A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 29

Chapter 29

After ending the conversation with Fiona, Joseph was called back to Walt’s office. Bernard had already left.

“Joseph, you didn’t go easy on Bernard at all. He was steely-faced when he left.” Walt told Joseph to sit.

Bernard had punched Joseph without even bothering to get to the bottom of the matter, and he’d even threatened Joseph. On top of that, there was the scandal Cora had created. Joseph didn’t think he had anything to do with either of them anymore.

He said, “I didn’t say anything wrong or untrue. The divorce itself is a simple matter. Bernard is the one who’s acting out of line and coming to the hospital time and time again to push me.”

“It does involve his daughter, after all.”

“And Cora is the source of all these problems in the first place.” Joseph didn’t want to waste time talking about his messy personal life now. He switched to talking about work.

Right then, Walt’s secretary came in with a fax. He signed in, then said to Joseph, “I’m heading to an important medical conference, and I’ll be gone for a few days. I’ve already spoken to Dr. Tate. You’ll stay on rotation in the ICU.”

Joseph accepted the arrangement and went back to the ICU. As soon as he got there, he heard a family member crying in the hallway. He didn’t need to ask to know that the patient inside hadn’t made it.

He was slightly shaken. In his years of practicing medicine, he’d always worked in the inpatient department with relatively stable patients. He’d rarely encountered truly critical cases. But in just two days in the ICU, this was already the third instance.

The family refused to accept the outcome. They begged the doctors and nurses to keep trying, but no one responded. When the woman saw Joseph, she rushed over, fell to her knees, and grabbed his leg. She sobbed and pleaded with him to go in and save her loved one.

Joseph accepted, deciding he would clear it with the deputy director when he arrived. When the deputy director came in and saw that the patient was still in critical condition, he told Joseph to take charge because he himself wasn’t confident in the prognosis.

Joseph first focused on stabilizing the patient’s heartbeat. Then, he quickly reviewed all the lab work and test results and pulled together a viable treatment plan. On that basis, he immediately moved forward with cardiac surgery.

The operation went on until 8:00 pm. By the time they finished, he had fully pulled the patient back from the brink. He stayed in the ICU until the early hours of the morning, monitoring the patient post-op. Only when the patient woke up on schedule and Joseph confirmed there were no abnormalities did he finally return to the dorm.

After a shower, inspiration for his doctoral dissertation suddenly struck. He sat down to work on the core idea, the outline, and the basic structure, drafting a rough framework.

At 3:00 am, just as he was about to call it a night, his phone rang. It was the local precinct. They needed him to come down and post bail for Natalie. He was the only person she’d given as her contact.