“The advancing Alzheimer’s. Losing his faculties. That could have made him contemplate suicide. I heard he had self-inflicted wounds, apparently done while driving.”
“I heard about those wounds. It confused me enough to go down to the morgue to check them out for myself.”
Debbie looked surprised that he had made that effort. “I’ve never been down there.”
“Most people haven’t. I don’t advise it.”
“What did you find out?”
“Nothing. I wasn’t allowed to see the body, supposedly because of HIPAA rules. That seemed weird, because I am a resident. Strangely, though, I saw Clayton down there.”
“What was he doing?” She set her drink down and eyed him closely.
George didn’t respond, losing his battle trying to stay awake. In slow motion he sagged back and his head flopped to the side.
Debbie was not to be denied. She gave George’s shoulder a shake. He revived with some difficulty. His eyes were glassy.
“You didn’t answer,” Debbie said. “What was Clayton doing in the morgue?”
George licked his lips. His eyelids were fluttering in an attempt to keep them open. With effort, he forced himself to sit up straight. “I have no idea. I did find it rather strange at the time.”
“So you didn’t see Sal’s body?”
“No. But let me ask you a question: Do you know which ER doctor was in charge of Sal’s case?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I wanted…” He stopped and his eyes closed for a couple of seconds. “I wanted to ask why they thought some wounds were self-inflicted.”
“What’s your opinion about what iDoc will do for your career?”
“Huh?” George was having trouble organizing his thoughts about such an oddball question coming out of the blue. Debbie was staring at him expectantly.
“I guess I’m worried that I might end up working for a health insurance company. I worry—”
“But you think iDoc is perfect for people like Sal,” Debbie interrupted. “With all his medical problems and then with prostate cancer added to the list.”
“Sal didn’t have prostate cancer.”
“Yes, he did. It was stage-three, small cell.”
“I never heard that,” George said, reviving to a degree. He was surprised. Sal had never mentioned it when he’d told him about all his other health issues.
“It was only discovered recently,” Debbie said. “I can tell you from my perspective that iDoc is going to be a godsend. It’s going to keep a lot of people out of the ER who shouldn’t be there.”
George started to tell her that he was not going to be able to stay awake for another minute, but he didn’t have to. She checked the time and jumped up.
“Damn it all,” she blurted. “Do you know what time it is? And it’s a school night. This girl has to get home and into bed ASAP.”
George felt a wave of relief as she used her cell to call a taxi. After that, she got her stuff together while George watched.
“Thank you for the great evening,” she said. “You don’t have to get up. I can see myself out.”
He stood up anyway with the intention of at least walking her to the door, but had to lean on the arm of the couch for support.
“Stay where you are,” she ordered. “You need to get to bed right away yourself.”
“I agree.” He put his hand out for a shake. She smiled and gave it a pump along with an air kiss to the cheek. A moment later she was gone.
George stumbled into his bedroom. He decided he’d just lie down for a few minutes before taking off his clothes…
21
The next day George arrived at the medical center with a raging hangover. He couldn’t remember all the details of the previous evening, but he hoped he hadn’t made an ass of himself. Coffee was what he needed. He filled a fresh cup and sat down with Carlos to go over the films taken the previous night. There were a lot, but despite a big thumper of a headache, George was determined to be thorough and accurate.
Halfway through, they came across a film of a wrist that had been definitely misread as being normal. The patient had been released untreated despite there being a fracture of the navicular bone. George pointed it out to Carlos and explained that it was easy for doctors not trained in radiology to miss it. George passed the information on to the head of the ER so that the patient could be tracked down and asked to return to the hospital for a cast.
After finishing going over everything, including CT scans, Carlos left to find out what was “cooking” in the ER, while George sat with his head down on the desk and nursed his hangover. He downed a couple more ibuprofen tablets, happy to have had some quiet time.
Feeling reasonably together, he walked into the ER and approached the central desk, where Debbie as usual was ordering the staff around. Obviously there was no hangover holding her down. He tried to catch her eye, but it was difficult. Lots of things were going on with some major trauma on its way in by ambulance. The sirens already could be heard approaching.
George went around the back of the main desk, where he wasn’t more than five or six feet away from Debbie. He stood and waited. And waited. Just when he thought she might be intentionally ignoring him, she glanced over and nodded at him before going back to her work. She had been ignoring him. The nod wasn’t what he had expected. He didn’t know what to expect, but it was more than he got.
Oh, well, George thought. He tried to attribute the rebuff to her preoccupation running the ER. But nonetheless the snub nagged at him. Had he done or said anything that had upset her? He had certainly been drunk. He could easily imagine how he might have offended her considering the state he was in.
Suddenly, she jumped up and rushed past him. What the hell? Then he realized that she was responding to a call from the orderlies down in the major trauma rooms waiting to receive the incoming severely injured patients. He was about to walk off when he looked down at the papers Debbie had spread out on her desk. A familiar item pushed into one of the cubbyholes caught his eye. It was a broken smartphone in an electric-orange case. George could see that the phone’s display screen was riddled with cracks. It was Sal’s phone! The sight of it felt like a little beacon calling to him from his much-maligned friend. He picked it up and tried to turn it on: nothing. It needed to be charged or it was broken. Most likely it was both.
George glanced around. No one was paying him any attention. He made a sudden decision and pocketed the phone. It would probably end up in the trash anyway. With his prize tucked away in his pocket, he retreated back to the protective environment of the imaging room. He was reaching in his pocket for the phone when Carlos burst in.
“We got a slew of major trauma cases on their way in,” he shouted.
“Okay, ease up,” George said. “It’ll sort itself out. There’s nothing we can do to be more prepared than we already are. Did you alert the technicians?”
“Yes, and they have both portable machines outside the trauma rooms.”
“Perfect. We’re ready to rumble.”
“But there is a pregnant woman who just came in with severe abdominal distress — acute pain with vomiting and diarrhea. Waters told me to organize an ultrasound stat.”
“We’ll have to wait until after the major trauma is under control,” George said. “Which ER physician is handling the woman?”
“A newbie. Her name is Kelley.”