Between Love and Money
by
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“It amazes me how long it takes to get a stat back”, Jon murmured to himself. He waited a few minutes until the pressure had improved either with time or dopamine. The rhythm remained normal in part with frequent runs of PVCs. “The amiodarone is infusing and actually getting to the patient, right?”, he asked almost rhetorically of Traci. Immediately the rhythm deteriorated to ventricular fibrillation. “Here we go again. Fib!” Jon raised his voice. The pressure waveform glided pulselessly down to thirty-three.
The defibrillator tone started its rise and crescendo and Traci called out again. “Clear!”
“Clear” Jon said again. Paul arched toward the ceiling again as two hundred Joules discharged across the pads glued to his chest. The pressure line remained flat and the ECG, when it returned remained in its chaotic and random pattern of fibrillation. “Shock again! Is the defib on biphasic?”
Traci answered. “Oops. It is now. Charging! Clear!” Traci was focused on the numbers of defib and looked up at the screen to see the flat-line pressure and the ventricular fibrillation waveform. She failed to notice or feel Paul’s hand on her forearm. She was waiting to hear Jon’s response but what she heard was
“Stop! Stop! Do not defibrillate!”
Confused, she looked at the rhythm and the pressure. In less than a second, ten or twenty questions raced through her head as she did everything possible to restrain from pushing the button.
Jon continued. “Do not defibrillate! He has his hand on your arm! Get it off!”
Traci unfocused long enough to realize that Paul had involuntarily grabbed her arm. No one knew if it was profanity or a prayer of gratitude that burst from her brain without exiting her mouth as she pried his death grip off her arm and let his hand fall. Jon said, “We’re clear now. Fire away.”
Traci gathered her composure and pushed the button. Again Paul jerked violently upward. This time his right arm being unrestrained flew up to the X-ray tower, hit it and fell into the top of the sterile field. Traci grabbed it as Jon and Amy watched the pressure and rhythm return to baseline. Jon’s pager chirped. Paul started to moan and squirm. Traci talked to him to try and orient his fried brain.
Jon injected more contrast for another cine run. The Left Anterior descending was a huge vessel supplying at least half of the left ventricle. Where the vessel had ended just minutes ago it now appeared hazy and the flow was sluggish downstream. Ted announced, “The seven channel is back. His K is three-point-two, BUN is twenty-seven, creatinine is one-point-five. Mag is one-point nine.”
“Traci, hang twenty of K over about ninety minutes.” Jon looked her and she looked back with an “are you sure you want to give it that fast” look. She saw a “just do it” look and turned to mix the IV bag, remembering she had almost shocked herself into oblivion partly due to the patient’s low potassium. Jon’s pager went off.
Jon drew a test for coagulation to confirm that the drugs given were working. While that was cooking he asked for a stent. “I need a four-oh, twenty three monorail.” Traci flew from the anticoagulation machine to the cabinet with stents, carrying the potassium that she was trying to hang thinking that two or three nurses were needed. She found the box and was bringing it to the sterile table when Marcia, another cath lab nurse stepped into the room.
“How’s it going, guys?” She asked.
“Could you open this stent? This guy has coded twice and I could use a little help.” Traci blurted.
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About the Book
Ann Kelley is a beautiful, athletic woman who transitioned from astronomer to become a physician-in-training. She is the bright future of medicine, ethical, bright and caring. She meets Jon Canard, an established cardiologist, as he is in a maelstrom of career threatening conflicts induced by the greed of his angry partners and the hospital leaders. They fall in love and find profound happiness before Ann falls ill. As the ethics of the world around them disintegrates, Jon must battle for his career and for Ann’s life against a host of professionals dedicated to make both fail. The story highlights the financial and ethical conflicts destroying the American medical industry in contrast with most powerful positive forces in mankind.
About the Author
This is the first published work of fiction of Martin Filson, a physician. He has practiced cardiology in several states and has co-authored several scientific papers under his legal name. He chose to use a pseudonym due to the critical nature of some of this story. He has written several unpublished short plays and musicals in the remote past. This is his first novel. He lives in the