Time was of the essence but a terrified patient could not be ignored. She went to stand beside the operating table.
“I am Dr. Anna Savard. I think you must be a patient of my cousin Sophie’s. I will do my best for you, Mrs. Campbell. Can you tell me about your condition? What exactly was done?” She put a hand on the woman’s abdomen and flinched as she shrieked in pain, curling away from Anna’s touch.
In a whisper she said, “Where is Dr. Savard?”
“She has left the hospital staff and is moving to Europe. Can you tell me what you’ve done?”
The woman shook her head fiercely and turned her face away.
“Mrs. Campbell,” Anna said. “Your situation is dire. You must realize that. I will do everything in my power to help you, but you must prepare yourself. Do you have a message for me to pass on?”
Again the violent shake of the head. Her voice was broken and hoarse, but Anna heard her clearly.
“I want nothing now but an end to it all.”
Anna said, “Nurse Mitchard, please put the patient under as quickly as possible. There is not one second to waste.”
? ? ?
NO TIME TO waste, and still hygiene could not be forgotten. Anna stood at the sink scrubbing her hands and lower arms furiously, counting out the seconds to herself. Beside her the ambulance doctor held his hands and shirtsleeves both under running water and was watching the blood wash away.
He introduced himself as Neill Graham, an intern from Bellevue.
“What can you tell me?” she asked him.
“She admitted nothing. Profuse hemorrhaging, guarding, pain on rebound, in and out of delirium. I couldn’t examine her properly in the ambulance but by the smell, she’s septic.”
“The husband?”
“Neighbor sent word, I’m guessing he’s on his way.”
“Dr. Savard,” one of the nurses called, a note of panic in her voice. “We’ve got a prolapsed umbilical cord already presenting.”
To Neill Graham Anna said, “Anything else?”
“Just that she wanted to see Dr. Savard.”
“Thank you,” Anna said. “I’ll take it from here.”
“Could I observe?”
Anna paused. He was young, but his demeanor was professional and his interest seemed sincere. “I may need another pair of hands,” she said. “But you’ll have to get rid of that shirt and scrub in properly, nails especially. Don’t spare on the carbolic. Nurse Walker is circulating, she’ll find you a tunic.”
? ? ?
WHEN ANNA CAME to the operating table, her hands still damp and stinging from the carbolic acid, Mrs. Campbell had already been calmed by the ether. She was strapped to the extended stirrups in the lithotomy position, her knees flexed and canted outward, her legs and torso draped. Instruments newly out of the autoclave were arranged neatly on sterile trays. The nursing staff stood waiting for Anna to begin.
Helen Mitchard sat at Mrs. Campbell’s head monitoring anesthesia. She had already started to give the patient saline injections by means of a cannula, which might make some small difference.
“Status?”
She gave a sharp shake of her head, reaffirming what Anna already knew: it would take a miracle to turn this around.
Anna folded back the draping to reveal fresh dressings that were already soaked with blood and discharge. The effluvia was enough to make her head snap back. Septicemia had an unmistakable smell, but there was also a strong odor of feces. Whoever had operated on this woman had perforated her bowel.
Anna glanced at the nurse beside her. “Nurse—”
“Hawkins,” the young woman supplied.
“I’m going to need a good three gallons of saline to irrigate. And when we’re done here today, I’ll want to talk to you about your grasp of human anatomy.” She picked up a uterine sound that would give her an idea of the extent of the damage. “This is not an umbilical cord, Nurse Hawkins. It’s a loop of lower intestine.”
? ? ?
JACK STOPPED BY Verhoeven’s house to tell Sophie and Cap that the family party had boarded the ferry and departed as scheduled to cruise the East River. Without Anna.
“Or you,” said Sophie. “There will be some very disappointed cousins.”
They sat him down to eat lunch and talk through changes to the day’s plans.
Cap said, “Bring her back here when she’s free. We’re planning on eating on the terrace in the evening. We have a good view of the new bridge from there.”
Sophie walked Jack to the door. She put her hand on his lower arm, lowering her voice.
“Cap’s been pushing himself far too hard,” Sophie said. “But I really would like you to bring Anna and we’ll eat together. Cap and I will both retire quite early given—”
“Tomorrow.”
She nodded, a little flustered. “So you two will have the terrace to yourselves.” Her expression was completely innocent, but Jack had begun to figure Sophie out, and he saw something like quiet amusement in her eyes. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, felt her start and then relax.
“It’s good that you and Anna found each other,” she said. “I would worry about her while I’m gone, if she didn’t have you.”