Dr. Marsteller Chapter 21
21
When Dr.
Marsteller returned to the surgery room, Mrs. Viscane’s heart was beating again
and Mr. Coveleski was in the process of removing the heart-lung machine. Dr. Ramaswamy had turned the ventilator back
on.
-How far away do I have to stand? asked Dr. Marsteller sheepishly.
-Don’t come near the body until we’ve
stitched it, said Dr. Reicher with authority.
Dr. Marsteller watched as they removed the equipment and turned the
screw to loosen the rib spreader. When
everything had been removed, Dr. Reicher began the tedious process of stitching
the area. Bent over Mrs. Viscane with
his blue gown on moving the stitching in and out of the wound, Dr. Reicher
resembled some evil necrophiliac seamstress knitting a skin sweater for his
decomposing bride. When the stitching
was completed, they put her gown back on.
Dr. Ramaswamy watched the heart rate and pO2 monitor to check
Mrs. Viscane’s vital signs.
-How long until you can take her off the
ventilator, asked Dr. Reicher.
-It’s going to be a little bit.
When they weaned her off the ventilator,
it was well past midnight into the next morning. The surgery took three hours.
After Mrs.
Viscane was able to breathe on her own, they waited until she regained
consciousness then wheeled her back to Dr. Reicher’s office. A new nurse was working at the desk to start
the morning shift.
A personal
ambulance was waiting to take Mrs. Viscane back to her mansion for her
recovery. She had hired three certified
nurses to watch her round the clock.
More than she would have had at the hospital.
They sat around the office waiting for
Mrs. Viscane to regain all her faculties as dawn spilled over the horizon
outside Garret. One of the hospital
administrators entered the room.
-Dr. Reicher, what is going on here?
-A routine emergency, ma’am.
-Nurses have been coming up to me all
morning since I arrived to tell me that you were back there without a scrub
nurse performing surgery on a lady who wasn’t entered into the registry.
The administrator was seething. She was about 50. With trunk like legs and a massive
temper. But Dr. Reicher had handled her
before. He stared at her for a moment
until she calmed slightly.
-Do you know who this is?
-No, and I don’t give a damn…
-It’s Charlotte Viscane. The billionaire. She requested that I give her emergency
surgery. She only wanted Dr. Ramaswamy,
Mr. Coveleski and me present. This is
her personal assistant, he said nodding his head towards Dr. Marsteller. And she gave me a million dollars to give to
the hospital to use however they see fit.
Can you please leave me for a moment while I tend to her? She has a personal ambulance waiting.
The administrator shrunk from the room
like a snake back into a field.
-Damn, that was close, said Dr.
Reicher. Now I have to send her a check
for a million.
-You can afford it now said Coveleski
beaming.
Dr. Reicher smiled wryly back at him.
-Damn right.
Mrs. Viscane shrugged the viscous haze
off her mind as she rustled in and out of consciousness.
-I’m still alive, she said when she was
able to contort her tongue to coherency.
-Certainly are. A complete success. Said Dr. Reicher.
She smiled. They wheeled her out into the sunshine and
into the back of the ambulance. As Dr.
Reicher closed the door he turned around and shook everyone’s hand.
-Well, I got a yacht to buy, he said and
laughed heartily.
This originally appeared in Dr. Marsteller