Tuesday, August 23. 2005Tommy Xiang
It played like a scene from a black and white movie. Two figures dressed in black stepped out of a taxi cab. Looking furtively about, they hurried across the deserted street. In the distance, a siren wailed. Every now and then, a heap of trash moved as the street people adjusted their bedding. The men paused in front of a high chain-link fence. While one kept watch, the other extracted a key from the pocket of his coat. A heavy padlock snicked open, and the men hurried through the gate, closing it carefully, but leaving it unlocked. Behind the fence, a dilapidated building stood, silent in the night. Stones had broken most of the windows on the lower floors. The ghostly marks of a long-removed sign still proclaimed, Newton City Medical Center. A mangy dog raised his voice to the night sky, and everything fell silent.
Tommy and Howell stood quietly in the shadows of a small building near the gate, waiting. The dial of Tommy's watch flared briefly in the night. The Swensons were late. The glare of headlights swung across the hospital's facade; a large van stopped in front of the gate. The driver's door opened. Headlights seemed to flicker as a man crossed in front of the van. Tommy and Howell heard the whine of electric motors and the soft hiss of a hydraulic lift. The van shut off, and two ghostly figures approached the gate with the sound of jingling keys and more electric motors. "Dr. Xiang?" The driver called in a hoarse whisper that sounded loud against the stillness of the night. "Dr. Xiang," more urgently. Tommy stepped from the shadows and pulled the gate open. "Ssh. Let's go." Howell joined the procession up toward the old hospital. Their shoes and the tires of the electric wheelchair crunched over bits of gravel and shards of broken glass as they neared the entrance. Everything seemed slow to Tommy. He glanced at his watch again. At the front door, he fumbled with the keys for a moment, then forced the old sliding doors open. The building seemed to exhale. Musty smells and clouds of dust swirled around them as they hurried into the building's core. Far from any windows, in what seemed to be total darkness, Tommy flicked a switch, flooding a small room with light. It was spotless. White walls gleamed in the harsh flourescent glare. Tommy could see his own shadowy reflection in the highly polished black tile that covered the floor. Glittering stainless steel instruments winked up from their carefully placed trays. Monitors and machines hummed to life with the flick of another switch. Tommy turned to the Swensons. "Are you ready?"
The boy looked up at him bravely. "What are you going to do?" Tommy turned to Howell, who reached inside his coat to retrieve a carefully wrapped implant. "This is an HESII. That stands for Hybrid Environment Simulation Interface Implant. We're going to put it on the back of your neck, like this." He lifted Howell's hair to show the surface of the implant hidden there. "It will take a few days to heal up, but when it's finished, you'll be able to spend part of your day in a simulated environment. It will seem completely real, but there, you won't feel any of the symptoms of your disease. Does that make sense?" The boy swallowed and nodded. "Are you going to put me to sleep?" "No. We'll use a local anesthetic called Lidocaine. Are you ready?" Once again, the boy nodded. Tommy looked up at Andrew Swenson, who also nodded. He turned to Howell. Howell took a deep breath, removed his coat, and began washing his hands. He struggled for a moment with the latex gloves, but soon had them on. Then, while Tommy washed and donned gloves, he opened the package containing the implant, and placed it in a waiting dish full of warm agar. Tommy watched while Howell lifted the boy onto the table, and smeared a thick coating of transparent gel over the back of the boy's neck. Several minutes passed, Tommy fidgeting, Howell watching impassively. Then with surprisingly rapid movements, Tommy made three quick cuts with the scalpel, spread the skin, and settled the implant in place. A few quick sutures connected the SudaSkin to the boy's skin. Tommy stepped back and began removing his gloves. Howell put a bandage over the implant, and lifted the boy back into his chair. "That's all there is to it," Tommy said. "I'll come and see you in a few days to get you the rest of the equipment you'll need, and to make sure everything's going well. Get plenty of rest. Don't hesitate to call me if you notice any infection." They all turned and walked out of the room, flicking the lights and unecessary machines off as they left. They crunched across the hospital grounds, and, like shadows, disappeared into the night. Trackbacks
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Ancient Of Days on :
Tommy is obviously an incredibly skilled surgeon. I'm curious to see if Howell will actually be able to duplicate the incisions Tommy made...that's a pretty delicate part of the body to be messing around with when you're not supremely confident.
Johnny Elbows on :
How sure are you about your assertion, "Tommy is obviously an incredibly skilled surgeon."
I mean, three incisions? Ancient Of Days on :
My comment was based on two items:
"There were like twenty plaques back there, just stacked up, and all dusty. Neurologist of the Year, Doctor of the year, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a couple of plaques for every year he's been practicing. There might even be a few years where he had three or four." (Howell) Admittedly, there's no mention there of surgery, but that combined with the speed and implied sureness of the cuts made leads me to think he's very skilled as a surgeon, among his many other talents. Johnny Elbows on :
But I don't want him to be a great surgeon!
A neurologist is a special type of physician who diagnoses and treats disorders of the nervous system. This includes diseases of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles. A neurologist is trained to perform a detailed examination of all the important neurological structures in the body. This includes the nerves of the head and neck, the muscular strength and movement, sensation, balance testing, ambulation and reflex testing. In some patients, very detailed questions regarding memory, speech and language and other cognitive abilities will be part of the examination. *A neurologist may send a patient for a surgical evaluation, but does not perform surgery.* I could be wrong on this, but I don't want Tommy to be an amazing surgeon. His genius is supposed to be in the way that he designed the implant, not in the way that he implants it. Ancient Of Days on :
I admitted that you didn't explicitly say he was a good surgeon. I just seemed that the overwhelming skill he has in SOME branch of medicine combined with "Then with surprisingly rapid movements, Tommy made three quick cuts with the scalpel" said that he's an amazing surgeon, too.
Mad Giggler on :
When I read this entry I thought, "Wow, three quick cuts? That's it? I hope Howell saw enough that he could duplicate that. That must be a pretty simple procedure if you know what you're doing."
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