“Call 911, I need police, paramedics and an ambulance at my home.”

“What is wrong?”

“I’m in bed. I can’t move. The police may have to break down the door.”

“Can I do something?”

“Just make that call now. And then call Dr’s Barret, Spangler, Frank and Levet. I am going to need all four of them. They will be doing surgery and patient care. Have at least one of them meet me when they bring me into the ER.”

“Yes. What’s wrong?”

“Please make the calls. I’ll explain. And cancel or reassign my appointments and surgeries for the next week. And send Joyce over here right now. I think she has a spare key to my front door. I want her to be here when the police get here. Hopefully they will not have to break down the door.”

He looked down at his legs. They had turned dark. The lower legs looked like they had been frozen.

About ten minutes later he heard the front door open. Joyce called. “Where are you?”

“Bedroom. Top of the steps.”

“Coming.”

“Don’t touch anything you don’t have to. This is a crime scene. The police will be taking fingerprints.”

“As she was coming up the steps she asked, “Are you shot?”

“No. Someone really hates me. They want my work stopped. They did something different. Something really symbolic.”

As she came into the room she saw his legs. The trained nurse saw it instantly. “Oh. God. No. Should I get something to cut the wires, to restore the circulation?”

“Check my legs at the ankles. Is there any pulse?”

She felt over them. “None.”

“Then let them in place and if someone tries to remove them tell them “no”. If my legs are as far gone as I think, cutting that will not help and it will make me sicker, possibly threaten my life with a blood clot.”

“OK. But are you sure you don’t want to try?”

“Take a look. What do you think?”

“I haven’t seen a limb that bad that we saved.”

“Neither have I.”

She started to cry. “All your research. If you don’t have patients in the program soon they will cancel it. There is no way you can do surgery for at least a month, maybe two.

“You are right. There is no way I can do the surgery I need. We have to get me there and have the doctors I trained do it. I guess I will find out really quickly if I did a good job. Then they must keep it going.” He rolled on his side. “God this is starting to hurt. I can’t feel anything below my femur but the bottoms of them hurt. And that wire really is cutting into my legs. But we can’t take it off till I get to the hospital. In case I pass out tell them to amputate above the wires and do my procedure. Everything below the wires is dead. Get my camera on the dresser and take a couple pictures. We will need them for the case file. I was to be the doctor, not patient.” She snapped the pictures and put the camera back. “Before anyone gets here find my trousers, get in the pocket and see if my recorder has anything on it you need to do.”

She looked around the room. His shoes and clothes were on the floor. She found the recorder in the pants pocket and slipped it in her purse just as the police and EMT’s came in.

The one EMT was going to cut the wires around his legs. He protested. The nurse backed him and they left it in place. The policeman recognized this was a vicious assault with maiming and called for detectives. Within a few minutes the EMT’s had an IV going and were taking him to an ambulance. Joyce followed him to the hospital and then went to the office.

Debbie and Susan were changed to the local pain medications about midnight. By mid-morning they were awake. Denise and Carol were in several times to see them as the spent time in the halls exercising.

Denise Chapter 01: Success in Hollywood

Denise Chapter 42 – Sandra’s Surgery

Denise Chapter 44 – Dr. Davis, Patient and Evidence Gatherer