“Why didn’t you do a tracheostomy?” asked Fairweather.
Bellows looked up at Fairweather and paused. “That’s a very good question, Mr. Fairweather.” Bellows turned to Cartwright, “Why didn’t we do a tracheostomy, Daniel?”
Cartwright looked from the patient to Bellows, then back to the patient He became visibly flustered and consulted his index card despite the fact that he knew the information was not there.
Bellows looked back at Fairweather. “That’s a very good question, Mr. Fairweather. And if I remember correctly I did tell Dr. Cartwright to get the ENT boys over here to do a trach. Isn’t that right, Dr. Cartwright?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” enjoined Cartwright “I put in the call but they never called back.”
“And you never followed up on it,” added Bellows with uncamouflaged irritation.
“No, I got involved …,” began Cartwright.