After looking at the clock for the third time, Lyman Douglas walked over and picked up Tess’s clipboard. After a few seconds, he tossed it back on the table and folded his arms in front of his chest.
“Until I hear differently, we should at least go ahead with our pre-op safety check.”
The circulating nurse again confirmed Tess’s identity by checking her identification band. When she had finished, Douglas went through each and every critical piece of information related to the C-section.
“Has the neonatologist on call been advised we’re almost ready to begin?”
“She’s in the suite,” his scrub nurse answered.
“If we don’t hear from Dr. Shaw in the next sixty seconds, page her.”
Just then, Madison poked her head into the operating room and motioned to Douglas. He put Tess’s chart down and joined her and Jack outside in the hall next to the scrub sink.
“Lyman, this is Jack Wyatt. Jack’s a visiting professor from Ohio State. He’s been working very closely with us on the GNS cases.”
Douglas shook his hand, and with a slow smile said, “Yes, I believe I’ve heard Hollis Sinclair mention your name a time or two. If you don’t mind me saying so, Madison, you look like a lady with something on her mind.”
“Before you scrub, we’d like to speak to you. It’s rather important.”
“Of course.”
“It might be better if we spoke in the patient consultation room.” From the look on his face, Jack got the feeling Douglas sensed he was about to hear something completely out of the ordinary.
Douglas blew a breath out between pursed lips. “Let me tell my team I’ll be a few minutes.”
Fifteen minutes later, Douglas walked back into the operating room with Madison at his side. Standing next to them was Dr. Amy Will wade, the chief of head and neck surgery at Southeastern State. Everybody in the room stopped what they were doing, their attention locked on Drs. Douglas and Willwade.
“We have a change in plan,” Douglas announced. “The C-section is canceled. Dr. Willwade will explain how we’ll be proceeding.” He raised a hand above the murmur. “I understand this is a little unorthodox but I assure you everything’s been carefully thought out. I’m sorry but we don’t have the time to answer a lot of questions.”
Douglas took a few steps back. He caught Willwade’s eye, who raised her hand and crossed her fingers.
Willwade said, “My instrument trays are being pulled now and should be ready in five minutes. I’m going to scrub. The consent for the new operation we’ll be performing is signed and on the chart. I’ll explain the rest when I get back in the room.”
The circulating nurse, who was anything but a rookie, asked in a hesitant voice, “Is there anything we should do while you’re scrubbing?”
Without breaking stride or turning around, Willwade said, “Yes. Put a roll behind Mrs. Ryan’s shoulders, prep her neck and say a prayer.”