fine. A bit quiet, but that was more like he was thinking about things, not sick. Though, he’s been quiet like that for a few weeks now. Not his usual self.”

  Priya hadn’t told anyone in the clinic about the night of her birthday or the subsequent humiliating experience with the Guards. So she couldn’t tell Tara that the last four or five weeks had been almost as bad as the months following the episode last October. The tense and hostile
silence after it had been broken by her mother’s death in December. She had needed leave and Daniel had been surprisingly supportive and, despite their history, she had developed a wary sense of kinship with him when she returned to work in January. They had never spoken of that night again, but the quality of their silence together had been different. Till a month ago.

  Tara said, “You’ve been pretty quiet yourself. Was there a problem with the new Controller?”

  The Program Controller Home was the third version of the machines they used in the clinic during the regular checks to communicate with implanted pacemakers. This version was being developed for home use. Priya had worked on the Controllers when she was doing the research for her PhD; the pacemaker it controlled, the Mark I pacemaker, had been Daniel’s personal project with his research company that had commenced prior to the opening of the clinic. Priya spent part of her time consulting on the coding, and the other part carrying out the regular checks on the programming of the pacemakers installed by the clinic.

  Priya said, “We got the figures back about a month ago. There was no problem with the Controller Home. Daniel took the figures with him; he just gave them to me two weeks ago. I haven’t even had a chance to look at them properly. I’d better look at them after I do Jacintha’s check.”

  Priya suddenly felt uneasy, she didn’t want Tara to know she’d taken the papers home. Along with the papers on the Controller II, which Daniel had also given her for some reason. There were strict rules in this very secretive business.

  Priya said, “Talking of Jacintha, I’d better go, she’s probably chatting Aidan up as we speak if the poor lad is anywhere near the waiting room. But then, she’s not the only middle-aged woman who’d like a bit of that boy, is she?” Priya had to laugh at Tara’s face.

  Tara said, “I am not middle-aged, unless you think I’m only going to live till I’m 60! By the way, I wouldn’t start anything if I were you; I haven’t even mentioned your Friday night adventures. I like how it’s my 30th birthday and you get the present.” Tara stopped. “Hey, you okay?”

  Priya’s stomach had clenched at the mention of Friday night and her face had obviously reflected the sudden rush of adrenaline. She got up and rifled through the filing cabinet searching for Jacintha Whelan’s file. Priya hated being at a disadvantage, at not remembering the night. She hated anyone knowing more about what she had done than she did. She was about to swallow her pride and ask Tara when Clodagh opened the door and popped her head into the office.

  “Priya, Ms. Whelan is waiting in Room 3. I had to put her in there to give poor Aidan a break.”

  Priya grabbed the thin file and hurried out of the office and down the hallway to the room she used for the pacemaker checks. She tried to gather her thoughts, to focus on the patient awaiting her.

  ∞

  Priya used the room for her research as well as the routine pacemaker checks so there were different versions of the Controllers on trolleys lined up alongside one wall.

  “I’m so sorry, Jacintha, things are a bit in a state at the moment here.” Priya placed the file down on one of the trolleys.

  Jacintha Whelan put her teeth back into her mouth and smiled at Priya. She sat up straight in the chair. Jacintha’s son, Liam was seated in his usual place at her side.

  “Good morning Dr. Joseph, you’re looking a bit better since I saw you in March.” Jacintha turned to Liam. “Isn’t she? Sure, she was so thin then I thought we wouldn’t be able to see her after a while.” She adjusted her glass and stared through them at Priya. “Bit better, but still not as good as before.”

  “You know how to make a person feel good, Mam.” Liam had his usual look of apology for his mother’s forthrightness but Priya was used to it.

  Jacintha continued with a short pause for breath, “Isn’t it awful, dear, about Dr. Fairer. Scared me when Clodagh said it, it did so. He looked so healthy. Such a handsome man, you know, with that lovely tan and those white white teeth. You know, the Americans always seem to have such lovely teeth. Not like yours Liam, my fault that.” She patted Liam’s thigh.

  Priya rolled the trolley with the Controller II on it up to Jacintha’s side using the movement to hide her smile at Liam’s expression. He had stained teeth from his mother taking medication when she was pregnant. He was forty and he still lived with his mother and brought her to every clinic check. Now he had to come for his own checks at the clinic, his mother accompanied him and sat out in the waiting room while he was seen; the girls joked that Jacintha did that to keep an eye out for Aidan.

  Priya asked, “When’s your next check, Liam?”

