by J. G. Sumner
“You brought me onto this case because you know I’m the best man for the job. You know I won’t let anything happen to her. The hospital is going to speed along the credentialing process. I should be ready to go either tonight or tomorrow. Let me worry about things.”
“You have your own patients at the other hospital. I don’t want to burden you with too much. Also, you can’t be here with Laney as often as I can.”
“That’s the point. You be here with Laney. You be her boyfriend. Dote on her and take care of her. You can still be my eyes and ears, and can call me any time of day or night if and when something happens. It’s okay to give up control once in a while. Do this for yourself, Laney, and your other patients. I can see you’re running yourself ragged.”
Josh bit the inside of his cheek as the impact of what Dr. Russell had said settled. He wasn’t used to having someone else taking care of him, not since his dad died. He had always looked to Dr. Russell not just as a mentor but like an older brother or father figure. Dr. Russell patted him on the back.
“Now, pull yourself together. I called Dr. George and Dr. Arnold to meet us here at eight. I want us to get on the same page. If Laney is still having these transient episodes of tachycardia, we might need to keep her on the dialysis and not change any part of her care for another day. I want to see what Dr. Arnold says.”
Josh was somewhat relieved he didn’t have the ultimate responsibility of caring for Laney. He didn’t know how he would bear it if something happened to Laney during his watch. He also didn’t know how he would handle it if he wasn’t the one in charge. He was in a no-win situation. His trust and the life of the woman he loved were now in the hands of Dr. Russell. Josh had to let go.
Josh turned on the faucet and splashed water onto his face. The water was cold, shocking his skin, causing his heart to skip a beat. The water invigorated him and made him feel more alive. He patted his face dry with a towel. “So, where are we meeting?”
“I figured we could use the conference room around the corner.”
Josh looked at his watch. “I guess we had better head over there.” He planted a kiss on Laney’s forehead. “I’ll be back later. Don’t do anything crazy on me.” Josh chuckled as he left the room.
“Thank you for waking me. I guess I slept a little too long. I wouldn’t want Laney’s parents coming in and finding me like that. Who knows how they’d react.”
“From where I was standing, it looked like a man who was staying by the side of the woman he loved. I wouldn’t be worried about how it looked. If her parents can’t see how much you care her, it’s their own issue.”
Doctors George and Arnold were waiting in the conference room. “Good morning, gentlemen. This is a colleague, Dr. Tanner Russell.” The men exchanged pleasantries before Josh and Dr. Russell took a seat.
Dr. Russell started the discussion. “As you’re aware, Josh brought me in to take over for him to care for Miss Pearson due to his personal involvement with her. Miss Pearson’s parents would like her transferred to another hospital as soon as possible. As a result, there was a direct conflict of interest in Josh caring for Ms. Pearson. While he’s not opposed to having her moved, he believes it’s not what she would want and, would ultimately like to have it be her decision. Our plan is to wake her before she can be transferred, allowing her to make that decision. I’ve gone through her chart extensively. I’m impressed by how thorough her care has been. I applaud all your efforts. I don’t see any reason for her to not be wakened as soon as we take her off the dialysis. Does anyone have any objections?”
Dr. Arnold was the first to speak. “Based on her labs and her fluid balance, I’d like to give her one day more on dialysis. Her urine output is picking up, but I think one more day would be best. With that being said, I wouldn’t have any objections to waking her up now.”
“My only concern with that is she’s had three tachycardic events at about three in the morning. I’d like to stay on-scene tonight and find out what might be causing it. Also, I think she needs to continue to be sedated while on the dialysis to keep her more comfortable. She’ll want to move around once she wakes up, and as you know, she won’t be able to.” Josh looked to Tanner Russell for some agreement.
“I agree with Josh. I don’t think it’s in her best interest to wake her up just yet. Let’s get her off the dialysis. Nathan. How’s her heart progressing?”
“She’s coming along quite well. In fact, I don’t see a need for me to continue on the case. I was going to hand over the care of her heart to the cardiologist.”
“What about the tachycardia? Do you think it’s related to the surgery?” Josh applauded Tanner’s thoroughness.
“No, I don’t. I performed an ECHO on her yesterday and everything looks to be healing quite well. There’s no cardiac cause for her tachycardia. I might chalk it up to an outside influence, or maybe she needs more sedation or pain meds. Her heart is definitely not the cause.”
“How long do you think she needs to remain on beta-blockers?”
“I’m going to let the cardiologist continue to follow her medication regimen. I would think another four to six weeks should be good. Her grafts and everything should be plenty healed by then.”
“Excellent, then we’ll either plan to send her home on them or the other hospital can worry about her care post discharge.” Dr. Russell clapped his hands. “I’m very pleased with the plan we have in place for this young lady.”
“Just out of curiosity, what hospital do her parents want her to be transferred to?” Dr. George inquired.
“We’ve discussed St. John’s Mercy Heart Center in St. Louis.”
“That’s an excellent facility. I have several friends I went to school with who work there. A great choice. May I ask why we think Miss Pearson may not want to be transferred?”
