Part 2 (1/2)

Mason was standing back, watching the respirator. He kept having to remind himself to breathe as he willed the bag to rise and fall. He, too, was growing increasingly frustrated and more than a little embarra.s.sed.

Susan looked up from the body. She was debating whether to attempt another defibrillation. Emergency medical care had generally already ended at this point and it was simply a matter of p.r.o.nouncing death. She felt a wave of doubt wash over her as she stepped back from the table.

”Any suggestions?”

The question was directed at those present in the room, but it was Dr. Goldstein coming through the door who answered it.

”Yeah, how about burying that thing?”

Susan looked over at him. ”Goldstein, I'm glad you're here,” she said, trying to sound convincing, ”we've got a patient in a p.r.o.nounced vegetative state-”

”Nurse,” Goldstein interrupted, ”what do you show for pulse?”

The nurse looked down at her clipboard, although that was unnecessary. ”Zero.”

”Respirations?”

”Umm, zero.”

”Blood pressure?”

”None.”

Goldstein peeled off the gloves he had just pulled on. ”There you have it. I hope that's not why you called me in here, Susan.”

Susan felt stubbornness war with her doubt, and the sarcasm in his voice increased that stubbornness. ”David, we've seen several signs of life. I heard her cough in the morgue-”

Goldstein was incredulous. ”You brought her up from the morgue? Have you lost your mind, Susan?”

Susan started to say something to defend herself, then snapped her jaw shut. Goldstein continued his sarcastic tirade. ”Now, I know how precious your research is to you, but this is real-world, Susan. This person is dead, and none of your patented procedures are going to bring her back.”

The silence was suddenly very loud in the room. Susan glanced down at the mangled corpse, the hot flush now traveling from the back of her neck to her cheeks. She wondered if her face was as red as her hair. She tried to salvage whatever dignity she could from the situation.

”Mason,” she said calmly, her voice betraying only the faintest quiver. ”Perhaps it was just the body settling as we discussed. Better to err on the side of caution. Would you please continue with the original arrangements for this body?”

Mason nodded, embarra.s.sed for himself but even more so for the doctor. He felt terrible at the humiliation he had caused her. ”I'll get on it right away, Dr. Ryerson.”

Susan nodded to the intern, the resident, and to the two nurses. ”Thank you for your a.s.sistance. I'm sorry if I caused you any inconvenience.”

She brushed by David Goldstein without another word.

Susan slowly pulled her lab coat back on. What in G.o.d's name had gotten into her? She was normally so calm, so logical, so rational. Yet she had just dragged a body out of the morgue and attempted to bring it back to life, a la Frankenstein. And to make matters worse, David Goldstein had been there to witness her folly. She was certain to hear about this at the next staff meeting.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a banging on the lab door. She had been so engrossed in self-reproach she had not heard the elevator. She looked out the window and was shocked to see Mason peering back at her, the gurney in front of him. She quickly opened the door, pulling both him and the body inside.

”Mason, what are you doing?” she exclaimed, ”Have you lost your mind?”

Mason was apologetic but unrelenting. ”I'm sorry, doc. I think something's going on here. I think you should hook this lady up to some of your equipment.”

Susan was exasperated. She had already suffered enough humiliation for one day. She did not want to be seen smuggling bodies into her lab in broad daylight. In fact, she corrected herself, she did not want to be seen smuggling bodies into her lab at any time of day.

”Mason,” she began, trying to sound calm and convincing, ”This woman is dead. She's been dead for quite some time now. There's nothing we can do for her.”

Mason's jaw was stubborn. ”Then it won't hurt to hook her up to some equipment.”

Susan started to argue, then relented. Nothing she was going to say was going to sway him. ”Okay, we'll hook her up to an EKG one more time to see if we get anything. If not, we call it quits and I put her back on ice.” She glanced over her shoulder. ”But bring her in here, for G.o.d's sake. I can't believe you brought her up here.”

Mason pushed the gurney into the next room and Susan pulled the door closed behind her. She used this room to conduct experiments on the effects of sleep deprivation on the immune system, and it was full of monitoring equipment for that purpose.

Susan pulled the sheet down from the woman's torso and placed the pads from the EKG on the corpse's chest, feeling mildly foolish as she did so. She flipped the switch to the monitor, and the display immediately settled into a flatline. She gazed at the screen for a few moments, then at Mason.

”How long are we going to wait until this convinces you?”

Mason glanced down at the hard, cold flesh, then at the glowing screen with the thin blue line running across it. He himself was starting to lose conviction. Perhaps he was just trying to make up for the damage he had caused in the emergency room. Perhaps he just didn't want to accept the death of this beautiful woman. Perhaps he should just let things go.

The single beep was very loud in the quiet of the room. Both pair of eyes turned to the monitor to watch the single jagged peak travel across the screen before it returned to flatline.

”That's probably a malfunction,” Susan offered uncertainly in the silence.

”It's not,” Mason said, his conviction returning. He glanced over at the edge of the gurney. ”Look at that.”

The bag of blood from the emergency room was still hanging from its hook. They had turned the stopvalve when all attempts to revive the woman had failed. The blood trapped in the tube remained. As both of them watched, the blood level in the tubing slowly dropped until it disappeared. Susan reached up and turned the stopvalve. The blood from the bag began to snake downward through the curving tube. The IV that had been so haphazardly inserted held and the blood disappeared into the woman's arm.

”The blood should be pooling underneath the skin.” Susan said hesitantly, finding no signs that it was doing so. She glanced up at the bag, which was now a third gone. ”Or not going in at all.”

Another beep broke the silence and another jagged peak swept across the EKG screen. Susan stared at the screen, then down at the body in front of her. She was baffled by what was going on, but knew she was not taking this body back to ER. She turned to Mason. ”Do you think you could *acquire' some more blood? Most of the samples I have up here are not sterile.”

Mason nodded. ”Sure doc, I can *acquire' anything you need.” He took one last look at the body, then quickly disappeared.

Susan turned back to the body, which still looked like a cold, dead corpse. She tried to come up with a plausible explanation. She knew of cases where people had fallen into ponds or lakes and were trapped beneath the ice for several hours. Their vital signs slowed to nothing, including brain activity. Perhaps this woman was in a similar state, although it hardly seemed possible. If the woman were capable of being revived, she most certainly would sustain severe brain damage.

Mason returned in a frighteningly quick time considering the illegal activity he was engaged in. He carried four bags of thick, red blood. While Susan prepared to replace the original bag, which was now almost empty, Mason watched the blue flatline move across the screen. ”Why don't you hook her up to the EEG?”

Susan glanced over her shoulder. ”What?”

Mason motioned to the EEG. ”Hook her up, see if you can get any brain activity.”

Susan was still skeptical, still not quite accepting what was in front of them. ”Well, the brain requires oxygen to function. If you don't have a pulse, and you don't have respirations, you're probably not going to get any brain activity.”

Mason returned to his earlier argument. ”What have you got to lose?”

Susan glanced over at the EEG. Mason was right. What did they have to lose? They had already stolen a body, four bags of blood, and jumped to some wild conclusions on what was probably a malfunctioning EKG. She sighed, then moved to the EEG. She attached the electrodes to the woman's temples, then stepped back.

Mason was standing ready and he flipped the switch on the monitor, causing the screen to spring to life. He stepped back in satisfaction.