Jean gasped. “You mean, you want me to go right in there and do a drawing?” she asked.
Dr. Barsch nodded. “You can’t learn surgical art any better way. I don’t expect to be able to use your sketch, but I want you to have the practice.”
“Then you won’t use me to assist you?” she asked.
Dr. Barsch frowned impatiently. “Naturally not. Now, please hurry. Get your materials, and I’ll see you upstairs.”
Jean hurried to her room and snatched up her sketch pad and pencils. She ran down the hall towards the operating room and went into the small lavatory to scrub. Two women were scouring the room, and Helen Pierce was sterilizing instruments. When Jean had finished scrubbing, Helen helped her with her gloves and mask.
“This is a real emergency,” Helen muttered as she checked her instruments. “They always wait till the last minute before they call the doctor.”
“Will it be a dangerous operation?” Jean asked.
Helen shrugged. “That depends. Usually an appendectomy is a snap. That is, easy for the patient. But it can be ticklish if the appendix is ready to break open.”
Dr. Barsch and Ted came in to scrub up. The girls worked in silence, and the only sound was that of the rushing water in the lavatory. Dr. Henry, the anesthetician, bustled in and, after scrubbing, came over to the sterilizer and peeked in.
“I can’t use ether, Miss Pierce,” he said. “You should know that.” He grunted. “And if we could use a complete anesthetic, I’d choose sodium pentothal. But this will have to be a local block. The child undoubtedly has eaten today.”