Eileen giggled. “Oh, goodness, doctor. Dr. Benson hasn’t even talked about marriage! We’re just good friends.”
Dr. Barsch patted his hands with a sterile towel. “Good friends, indeed! I’ve seen that young idiot mooning about here as if he invented falling in love!”
“Here he comes, Doctor,” Jean warned.
“Let him hear me,” Dr. Barsch said defiantly, but he lowered his voice.
If Dr. Benson had been mooning about, he showed no evidence of it this morning. He glanced at the clock as he began to scrub. Each person in the room was required to scrub for ten minutes. Then he meticulously scoured his hands and arms with a small brush, taking particular care to clean around the base of the nails where dirt can be imbedded. When he had finished, he bathed his hands and arms in an antiseptic solution. He didn’t even glance at Eileen, who was scrubbing at the next basin.
The patient was wheeled in and transferred to the operating table. In spite of the fact that he was under opiates, Mr. Mills moaned. Dr. Henry waited till he was ready for the anesthetic and then fitted a cone over the man’s nose and mouth. Watching the blood pressure carefully, he checked the pulse rate every few seconds. At last the moaning stopped, and Dr. Henry nodded.
Dr. Barsch stood beside the patient’s chest ready to make the incision. Gerald Benson stood on the other side of Mr. Mills. A step behind Dr. Barsch, Dr. Daley stood. Dr. Henry was stationed at the patient’s head. Eileen and Jean were on a level with the patient’s hips. They all wore sterile hospital gowns, masks and gloves. Not a single strand of hair escaped from the sterile white caps on their heads.
Dr. Barsch let out his breath slowly and made his incision. Jean watched carefully as he opened the chest. The incision was more difficult to make than one for an abdominal operation, but Dr. Barsch cut skillfully, and soon the lung was exposed. They all shuddered as they saw the cluster of malignant cells imbedded at the base of the lung. Jean sketched quickly. She was fascinated at the sight of the exposed heart beating slowly and calmly as if it were undisturbed.
Then the cutting out of the cancer began. Dr. Barsch cut under the growth, praying that he would find healthy tissue beneath. But there was more cancerous material below. He sighed and cut down again. Finally, he reached normal tissue. Then he and Dr. Benson began the long, tedious and important task of exploring the entire cavity for more malignant tissue. The clock ticked away minutes as they probed.
“All right,” Dr. Barsch said finally. “Take my side.”