A few moments later she scanned the tracing. No abnormalities. Good.
Anything else? As a resident physician at Southwestern Medical Center, Elena was part of a top-notch medical team. Chances were that if she forgot something, someone else would remedy the omission. But when she was out on her own in private practice, it would be totally up to her. That time would be here soon. Better get ready.
Elena looked at the clock on the wall. Sometimes, in an emergency, time seemed to slow down. At other times it seemed to be rocket-powered. This was one of those times when the minutes fled by. Where was the neurosurgeon?
At Southwestern there were three separate hospitals on the campus—four if you counted Children's Medical Center. Chances were that the doctor this patient needed had to travel from Zale Hospital, on the far south end of the campus, to where Elena waited with the patient at St. Paul Hospital, at the far north end of the campus. Whether the neurosurgeon came by car or on the campus shuttle, surely he should have been here by now.
Another glance at the clock. Another five minutes gone. Left unchecked, blood from the intracranial hemorrhage would force the brain down against the bony ring at the base of the skull, compromising the vital centers, shutting down the impulses that kept the heart beating, the lungs inflating. Without surgery to relieve that pressure, the man would die. Where was the neurosurgeon?
"Who's on neuro call?" she asked the nurse.
"Dr. Clark."
"And you paged him stat?"
The aide was back now, hovering behind Elena, awaiting instructions. "I asked the ward clerk to do that." She hesitated."Do you want me to check?"
"Yes, please." Elena hesitated a beat. "First, get me the tray for an emergency trephine. If he doesn't show soon, I may have to—"
"Okay, I'm here. What's so important?" Dr. James Clark strode into the room and stopped at the foot of the gurney. He stared at Elena, and the look on his face said, "This had better be good."
"Elderly male, hypertensive and probably atherosclerotic, found unresponsive by his wife. Right pupil dilated and fixed, left sluggish to react, definite papilledema. Vitals compatible with Cushing's triad. I've alerted radiology for a stat MRI."
Clark grunted and picked up the ophthalmoscope from the table where Elena had laid it. He checked the patient's eyes, then traded that instrument for a reflex hammer and did a bit of tapping. He ran his thumbnail along the soles of the man's bare feet, frowning when the toes fanned and extended upward.
"Okay, you're probably right." He turned to the ER nurse."Send him for the MRI. Call the OR and tell them to set up for an emergency craniotomy. I want Dr. Miller for anesthesia. If he's doing another case, have him get someone else to take over. And page the chief neuro resident to help me. Make sure the patient's taken directly from radiology to surgery, along with his films. I'll be up there changing."
He disappeared through the door in a wave of selfimportance, without so much as a "good pick-up" or even "please."
"I'll go to radiology with the patient," Elena said. "I'll stay there and take him to the OR myself."
"Dr. Gardner," the nurse said. "You don't have to do that."
Elena didn't answer, just released the brakes on the gurney and started pushing it out the door. Clark might think his MD degree conferred immunity from any of the menial tasks involved in patient care, but Elena had a different point of view. She intended to see to it that this patient got the best possible care. There'd be no delays in his treatment. She knew all too well that delays could be deadly.
After Elena turned the patient over to the anesthesiologist, she lingered in the hallway, praying the surgery would save the life of this man whose name she didn't even know. That he wouldn't be kept alive to simply survive in a coma. Not like Mark.
The patient's name was Chester Pulliam. Elena sat in a corner of the waiting room with his wife, Erma, and explained the situation. "A blood vessel in your husband's brain burst. Usually it's because of a weak place, sort of like a bulging spot on a balloon. This is more likely to happen when there's high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries, and your husband has both these conditions."
The woman looked down at the handkerchief she was twisting."Can they save him?"
"Dr. Clark is an excellent neurosurgeon. He'll do his very best."
"Oh, I hope so. I couldn't bear to lose Chester. We've been married for forty-eight years. If he died . . . I'd die too."
Elena patted Mrs. Pulliam's hand. "Is there anything I can do for you? Are there any other questions?"
The woman shook her head. "I'm sure there are, but I can't think of them right now." She looked into Elena's eyes. "Thank you for what you've done."
"I'm glad I could be here to help." Elena felt a familiar lump in her throat. She turned and strode away before the woman could see the tears forming in her eyes. Would this happen every time she had a patient with an intracranial hemorrhage? Where was the dispassionate approach she'd been told she had to adopt if she were to survive as a family doctor? Her department chair had put it to her this way: "Elena, Mark's situation wasn't uncommon. You did the best you could. Everyone else did too. The timing was just bad. You can't let that carry over to every patient you see for the next forty years."
In less than a month, she'd complete her training and be out in the world of private practice. She had to get past this. Medicine was all she knew, all she'd ever wanted to do. Surely God wouldn't take that from her after He'd already taken her husband.
Elena's mind was on everything and nothing, churning fruitlessly as she shuffled through the lunch line in the hospital cafeteria. She'd eat, but only because she knew she had to. Her life was coming apart, and she didn't know how to mend it.
"Hey, come join me."
She saw David at a table for two in the far corner of the cafeteria. He stood and waved, as though he was afraid she might miss him. That would be hard to do. He was a shade over six feet, with a shock of reddish-blond hair above a tan that reminded Elena of a California surfer. He might be quiet, but David was hard to overlook.
She wove her way through the tables and began to unload her tray. She jerked her mind away from the worries that were her constant companion and struggled for an opening conversational gambit. "Good to see you. I didn't think OB residents ever took time to eat lunch."
"Eat when you can. Isn't that what they teach us as medical students?" David held the chair for her, another of the small things that made her admire him. His bright blue scrub suit and the ring around his forehead from the pressure of his surgical cap told Elena he'd been in the operating room already.
She tried to focus on the man at the table with her, not on the shambles her life had become. "How are things going for you?" she asked.
"Pretty good. I'm on Dr. Cobb's service, and he's letting me do quite a bit. Just finished a case with him." He took a healthy bite of sandwich, chewed, and swallowed. "How about you?"
Elena paused with her fork halfway to her mouth, careful not to drip ranch dressing from the chef 's salad she'd chosen."Right now I mainly divide my time between the FP Clinic and the ER. Sometimes I round with one of the specialists. Good preparation for going out on my own—if I only had a place to practice."
"What's that mean?"
"Are you ready for the next chapter of the Elena Gardner tragedy?" She related the gist of her conversation with Helen Bennett and watched deep concern overshadow David's normally placid countenance.
"I'll add that to my prayers for you," he said. "Be sure to let me know if anything develops."
She nodded before filling her mouth with salad. Doctors learned to eat fast, never knowing when the meal might be interrupted. She noticed David doing the same.
"And did you get a call last night?" David asked.
Elena nodded. "Midnight. A woman sobbing. But I think I recognized the voice."
"You did?"
"I'm pretty sure—but I don't know what to do about it. And until I do, I don't want to say an
ything—even to you."
"Fair enough. But I'm here for you when you're ready to talk."
Elena dabbed at the corner of her mouth with her napkin. She was opening her mouth to reply when a staccato electronic bleat split the air. Both doctors reached for their belts and extracted their pagers.
"Mine," Elena said. She thumbed the button and read the display. "Dr. Gross's office." She pushed back her chair. "Guess I'd better see what the department chair wants."
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