“Lisa,” said Dr. Ranade, becoming alarmed, “Lisa, everything is all right. Just relax.”
“Help me,” cried Lisa as she lost control of her mind. The fixation of her head held, as did the leather strap at her waist. All her strength concentrated into her right arm, which she pulled with enormous force and suddenness. The wrist restraint snapped and her free arm arched up through the drapes.
Mannerheim was mesmerized by the abnormal recordings on the EEG when he saw Lisa’s hand out of the corner of his eye. If he had only reacted faster he might have been able to avoid the incident. As it was, he was so startled that for a moment he was incapable of reacting. Lisa’s hand, flailing wildly to free her body imprisoned by the OR table, hit the protruding electrodes and drove them straight into her brain.
Philips was on the phone with a pediatrician named George Rees when Robbins knocked and opened the door. Philips waved the technician into his office while he finished his conversation. Rees was inquiring about a skull X ray on a two-year-old male child who was supposed to have fallen down stairs. Martin had to tell the pediatrician that he suspected child abuse because of the old rib fractures he’d seen on the patient’s chest X ray. It was sticky business, and Philips was glad to hang up.
“What have you got?” Philips asked Robbins, swinging around on his seat. Robbins was the Chief Neuroradiology technician whom Philips had recruited, and there was a special rapport between the two men.
“Just the localization films you asked me to do for Mannerheim.”
Philips nodded as Robbins snapped them up on Philips’ viewer. Normally the chief technician didn’t leave the department to take X rays, but Philips had asked him to attend personally to Mannerheim just to avoid any trouble.
Lisa Marino’s operative X rays lit up on the screen. The lateral film showed a polyhedral lucency where the bone flap had been cut. Within this sharply defined area were the bright white silhouettes of the numerous electrodes. The long needle-like depth electrodes Mannerheim had pushed into Lisa Marino’s temporal lobe were the most apparent, and it was the position of these instruments that interested Philips. With his foot, Philips activated the motor on a wall-sized X ray viewer called an alternator. As long as he held his foot on the pedal, the screen in front of him changed. The unit could be loaded with any number of films for him to read. Philips kept the machine running until he found the screen containing Lisa Marino’s previous X rays.
By comparing the new films with the old, Philips could determine the exact location of the deep electrodes.
“Gees,” said Philips. “You take beautiful X rays. If I could clone you, half of my problems would be over.”
Robbins shrugged as if he didn’t care, but the compliment pleased him. Philips was a demanding but appreciative boss.
Martin used a finely calibrated ruler to measure distances associated with minute blood vessels on the older X rays. With his knowledge of the anatomy of the brain and the usual location of these blood vessels, he could form in his mind a three-dimensional image of the area he was interested in. Translating this information to the new films gave him the position of the tips of the electrodes.
“Amazing,” said Philips, leaning back. “Those electrodes are positioned perfectly. Mannerheim is fantastic. If only his judgment equaled his technical skill.”
“Do you want me to take these films back to the OR?” asked Robbins.
Philips shook his head. “No, I’ll take them myself. I want to talk to Mannerheim. I’m going to take some of these older films as well. The position of this posterior cerebral artery bothers me a little.” Philips picked up the X rays and headed for the door.
Although the situation in OR #21 had returned to a semblance of normality, Mannerheim was furious about the accident. Even the presence of the foreign visitors did not temper his anger. Newman and Lowry suffered the greatest abuse. It was as if Mannerheim felt they had deliberately schemed to cause the problem.