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For audio excerpts please visit the Chapter Index page.
From Never Routine …
Saturday, November 4
On Saturday morning at 9:00, another doctor from Lewis’ surgeon’s
office stopped in to check on Lewis during rounds. He found Lewis
to be making satisfactory progress and wrote in his patient chart. No
evidence of infection. Clear lungs. May sit up and consider getting out of bed.
When this doctor left after examining Lewis, Helen had no idea that
he would be the last experienced physician she and her son would see
for the next two days.
By evening, Lewis developed a slight fever and his feet felt cold to
the touch. Helen thought he would be improving and feeling better
by now.
Sunday, November 5
Lewis and Helen awoke at 6 a.m. sharp when a nurse came to deliver
yet another dose of Toradol. Just 30 minutes later Lewis gasped and
held his breath. Through clenched teeth, he tried to tell his mother he
had terrible pain in his upper abdomen. She asked him how bad it was.
“It’s the worst pain imaginable,” he whispered, barely able to
speak. Helen summoned a nurse with the call button.
The nurse asked Lewis to describe his pain on a scale. “Five on a
scale of five,” he replied in amazement, as if he couldn’t quite believe
it himself. It was clear to Helen that he was in agony. Three days after
surgery he should be improving, not suffering mysterious new pains.
And why did it hurt in his upper abdomen when the surgery was performed
on his chest?
From The Promise …
The staff escorted the family into a small waiting room. Dr. Nathan,
another pediatric neurologist, was called in to perform surgery
on Taylor. Just 45 minutes later, Dr. Nathan and Dr. Cho came out
to speak to John and Catherine. The doctors told them that there
was a buildup of carbon dioxide in Taylor’s bloodstream, and that had
caused her to stop breathing.
“So what the hell does that mean? Is Taylor going to make it?”
John asked hopefully.
Dr. Cho wouldn’t make eye contact with them, and looked down
at the floor as if he was carefully studying something on the carpet.
The color had drained from his face and he looked pale. They were
running tests on her brain activity, including an emergency CAT scan,
Dr. Nathan told them, but it didn’t look good. She had been without
oxygen too long, and the prognosis was poor. Taylor was in a coma,
and they didn’t know if she would recover.
From Wrong Turn …
It had been a warm June day when Benjamin Houghton awoke in the
recovery room to find three doctors at his bedside. The sober looks
on their faces told him something was very wrong. As one of them
started to speak, Benjamin learned why they were there surrounding
his bed. For a moment he wasn’t quite sure he heard the doctor correctly.
Maybe he was still feeling the effects from the anesthesia they
gave him during his surgery.
“This is a joke, right?” he asked the doctors, waiting for one of
them to say it was some kind of sick prank.
“No, I’m afraid this is no joke,” another doctor replied. “There
was a mix-up. We accidentally removed the wrong testicle.”
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