Cook, Robin - Charlatans by Cook Robin

Author:Cook, Robin [Cook, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

18

FRIDAY, JULY 21, 9:15 P.M.

For a bit of variety after exhausting the Toscano menu for five nights in a row, Noah was back in the Thai restaurant called King & I. He’d called in an order after leaving the hospital and talking briefly with Ava to get her preferences, and now he stood by the cashier to wait.

It had been a very busy Friday. It had started earlier than usual because Friday morning’s basic science lecturer had canceled, forcing Noah to give the important lecture on postoperative electrolyte maintenance, which required a bit of preparation. To do so, he’d awakened at 4:00 A.M. and managed to leave Ava’s without waking her.

Following the basic science lecture, Noah had four surgeries, including a complicated esophagectomy, or removal and replacement of the esophagus. It was a difficult procedure that he’d done only once before. Luckily it had gone well, although he didn’t have high hopes for the patient; esophageal cancer was a particularly difficult disease for the oncologists.

Although all the surgeries had gone well, there was one unfortunate occurrence. Although he generally tried to avoid running into Dr. Mason by keeping track of his schedule, that morning it had happened despite his best intentions. Noah had just finished his first case and was accompanying the patient along with the anesthesiologist to the PACU when Dr. Mason unexpectedly appeared out of a case that was supposed to take four hours yet had been under way for only less than two. Despite Noah’s attempts to indicate he was busy, Dr. Mason insisted he talk and pulled him aside. He then proceeded to rail Noah about the quality of residents Noah was assigning to Dr. Mason’s cases. “With the kind of patients I bring into this hospital, I shouldn’t have to deal with incompetence in the assistants I’m assigned,” Mason had spat. “And let me tell you, I’m going to bring this up with Dr. Herandez, Dr. Cantor, and Ms. Hutchinson.” Gloria Hutchinson was the president of BMH.

Of course, Dr. Mason’s complaints were baseless. If anything, Noah went out of his way always to provide as senior as possible residents for Dr. Mason, anticipating the man’s tendency to blame everyone around him whenever something out of the ordinary happened. It was also true that Noah had not received any complaints about surgical resident assistants from any other surgeon, and that included all twenty-four of the first-year people.

Noah had tried to end the conversation by asking Dr. Mason if he might provide Noah with a list of the residents he enjoyed working with so that Noah could attempt to assign those people to Mason. But instead of taking this peace offering, Dr. Mason had switched the subject of the conversation to the upcoming M&M.

“I hope to God you are not planning on shielding your incompetent lover like you so obviously did with the Vincent case,” Dr. Mason had snarled. “Because you are not going to get away with it this time. I had to hold my tongue during the last conference because I was the surgeon.

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