  He was Tara’s patient, which seemed fitting considering he had had his heart attack in the room while Tara had been carrying out the check on Jacintha when Priya was on leave following her mother’s death. Jacintha was Priya’s patient; Priya had carried out Jacintha’s monthly checks for the two months post-op.

  Liam said, “I had mine in June; Mam’s was delayed so we couldn’t have it on same day as usual.”

  Priya said, “Sorry, I think that’s my fault. I was out for a week and somebody here didn’t want to have her check done by Tara for some reason.” Priya smiled at Jacintha. “You know, she’s very good at her job, Liam will tell you that too.”

  Jacintha spoke over Liam’s assent. “Sure, she might be good, but I’m happy with you and I just couldn’t, you know, after what happened. It was awful! I thought he was gone. All I can say is Thank God we were in here. Trust Liam to have a heart attack in the best heart clinic, he was always such an obliging boy. They had him taken care of so fast. He’s fine now, aren’t you, Liam? One of those pacemaker things in, just like your mother.”

  Liam had given up trying to find a gap in which to speak. He just nodded.

  Jacintha stopped talking as well while Priya started the check. She used the Controller II that was designed for checks in a clinical setting and worked using wireless technology.

  She set up the frequency of the controller to match the frequency transmitted by the pacemaker. Priya rolled the trolley as close as possible to Jacintha’s side and held the programmer wand over Jacintha’s collarbone. There was a beep and the LED display on the wand showed that the controller and the pacemaker were locked onto the same signal frequency.

  The controller started the communication by sending an auto-identification sequence to the implanted device that resulted in an identical response from the implanted device detailing its serial and model numbers. The controller then sent an interrogation command that elicited more information from the device including Jacintha’s name, diagnosis and other medical details.

  The controller requested information from the pacemaker on any untoward incidents recorded since the last check. It checked on battery power remaining in the lithium battery. Although the device ran on a patented self-sustaining form of energy, the smaller than normal battery was installed in the device as a backup.

  That was strange. Priya examined the readings for the battery power. The normal range was between 95% and 100%. Jacintha’s readings showed the remaining power at 90.28%. She repeated the communication. The result was the same.

  She checked Jacintha’s folder. The summary results of the controller readings for battery power for all the previous checks were listed as ‘Within Normal Range’. The actual receipt-shaped printouts were stapled to a card at the back of the folder. Each sheet had a line for remaining battery power. Priya was conscious that Jacintha was waiting and decided to examine the figures in more detail later. The battery lasted 6 years so there was no risk, but it should not have been utilized at all. She continued with her routine.

  Priya said, “We’ll soon have the new version of this controller on the market. Then you’ll be able to do the checks at home and just send in the readings.”

  Jacintha said, “I like coming in here, do we have to use the home one?”

  “Well, your checks are going to go to 6 monthly after this one and it would be better if you had
the home controller in between times. You can come in with Liam on his 1-year check in December and hopefully we’ll be able to send ye home with the new controller then. And we’ll see you 6 months later anyway. Don’t worry; I’ll keep an eye out on Aidan for you.”

  Jacintha giggled. “Sure that boy is a bit young for me, more your age I’d say. Ye’d be a good match, you with your lovely skin. You Indians girls are so pretty and that boy with his blonde hair, he’s like one of those gods, you know, the ones from ancient times, not the Irish ones, Liam, where are they from?”

  “You mean Vikings, Mam?”

  “Yes, Liam, Vikings. That Aidan looks like a Viking.”

  All the rest of the data was normal and Priya re-set the device. “I think we’d better talk about something else. Must keep your heart rate down while we do this check. Your pacemaker is screaming at me.” Priya laughed. “Just joking Jacintha, we’re done. Everything is normal here.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Wednesday, July 13, 2011

  The handheld device beeped as the technician held it over his collarbone. She wrinkled her forehead as she concentrated on the digital readout. The diplomat waited for her to finish setting it up. She would soon explain how he was to use the device. He needed to concentrate; he had never been that good with technology. He managed all right with his PC, but that was the limit of his computer experience. He had watched his grandchildren play with the Wii and marveled at their comfort. He envied that, as well as the ease with which his children and his colleagues at the embassy used their Smartphones and the other gadgets of a modern age that he felt was passing him by. His eldest son had promised him an iPad thing for his sixtieth birthday in a few months. They’d be able to face each other then or something like that. If that involved seeing his sons and the grandkids more often than the one annual visit, then he would gladly learn to use it.