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Ginger’s entire life had been a funnel, focusing on this eon’s role in a major and complicated procedureYears of arduous education, an iht of hopes and dreams, lay behind her ascension to this reat a distance her journey had covered

And she was half sick with dread

Mrs Fletcher had been anesthetized and draped in cool green sheets None of the patient’s body was visible except that portion of her torso on which surgery would be performed, a neat square of flesh painted with iodine and fraht beneath tented sheeting, as an added precaution against airborne contamination of the wound that would shortly be made in her abdomen The effect was to depersonalize the patient, and perhaps that was in

part the intent of the draping, as well, thereby sparing

need to look upon the huony and death if, God forbid,-his skill and education should fail hiical technician, stood ready with spreaders, rakes, hemostats, scalpels, and other instruments On her left, a scrub nurse was prepared to assist Another scrub nurse, the circulating nurse, the anesthesiologist, and his nurse also waited for the procedure to begin

George Hannaby stood on the other side of the table, looking less like a doctor than like the former star fullback on a pro football tea Paul Bunyan in a comedy sketch for a hospital charity show, and he had appeared at home in woodsht with hith, caler held out her right hand

Agatha put a scalpel in it

A keen, thin, bright curve of light outlined the razorsharp edge of the instrument

Hand poised over the score lines on the patient’s torso, Ginger hesitated and took a deep breath

George’s stereo tape deck stood on a small table in the corner, and familiar strains of Bach issued fro the ophthalhtening as those incidents had been, they had not utterly destroyed her selfconfidence She had felt fine ever since the etic If she had noticed the slightest weariness or fuzzymindedness, she would have canceled this procedure On the other hand, she had not acquired her education, had not worked seven days a week all these years, only to throay her future because of two aberrantto be fine, just fine

The wall clock said sevenfortytwo Tiet on with it

She made thefirst cut With hemostats and clamps and a faultless skill that always surprised her, she h skin, fat, and muscle, into the center of the patient’s belly Soon the incision was large enough to acco physician, George Hannaby, if his help should be required The scrub nurses rasped the sculpted handles of the retractors, and pulled back gently on theatha Tandy picked up a fluffy, absorbent cloth and quickly blotted Ginger’s forehead, careful to avoid the jeweler’s lenses that protruded froe’s eyes squinted in a ser swiftly tied off bleeders and reatha ordered new supplies fro nurse

In the brief blank spaces between Bach’s concertos and in the silence at the end of the tape before it was turned over, the loudest sounds in the tilewalled roo inhalations of the artificial lung machine that breathed for Viola Fletcher The patient could not breathe for herself because she was paralyzed by a curarederived h entirelyquality that er to overcoe cut, there wasresident, using light banter to reduce the tension without also reducing concentration on the vital task at hand Ginger was si perforu difficultcompleted the excursion into the belly, she ran the colon with both hands and deteratha, Ginger cradled the intestines, placed the hoelike blades of the retractors against them, and turned them over to the scrub nurses, who held the the aorta, the main trunkline of the body’s arterial systeh the diaphragroin, it split into two iliac arteries leading to the feer said "An aneuryslanced at the patient’s X ray that was fixed on the light screen,’on the wall at the foot of the operating table "A dissecting aneuryser’s forehead

The aneurysm, a weakness in the wall of the aorta, had per a dumbbellshaped extrusion full of blood, which beat like a second heart This condition caused difficulty in sing, extre, and chest pains; and if the bulging vessel burst, death folloiftly

As Ginger stared at the pulsing aneurysious sense of mystery overcame her, a profound awe, as if she had stepped out of the real world into aof life was soon to be revealed to her Her feeling of power, of transcendence, rose from the realization that she could do battle with deathand win Death was lurking there in the body of her patient right now, in the for to flower, but she had the skill and training to banish it

Froatha Tandy had taken a section of artificial aortaa thick, ribbed tube that split into two smaller tubes, the iliac arteries It oven entirely of Dacrol Ginger positioned it over the wound, trimmed it to fit with a pair of satha put the white graft in a shallow stainlesssteel tray that already contained some of the patient’s blood, and swished it back and forth to wet it thoroughly

The graft would be allowed to soak until it had clotted a bit Once it was installed in the patient, Ginger would run soh it, clamp it, allow that blood to clot a bitit in place The thin layer of clotted blood would help prevent seepage, and in time the steady flow of blood would foruishable fro was that the Dacron vessel was not ed section of aorta but was, in fact, actually superior to what nature had provided; five hundred years fro remained of Viola Fletcher but dust and tiraft would still be intact, still flexible and strong

Agatha blotted Ginger’s forehead

"How do you feel?" George asked

"Fine," Ginger said

"Tense?"

"Not really," she lied

He said, "It’s a genuine pleasure watching you work, Doctor"

"I’ll second that," said one of the scrub nurses