PATIENT CARE (Medical Romance) (Doctor Series) Read Online Free PDF

chair and she sat down, but he remained standing, which annoyed her further. It was such an obvious way of taking control of the proceedings.
    She wasn’t about to let him get away with it. She was a veteran of subtle power plays. The thing to do was take control of the conversation. “So what do the test results indicate about Mom’s condition, and what do you suggest as treatment, Doctor?” She used her most professional tone.
    He cleared his throat and shoved a hank of dark hair away from his forehead.
    “I’ve evaluated your mother carefully,” he began without meeting Melissa’s gaze. He stared at some point three feet above her head. “As a result of the tests I’ve done, I’ve decided to withdraw all medication immediately.”
    “Oh? Why is that, Doctor?” Melissa frowned and waited, not understanding what he was getting at, although a tiny thread of alarm began to wind itself into a knot inside her.
    “In my opinion, your mother has suffered irreversible brain damage.”
    Melissa heard the words, and her blood seemed to freeze in her veins. She swallowed hard and stared at him in horror, unable to say a word.
    “I don’t believe your mother is going to recover or improve. I suggest you begin looking at placement in a care home for her. Not immediately, of course. But there are a limited number of openings in the better facilities, and it would be best to get her name on lists.”
    “A...a care home?” Melissa was aghast. She’d trained herself to deal with emergencies in a controlled and rational manner. As an administrator, she’d attended numerous workshops on anger management. But none of the techniques she’d learned even occurred to her now.
    “You’re saying—” Rage, red and urgent and violent, began somewhere in her gut and traveled to her brain as if it were a lit fuse linked to nitroglycerine. “You’re saying I should put my mother in a care home? My mother is only fifty-six.” As she got to her feet, she was dimly aware that he was still talking.
    “As I mentioned, there are waiting lists, and getting into the best of these facilities may take some time, as I’m sure you’re well aware.” His voice was composed, his manner cold, distant and totally impersonal.
    “But—I just can’t believe—this is my mother we’re talking about here, Doctor.” Melissa’s voice was suddenly so loud he jumped. “It hasn’t even been a week since you operated on her, and you’re suggesting placement in a care home?”
    Her voice was getting even louder, and it felt wonderful. She let all her feelings surface; they spilled out in a gush of invective. “You arrogant, egotistical, insufferable—why, a veterinarian would show more compassion for a patient than this. How can you possibly be so certain my mother isn’t going to improve? Do you actually believe you’re God, Dr. Burke? Because you sure as hell sound as if you do.”
    His expression didn’t change an iota.
    “Don’t you have a mother of your own? Don’t you have some concept of how this feels, to be told that—that—” Melissa tried to go on screaming at him, but instead of words, a mental image of her poor mother, helpless and trapped in a coma, frightened and alone in a place Melissa couldn’t go to comfort her, came vividly to mind. A sob caught in her throat. She couldn’t hold it back, and neither could she stop the explosion of tears that burst from her. She covered her face with her hands and wept.
    He made no attempt to comfort her. He didn’t even offer a tissue.
    Melissa heard the office door open and shut, and she knew James Burke was gone. She sank onto the chair she’d been sitting in, dropped her head into her hands and gave in to the desperate grief and fear she’d been holding at bay for days.

Chapter Six
     
    James hurried past the two nurses behind the desk, studiously ignoring their curious stares. He knew they’d probably overheard some of what had gone on just now with Melissa Clayton,