Critical by Robin Cook Page B

Jack Stapleton said with uncamouflaged irritation, “I’m lucky to have gotten on Dr. Wendell Anderson’s schedule. Hell, he does all the knees for all the high-priced athletes in the city. There has to be a reason, and the reason is he’s obviously the best. If I cancel for this Thursday, I might not get back on the schedule for months. The man is that busy.”
    â€œBut you only tore your ACL a week ago,” Dr. Laurie Montgomery said with equal emotion. “Obviously, I’m not an orthopedic surgeon, but it stands to reason that operating on your knee, which has been so recently traumatized, is taking added risk. For God’s sake, your knee is still twice its normal size, and your abrasions haven’t completely healed.”
    â€œThe swelling has come down a lot,” Jack said.
    â€œDid the doctor suggest you have the surgery this quickly?”
    â€œNot exactly. I told him I want it ASAP, and he turned me over to his scheduling secretary.”
    â€œOh, great!” Laurie said mockingly. “The date was set by a secretary.”
    â€œShe must know what she’s doing,” Jack contended. “She’s been working with Anderson for decades.”
    â€œNow, that’s an intelligent assumption!” Laurie said with equal sarcasm.
    â€œAnother reason I don’t want to cancel is that I was lucky enough to be assigned as Anderson’s first case. If I have to have surgery, I want to be scheduled as the first case. The surgeon is fresh, the nurses are fresh, everybody’s fresh. I remember when I was doing surgery back when I was practicing ophthalmology, I would have wanted to be my own first case.”
    â€œAnd where is this Angels Orthopedic Hospital?” Laurie questioned irritably. She ignored Jack’s attempt at humor. “I’ve never even heard of it.”
    â€œIt’s north and not too far away from the University Hospital on the Upper East Side. It’s relatively new—I don’t know exactly when it opened, but less than five years ago. Anderson told me for the patients it’s like checking in to the Ritz, which you can hardly say about either University or Manhattan General. He likes it because the doctors run the show, not some bureaucratic administrator. In the same amount of time, they can do twice the number of cases.”
    â€œDamn it, Jack!” Laurie complained. She turned away and glanced out the side window of the taxi at the rain-swept New York City streets. To say that Jack could be stubborn was putting it mildly, and when she was irritated, she considered “bullheaded” to be much closer to the truth. When they’d first started working together as forensic pathologists at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York, she’d thought his wild bike riding to and from work and his brutish outdoor basketball playing with kids half his age were somehow charming. But now, twelve years later and married to the man for less than a year, she considered such risk-taking behavior by a fifty-two-year-old to be juvenile and even irresponsible now that he had a wife and a hoped-for child to consider. If truth be told, she wanted to delay his surgery not only to reduce surgical risk but also because she couldn’t help believe the longer he stayed away from commuting on his bike and street basketball, the more chance he’d give it up altogether.
    â€œI want to have my surgery Thursday,” Jack said, as if reading her mind. “I need to get back to my normal exercise routine.”
    â€œAnd I want an intact husband. You could be killed carrying on the way you do.”
    â€œThere’s lots of ways to be killed,” Jack responded. “As medical examiners, we both know that better than most.”
    â€œPut it off for a month,” Laurie pleaded.
    â€œI’m having the surgery,” Jack said. “It’s my knee.”
    â€œIt’s your