Carol Marinelli - Hot Docs On Call - Surgeon's Seduction

“No, the babies are at risk of cutting off their blood supply now. Is that correct, Dr. Walker?” Sam asked.

“Yes.” Mindy stood. “Ms. Bayberry is thirty weeks tomorrow. We’ll have to keep a close eye on her. Let’s try to get her to thirty weeks and then we’ll deliver the babies.”

Dr. Hall nodded. “I’ll prep my neonatology staff.”

Mindy turned to Sam. “Can you inform Dr. Chang for me, Dr. Napier? I would like her present at the surgery.”

“Of course, Dr. Walker.” Sam left the room to track down Dr. Chang before she got prepped for surgery.

Dr. Hall left the exam room to prep her team and now Mindy was faced with breaking the news to Ms. Bayberry. As if the poor woman hadn’t been under enough stress. Now Mindy had to break the news to her that her twins’ lives were in danger. At least when she’d had the splenectomy they’d given Ms. Bayberry a shot of corticosteroids to help strengthen the babies’ lungs. She’d be given another shot tonight.

Any little bit helped.

At least the babies were almost thirty weeks.

At least their cords weren’t tangling at twenty weeks, when there would be nothing they could do to save them.

Being thirty weeks along, at least the babies had a chance.

And Mindy was going to make sure they got the chance they deserved.

SAM STOOD NEXT to Dr. Chang as she scrubbed in. He was annoyed that he wasn’t going to be allowed into the OR while they delivered Ms. Bayberry’s twins.

“There will be too many people in there. It’s a delicate surgery, and we have Neonatology, Pediatrics and OB/GYN. You can watch from the gallery, like the other residents.”

That command had come down from Professor Langley, but he didn’t actually have the guts to come down and tell him in person. He’d sent his lackey to tell him. Langley never really dealt with him. He always seemed to avoid him.

He must feel guilty and that pleased Sam to no end.

Good. Langley’s affair with his mother had torn his family apart. Crushed his father. It was best Langley keep his distance from him.

“You’re scowling,” Dr. Chang remarked, as she scrubbed her arms and hands.

“I think I should be in there. I was on this case since day one,” Sam snapped.

“Professor Langley has a point. There will be a lot of people in there.”

“I calmed the patient.”

“Yes, when her husband was absent, and she’ll be under general anesthesia again. This is a delicate procedure. We can’t have the cords continue to tangle. If they tangle before the babies are ready to be born, it could kill both of them.”

Sam grunted in response. He got that, but he still wanted to be in there. Mono-amniotic twins was such a rare occurrence he doubted he’d ever get to see another case like this in the near future. In fact, it was Dr. Chang’s first time to see such a case. Even she’d never seen mono-amniotic twins.

And it wasn’t just the rarity of the case he was moaning about. He cared for the patient. Linda Bayberry and her husband Frank were two of the nicest native New Yorkers he’d ever met, besides Enzo’s family, though he wouldn’t let anyone else know that.

He’d been following the case since day one and he wanted to see it through. He wanted to make sure those babies were okay.

“I heard from your mother today,” Dr. Chang said, with a note of derision in her tone.

Oh, bloody hell .

“Aye, and what did she want?” His brogue was slipping out in his annoyance.

Dr. Chang smiled at him. “Oh, she wanted to tell me that I’m wasting her son’s talent and surgical skill by having him work in OB/GYN. She didn’t pay for your education and pull strings for you to be delivering babies like some glorified midwife.”

Sam cursed under his breath. “And what would she know about that? I’m sorry she laid into you like that, Dr. Chang. I hope you know that I don’t think that way.”

Dr. Chang shook off her hands. “I know and I know your mother.”

“What did you say to her?”

“Nothing. I hung up on her.” There was an evil grin on Dr. Chang’s face as she walked into the OR.

Sam chuckled to himself. He was glad that Dr. Chang didn’t put up with his mother’s ridiculous behavior. He was also angry that his mother had done that. She was bound and determined to ruin his career as a pediatric surgeon.

His mother wouldn’t be happy unless he was a bloody neurosurgeon. Not that there was anything wrong with neurosurgeons. On the contrary, he respected many of them—the brain was a delicate organ.

It took such precision to operate on it and the nervous system, but was it any more difficult or delicate than when you were dealing with a heart no bigger than a grape or veins the size of a human hair?

No. It wasn’t, but then kids had never really mattered to his mother.

Sam knew all about that.

Disgusted with her behavior, he headed up to the gallery and pushed his way to the front through the throng of eager observers so he could watch Mindy in action.

He was surprised that none of his other roommates were in the room, but they were probably off doing surgeries, while he was stuck up in the gallery like a first-year intern. Observing, rather than helping.

“Did you hear that Dr. Monica Hanley is coming to West Manhattan Saints?”

“No, I hadn’t. Get out of town. The Dr. Hanley is coming here. When?”

Sam perked up at the mention of his mother’s name and when he glanced around he could see it was two young interns on the other side of the gallery who were talking about it.

“She’s coming in a couple of weeks. Apparently there’s a kid with some kind of inoperable brain tumor, but she’s going to be testing her new surgical procedure to remove the tumor and she’s going to do her groundbreaking surgery here.”

“That’s amazing.”

Sam groaned inwardly.

Great. Just what he needed to hear. His mother was coming to West Manhattan Saints to flaunt neurosurgery in his face once again and he was ticked off. Why did she have to come here to do the surgery? Why hadn’t Dr. Chang told him his mother was coming? Did Dr. Chang even know? Perhaps she didn’t as she’d hung up on her.

Even then, he wouldn’t put it past his mother to go over the head of the Pediatrics attending to Professor Langley to get permission to do the surgery here.

Why here?

“I hear her son works at West Manhattan Saints and that’s why she’s coming.” This was said in a hushed undertone.

“Her son? She has a son and he works here? Who is he?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure he’s going to get picked to assist. I mean, come on, the son of Dr. Hanley. I’m sure she pulled strings to get him into the program. He’s probably riding on her coattails and doesn’t have to lift a finger. Just has all the most awesome surgeries handed to him.”

“I hate him on principle,” the other intern griped.

Sam’s stomach knotted, his worst fears about being his mother’s son realized. It was a good thing they had different surnames. This was why he didn’t want people to know who his mother was. They would stop looking at him as a surgeon and only see him as someone who’d got to where he was because of his mother.

He wanted to get up and leave, or confront the two gossiping fools as they continued to gossip about Dr. Hanley’s son and how crummy a surgeon he was, but instead he blocked them out. He was safe behind his walls.

Sam was here to learn. He was here to observe a once-in-a-lifetime surgery. He was here to advance his career because he was a surgeon. A good surgeon.

He knew one thing—he was not going to be around when his mother was here. He wasn’t going to allow that can of worms to taint his surgical career in the hospital where he planned to spend many years becoming one of the best pediatric surgeons. If she was going to be here, he wasn’t.