Everyone’s eyes locked on Josh who was more than eager to provide a response. “She has what I understand as a strained relationship with her mother. From what I can tell, her parents are overbearing and very out of touch with what Laney wants in her life.”
“Good for you. I applaud your efforts in being her advocate. Let’s wake her up and let her decide for herself. I think it’s a good idea and I don’t think it will hurt her a bit. If it weren’t for the kidneys, she’d probably be released in a couple of days anyway.” Dr. Arnold was a strong proponent for patient advocates as he was head of the hospitals ethics committee.
“It looks like we’re all on the same page regarding Miss Pearson. I appreciate you meeting with me. It was a nice opportunity to match the names with the faces and discuss her plan of care. I look forward to working with you more in the future.” Dr. Russell stood up and shook everyone’s hand. He and Josh walked back toward Laney’s room.
“I will inform Laney’s parents today about the transfer being delayed at least another day. I don’t think you should be there when I tell them. They’ll automatically think it’s your fault.”
“You’re probably right. I’ll check on her later. Please give me a call if anything changes, and I’ll do the same.”
Tanner Russell gave Josh a pat on the shoulder. “Try and get some work done. Everything is going to be fine. We’ll get her through this.”
“Thanks! You’re a life saver.”
Josh strolled down the hall to the other side of the ICU with a grin plastered to his face. Laney was going to be all right. She was going to make it through this mess.
Chapter 26
Eileen
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue,
and you’re running out of time.
Hurry up and take your daughter back to Timbuktu.
“Herb! Herb, get in here!” Eileen’s hands shook barely able to hold the letter in her hands.
“What? What are you yelling about?” Herb ran into the room and stopped short at the sight of Eileen trembling. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”
Eileen handed him the letter. She was rendered speechless. Tears flowed from
her eyes as Herb pried the letter from her hands.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was on the windshield of our car. I thought it was some sort of parking ticket.”
“This just keeps getting worse.” Herb ran his hands through his hair and latching them to the back of his head. “You need to sit down.” Herb ushered her to Laney’s couch. “Here, let’s put your feet up.” He put a pillow on the coffee table and lifted her feet onto it.
“I don’t want to put my feet up. I want this to stop! Clearly, someone wants our daughter gone. We need to get her out of here.” Despite the protest to have her feet elevated, Eileen left them propped on the pillow.
“We don’t want to leave this person running around loose. Look what happened the last time we did nothing. Our daughter got shot! No. I think we need to find out who’s doing this.”
Eileen was pensive. “I don’t know. She’s in danger. We can’t leave her to get hurt again. We need to get her home with us now!”
“How about I call the detective? Let’s see if he has any leads.”
“I thought he had surveillance here? Some surveillance if this lunatic is able to continue coming here. I want some answers. This is just not acceptable!”
“Fine. You try to relax and I’ll call him.” Herb went to the bedroom to retrieve his phone. He came back a couple of minutes later with Detective Neal’s card. He carefully punched the numbers into the phone. Detective Neal answered after the second ring.
“Hello, Officer Neal? Yes, this is Herb Pearson…I’m doing fine, thank you…Listen, my wife found another letter on the windshield of our car…Yes, we had it parked in her apartment complex…No, it wasn’t in front of Laney’s garage. We found a parking spot close by…I see…So, nothing suspicious was noted…I’m sorry, sir. What kind of surveillance operation are you running if this person continues to elude your people? I think we have been patient enough. It is time to put an end to this. You have no leads and…Really? He did, huh…That’s interesting indeed…Well, we’re heading to the hospital to see our daughter. We’re just getting ready to go…Sure, ten o’clock sounds fine…okay, see you then.” Herb hung up.
“Let me guess, he doesn’t have an answer as to how or why we are still receiving these letters.”
“No, he’s baffled too. He did say something interesting.”
“What’s that?” Eileen suddenly perked up.
“He said Josh called him yesterday. He had a new theory.”
“Oh? What’s that?” Eileen crossed her arms and grimaced at the mention of Josh’s name.
“He said Josh is concerned it may be an ex-girlfriend doing this. It may be jealousy. Apparently, this all started when they began dating. It’s only worsened as they’ve become more serious.”
“I knew this had something to do with him! If Laney weren’t dating this guy, she probably wouldn’t even be in the hospital. God, she has the worst taste in men.” Eileen stood up, pointing at Herb as she spoke.
“Settle down. I don’t think we can blame him. You know Scott was a bad one. Josh isn’t responsible for that.”
“Well, maybe if she weren’t dating him, she would’ve moved to Frohna with us.”
“That’s not fair. We’ve been trying to get her to move long before she started seeing him. She’s lived here her entire life. She wasn’t going to move there with us just out of the blue. I’m not even sure she’d want to go now.”
“Don’t be absurd! She needs us.” Eileen forced her hands to her hips.
Herb shrugged. “If you say so.”
“Are you having second thoughts about moving her home with us?” Eileen began posturing as though she were ready for a fight.
“I’ve gone along with your plan because I don’t know if anyone else can help her recover. Frankly, it would be easier on us if she were closer, though I can’t necessarily say I think it’s a good idea for her to move or if it’s even what Laney would want to do.”
