Death Rounds Read Online Free PDF Page B

for hawks, except today. He was grinning broadly and looking as happy as I’d ever seen him.
    The two men suddenly caught sight of Sean and me watching them. As if to underline my suspicions, they immediately stopped smiling, turned, and walked away with their heads huddled together.
    “Maybe they’re afraid we can read lips,” Sean commented.
    We made small talk after that, but I sensed he was worried. For all his clowning around, I knew that he loved being a surgeon, and that being chief of surgery was his passion.
    Minutes later the page came booming over the PA.
    “Dr. Garnet! Call ICU immediately! Dr. Garnet! Call ICU!”
    It was loud enough to momentarily hush the room, but conversations started up again as I ran for a wall phone. In my rush I dropped the receiver while punching in the familiar numbers. It was Deloram who picked up.
    “Earl?” he asked, obviously expecting my call. I could hear shouting in the background.
    “What the—”
    “He beat me here. Earl, and what’s worse, the nurses had shown him the chart, as a professional courtesy. The note Rossit had circled practically jumped out at him, and he’s livid. Worse, he wants to transfer his mother out of here and back to University Hospital. The trip’s out of the question—she’s too unstable—but I can’t talk sense to the man.”
    Christ, I thought. Then I saw a familiar head towering above all the others in the room. “Stewart, there’s someone here Miller will listen to. Cam hasn’t left yet. Tell Miller he’ll be up in a minute!” I ordered, hanging up without waiting for his reply.
    I made my way through the thinning crowd toward the blond-haired, slim man I’d spotted. In his mid-thirties and dressed in a navy blue sports jacket, tan pants, and a light blue shirt open at the collar, he resembled more a movie star than what he was—chief of the Department of Infectious Diseases and director of laboratory services at University Hospital. In any group he was a head taller than the rest and had to continually lean down to hear what others were saying. That he spent a lot of time surrounded by physicians and residents was a tribute to his brilliance. And unlike Rossit, he was every bit a gentleman.
    I’d met him several times with Janet and had even been lucky enough to be seated near him at several of her hospital dinner parties. His funny stories were legendary. More pertinent was that he was Miller’s ultimate supervisor.
    Having no time for niceties, I pushed through the circle of people around him. “Excuse me, Cam,” I interrupted, drawing irritated stares from the people I jostled. Cam himself smiled and said, “Hi, Earl. How come your lovely wife isn’t here? We could make her chief of everything and solve—”
    “I’m sorry, Cam. We’ve got a big problem in ICU with one of the nurses from your hospital. It’s an ID case, and we need your help fast.”
    His smiling face immediately became serious. “Of course,” he replied. “Excuse me, everyone; it’s back to reality.” There were appreciative chuckles from his audience as he strode away with me and we headed toward the door. I almost had to run to keep up. I talked as we went.
    “Her name is Phyllis Sanders, and of course you know her son, Harold Miller.”
    “Harold? Certainly I know him. We just named him our director of laboratory technicians. He’s very conscientious. His mother works in OB doesn’t she?”
    “That’s right. She’s in her fifties, smokes, but otherwise has no major risk factors. I saw her yesterday in ER and sent her home with what seemed like a mild, one-day history of the flu. She’d been on vacation and lived nearby, so she came to us instead of going to your staff health service. Unfortunately, she was returned to us by ambulance this morning in septic shock due to pneumonia.”
    We swung through the doors to the stairwell and started up. He took the steps two at a time. He showed no reaction to what I’d just told