Shadow Lover

The critical patient having now been prepped, it was now the responsibility of the cardiologist and anesthesiologist to make certain the monitors are attached, and anesthesia administered. In less than five minutes, Dr. Painkin entered the room with a trauma surgeon at his side. Because he specialized in neurosurgery, it was understood that this was his show and not trauma. Also standing by for assistance was two surgical residents and a fourth year medical student. Nurse Green, the circulating nurse and best friend of Painkin looked on, readied to assist. Around Angelica broken body now stood a team of five highly reputable surgeons. A briefing having been given to the other surgeons by Dr. Painkin, they began the task of saving this battered woman's life. The incision spot was marked and opened, a series of thin incisions were made to each layer of flesh cautiously until the swollen abnormality was revealed.

"Look at the size of that thing!", exclaimed one astonished doctor. Sherry Aredt had worked side by side with Dr. Painkin on three major brain operations since being on his staff over the past six months. As a resident along side the doctor, her surgical experience had excelled her medical knowledge superbly, but nothing previously experienced could have prepared her for what she had witnessed this very moment.

Inside the unconscious woman's head lied the formation of a hematoma the size of a golf ball, complicated by irreparable arterial tears. The increased swelling of the abnormality complicating matters further as it continued to relentlessly force the brain down into the brain stem, degenerating an already grave situation.

Sherry Aredt was no pessimist by nature but even she had now realized the desperate need of a miracle for this broken battered patient. If repair was at all possible, she would more than likely remain dysfunctional after the procedure. Sherry imagined the consequences of this fallen woman becoming a vegetable for the rest of life, if they should with all their ability still fail her in their attempt to mend her and render her whole once more. She equated if this prognosis being in actuality worse than dying on an operating table.

"Damn, what am I going to do for this young lady?" exclaimed Dr. Painkin. "There is no help for her. She needs an angel of God to help her," he continued. He could feel anxiety and failure taunting him. He felt the acid building, racing to his throat. This beautiful hapless woman was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it.

There was a time Dr. Painkin felt he could save the world if given the chance and there being absolutely no problem he could not solve, again if given that chance, and now laid a young woman before him that would die on his table under his knife.

The other surgeons now looked at Dr. Painkin for direction, obviously feeling a shared trounce. No amount of study could have prepared them for this. Not one of them anticipated the disaster that had now presented itself before them. There would be six saviors going home with the same blood on their hands. A life being lost, that alone being certainly beyond a mere renaissance.

While the six stood around Angelica's head, deciding how to proceed, there was a seventh presence in their midst. Although they could not see him, he was there, looking and observing what had transpiring transpired before them."You men have little faith, prayer without belief is useless." Looking from one surgeon to the other, he willed one of them to beseech his help. Without the summoning from the heart, his presence is void.