“I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you. You’re supposed to support me. We’re not talking about this anymore.” Eileen turned her back to Herb. “Where are we meeting Detective Neal?”
“At the hospital at ten. We need to bring the letter.”
“So, does he have any idea which one of that gigolo’s girlfriends is stalking my daughter?”
“He said Josh gave him a couple of names.”
“Only a couple? I’m surprised there isn’t a whole list of them.” Eileen crossed her arms and left track marks on the carpet as she paced the small living room.
“What do you want me to tell you? I don’t know what his dating life was like before he met Laney. We’ve never even given him a chance.”
“I sure hope I’m not hearing you defend him. Don’t go soft on me.”
Herb shook his head, resigned to the fact he wasn’t going to win this argument. “I think we need to get going. Do you have everything you need?”
“Let me just use the restroom first. Here, go and put this in my purse so we don’t forget it.” Eileen handed Herb the letter and walked toward the bathroom.
***
When Eileen and Herb arrived in Laney’s room, they were pleased to see Dr. Russell standing over their daughter listening to her chest. He pulled the stethoscope from his ears and turned. “Good morning. How are you?”
Eileen was quick to answer. “We’re looking forward to hearing some good news. Please tell me today is the day she comes off dialysis and we can take her home with us.”
Dr. Russell wrapped the stethoscope around his neck. “I do have some good news. It seems as though your daughter is progressing very well. I think she’ll eventually make a full recovery. You have a very lucky young woman here.”
“So…” Eileen clasped her hands and beamed with a smile from ear to ear.
Dr. Russell shifted in place, maintaining eye contact. “I want you to know Dr. Stone has completely removed himself from your daughter’s care, as I expect the hospital will be approving my credentialing tonight. As a result, I took the opportunity to meet with your daughter’s team this morning so we could all get on the same page regarding her care. Dr. Stone was also present.”
Eileen’s shoulders slumped and her smile faded. Dr. Russell continued. “The team is in agreement that while Laney’s kidneys have improved significantly, she’d benefit from one more day on dialysis.”
Eileen crossed her arms over chest and ground her bottom teeth against the top. “Is this something Dr. Stone talked the team into? Is this some underhanded way to keep my daughter from leaving this hospital?”
“I assure you that’s not the case. Like I said, her kidneys are progressing quite well. It’s in her best interest to have dialysis for one more day. I can assure you if everything goes as expected, she’ll be removed from dialysis tomorrow.”
Eileen stopped grinding her teeth and relaxed her arms to her side. “I guess we can wait one more day. The movers aren’t coming until tomorrow anyway. Fortunately, I hadn’t made my flight reservations yet. Is there any news on an accepting physician or the transfer?”
“I’m waiting to hear back from a friend of mine. His name is Dr. James Andrews. Feel free to look him up. He’s one of the top trauma surgeons in the St. Louis area. When I called him, he was in surgery.”
“Well, that’s great news. I’ll make sure I check out his credentials.” Eileen’s glimmer of hope had returned.
“I also wanted to inform you of something else. It seems your daughter is having some transient tachycardia. We aren’t sure what is causing it. However, the cardiologist has ruled out her heart as the cause.”
“What’s tachycardia?” Eileen inquired.
“Tachycardia is when the heart rate goes above one hundred beats per minute. Miss Pearson’s heart rate has gone as high as the one hundred and thirties. While this normally wouldn’t be too big of a deal for someone who has a healthy heart, your daughter just had one of her ventricles repaired. Having a heart rate elevated for too
long could cause the graft to give out.”
“What could cause this?” Fear took over the pleasantness on Herb’s face.
“We aren’t sure. We’re monitoring her and trying to narrow down potential causes. Don’t worry, we’ll find out what’s happening.”
“Is this something that could delay Laney’s transfer?” Eileen bit her bottom lip waiting for the answer.
Dr. Russell pursed his lips struggling to maintain his composure with Eileen’s obsessiveness to move Laney. “I don’t think so. She only has it periodically right now. I suppose if it worsens, it would be something we’d have to think about a bit more. But right now, we’re trying to keep it controlled with a medication. Hopefully this will help eliminate it.”
“It sounds like you’re really on top of it. That’s all very reassuring. At what point do you plan to lessen the sedation?” Eileen shifted her stance, hoping to hear they wouldn’t be waking Laney up anytime soon.
“I’m not sure yet. We’ll see how she does when we remove her from the dialysis machine. We may wake her then.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea? I mean it would probably be better for her to remain sedated and comfortable at least until she arrives at the next hospital.” Eileen didn’t want to take the chance of Laney protesting the transfer. There was no way she would miss this opportunity to get her daughter home. She’d been working too hard and too long for this day to come.
“Listen, we’ll take it one step at a time. I can tell you the reason she’s receiving sedation is to prevent her from moving during the dialysis. Any movement on her part could cause the dialysis catheters to kink. That tends to drive the machine crazy and thwarts its efforts.”
“You’re saying she won’t need it anymore once she’s off the dialysis?” Eileen’s voice quivered.
“No, I’m saying we’ll have to see how she’s doing. We may find she’ll continue to need the sedation to treat her tachycardia. We’ll know more tomorrow.”