He saw the rest of his new patients that day and ordered the baseline tests for everyone. After all was said and done, he had fifty CT scans, MRI’s and PET scans to look over to see the extent of the damage each of his patients suffered. He started scheduling the procedures, being sure that each patient receiving the procedure had a genetic match. The neurosurgeons were happy to start getting people into the OR to start seeing if the Chief of Neurology’s miracle treatment worked.
Jake insisted on being in the theater above the OR to watch the first of the procedures being done. He was on pins and needles to see if it would work. The poor man or woman would be on drugs to keep their body from rejecting the new tissue, but if it worked… he would have revolutionized medicine. He hoped that he had a 100% success rate, but he knew it was unlikely.
Watching the procedure was fascinating to say the least. He listened to Dr. Tom Thibodaux spoke and kept the young woman under his scalpel interacting. “Yvette”, he said in his thick Cajun accent, “I need you to keep telling me what pictures you see flashing in front of you.” She kept naming what she saw, no matter what it was. If she didn’t know, she made sure she said that she wasn’t sure.
Jake paced the length of the theater, stopping every few steps to see what the progress was. After Tom closed her up and had her moved to Recovery, he hit to intercom. “Hey, Tom.”
“Yeah, Jake?”
“Do you think that you could do a few more today?”
“Depends on what you call a few more.”
“Four more. I want to do five a day until we work our way through the each patient.”
“Four more with the stem cell tissue, four more with the placebo tissue you developed, or a combination of the two?”
“Dealer’s choice, brother.”
“You’re gonna owe me for this, Draiman.”
“Bring your niece to my place on her birthday and she’ll get to meet the man she shares her day with. My Dad’s already said he’s cool.”
“Brianna will love that. Alright, Jacob, four more today. Who did you have in mind to be next?”
“Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Macadam. Age: 28. Have you seen his file?”
“Oh yeah, Jake. I know it like the back of my hand. I’ve opened him up before. You must think this is a miracle if you accepted that poor boy into this trial.”
“If I didn’t KNOW it will work, you wouldn’t have just implanted the tissue into the head of the young woman you just worked on, Tom. I have THAT kind of faith in this.”
“Then let me scrub out after the Corporal and my nurses techs get the tools changed out and I’ll open up the Gunny’s skull for you, Jake. After that, I choose.”
“You got it, Tom. I owe you lunch for this.”
“I want a big fuckin’ T- bone!”
Jake laughed. “Two more surgeries and we’ll go get lunch at the steak house three blocks over.”
“Deal! Bring in the next patient!”
---------------
True to his word, Jake took Tom to lunch that afternoon for the doing the procedures back to back. Tom couldn’t believe that there was actually a doctor in that hospital that would keep his word, not once, but TWICE. He let Jake know about it after he’d finished his steak. “Ah, chere, this is TWICE that you’ve made me a promise kept it. You aren’t like other doctors at that hospital.”
Jake smiled. “I was taught that my word is my bond. If I give someone my word that I’ll do something, I’m man enough to keep my word. And if I make a deal with someone and they keep their end of the bargain, then I’ll keep mine.”
“Honesty and honour. Your parents instilled in you good southern values.”
“My mother’s from Tennessee, but that’s not all of it. My Mom and Dad both believe greatly in being able to walk the talk, so to speak. If you have the balls to open your mouth and say something, then you had better be able to back it up.”
“So, you telling me that I could bring my niece over to your house to meet your father? You meant that?”
“Yes. Bring her over on her birthday and she can meet the rock star that she shares a birthday with.”
“She’s going to freak out when I tell her tonight at home.”
“Glad I could make her day all over again.”
---------------
The two surgeries that he was interested in watching had already been done. Once he was sure that they had been out of surgery for long enough, he paid them both a visit. He stopped by Corporal Jennings’ room first. “How are we doing, Yvette?” he asked when he walked into the room.
“Why are you calling me by my first name, Dr. Draiman?”
“Why are you calling me Dr. Draiman?”
“That’s your name.”
He nodded. “Very true. Tell me, Corporal, what do you remember of your stay here in the VA hospital?”
“I remember several strokes and a surgery to have the clot removed, flirting with you, you showing me a picture of your beautiful little girl. Her name is Miriam, right?”
He nodded. “That’s right. Ok, can you tell me how old you are?”
“I’m twenty- four, almost twenty- five. Why?”
“How old have you THOUGHT you are the past several months?”
“I honestly couldn’t tell you. Just because I remember it doesn’t mean that I believe it.”
“What brought you here?”
“Couldn’t tell you THAT either. I remember being in the dessert in Iran one minute, then the next I have jack ass butter bars and birds yelling and calling me Corporal and for some reason that was giving me strokes and seizures.”
He made note of the entire conversation in her chart. “Wow. Do you remember me promising to fix you?”
“Oh, yeah. It seems to me that you’ve kept that promise, Dr. D.”
He laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist much longer. Everyone eventually calls me Dr. D.”
“So, what is your plan from here, Doc?”
“Gonna keep an eye on you and see what other improvements you make, run a few tests and see what they say, and TRY to get you the hell out of my neurology ward”, he said with a laugh.
She laughed too. “That’s the best plan I’ve heard in a long damn time, Doctor.”
---------------
He had a similar visit with the Gunnery Sergeant that he made part of the trial. There was a significant improvement in his speech function and his reflexes had improved greatly. “Do you wanna try to get up and walk, Gunny?”
“Not without… serious PT, Doc.”
“Afraid you’ve been in that bed too long and you’ve forgotten?”
The Gunny laughed. “Something like that.”
“I’m gonna order some tests over the next few days to check your progress… the usual tests. I’m also going to order a hearing and vision test be administered to see if there’s been any improvement there as well.”
“You’re… the best, Dr. D.”
“I still can’t believe you’re not stuttering anymore.”
“Me… neither, Doc.”
“Alright, Gunny. I’ll see you tomorrow. Sound good?”
“Sure does, Doc.”
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