A Surgeon to Heal Her Heart

Her eyes misted a little, and Rosalyn seemed to know her thoughts because the woman pulled Carly to her for a quick hug.

“Now, you go get to work. We got patients to take care of.”

CHAPTER TEN

CARLY GENTLY LIFTED the dressing off Mrs. Kim’s chest and winced. Overnight the wound had gone from non-healing to angry. Red streaked out from the wound and a purulent discharge oozed from the open gap.

No wonder her patient’s vitals had so drastically changed. When Carly had stepped into the room to do morning vitals, she’d immediately known something was wrong.

Mrs. Kim had been stable and Stone’s hospital progress notes had said he planned to discharge her today. That wasn’t likely to happen.

Her temperature had spiked to one-hundred-and-one-point-two Fahrenheit. Her heart pounded at a hundred and twenty beats per minute. Her skin had a sickly pallor and her eyes just hadn’t tracked Carly well.

Before calling Stone to report the changes in his patient, she’d wanted to assess the wound.

The sight beneath the bandage explained everything.

Rather than finish cleaning the wound, Carly stepped back, removed her gloves, and washed her hands. “I’m calling Dr. Parker, Mrs. Kim, before we go further. He may want additional cultures.”

The woman nodded. Carly pulled her cell phone from her scrub pocket and, heart pounding that she was using the direct number Stone had given her, she called him.

Not sure what to expect—would he be happy she’d called him directly or upset?—she filled him in on Mrs. Kim.

“I just finished a lumpectomy and my next procedure was canceled due to a cat scratch on her forearm. Culture the wound, but don’t clean or redress it. I want to see. I’ll be up there in a few minutes.”

* * *

Stone shot a quick wink toward the pretty brown-eyed nurse attending to her patient, but verbally addressed the sickly appearing woman lying in the hospital bed.

“Good morning, Mrs. Kim. Your nurse didn’t think you looked so well this morning, and I have to agree with her assessment. What happened since I saw you yesterday?”

The feeble elderly woman shrugged. “I got weak.”

“Are you hurting?” he asked as he gloved up and moved to her bedside.

“No more than normal,” she replied, but grimaced when he pulled away the gauze Carly had used to cover the wound.

Stone wanted to wince himself. Overnight, the wound had reddened and oozed with purulent drainage.

He frowned. “Are you sure that’s the same place I checked yesterday?”

Mrs. Kim’s tired eyes met his. “That bad?”

“It’s not good.” He dropped his gaze back to the wound, trying to decide if he wanted to excise it bedside or take her into the operating room. He took off his gloves, tossed them into the appropriate waste bin, then pulled out his phone to call the operating room to check the schedule. He’d had the rescheduled cholecystectomy. Maybe he could slide Mrs. Kim onto the schedule.

“I’m sorry, Dr. Parker, but we’re booked solid for anything that’s not emergency. Dr. Anderson slid into your canceled slot to do a splenectomy on a post MVA that came into the emergency department.”

That decided where he’d be excising the wound.

Hanging up the phone, he turned to Carly. Despite his brain being on Mrs. Kim’s wound, his breath caught as he met Carly’s brown gaze and she smiled at him.

Breath caught? More like every bodily function halted, leaving him a little dazed.

Gathering his wits, he told her what he planned, what he needed, and then advised Mrs. Kim on what was about to happen.

* * *

Carly had done a brief stint in the operating room during her nursing school clinical rotations, but had worked on the medical/surgical floor exclusively since graduation. She loved med/surg. Watching Stone’s precise movements as he anesthetized, then opened up Mrs. Kim’s wound and cut out infected tissue, she thought she might have missed her calling.

Then again, her fascination might have a lot to do with the surgeon. She’d never seen Stone operate, much less assisted him. The man’s hands were steady, skilled, and precise.

While he worked, he chatted with his patient, his voice calm and soothing.

“I’m going to put in a new drain tube then pack the area with antibiotic-soaked gauze.”

Carly assisted him as he placed the drain tube.

When he’d finished, he grinned. “Ever think about transferring to the operating room?”

“Once or twice.” She didn’t elaborate to say that all occurrences had been within the past twenty minutes.

His eyes twinkled and he winked.

Warmth spread through Carly, and she winked back.

Maybe she shouldn’t have, but doing so felt right. The happy flicker in his eyes made the whole world feel right.