Cannot Wait to Get to Heaven - Fannie Flagg [66]
Franklin added: “Very common, happens all the time…”
The lawyer Sprague nodded. “Very common.”
“Well, all right,” said Norma. “I still think I shouldn’t, but if you insist.”
“Oh, we do, it’s the least we can do.”
“The least we can do,” echoed the lawyer.
As Norma signed the paper, it was all they could do not to jump up in the air and give each other a high five, but they remained cool. She had not read the clause stating that she waived her right to hold the hospital responsible.
Mr. Pixton pulled out his card and wrote a number on it. “Here is my office number and my home number, and promise me, if you or your family need anything, anything at all, you call me.”
“And here’s mine,” said the lawyer. “I’m available twenty-four hours a day.” After they left the room, Norma turned to the doctor and said, “Wasn’t that nice of them, to do that?”
The doctor wanted to say something, but didn’t.
As both men stood waiting for their elevator, Franklin said quietly, “We just dodged a big fat bullet.”
Later, back at his office, Winston Sprague felt not even the slightest twinge of guilt. He had an obligation to protect the hospital before that slimy shyster, slip and sue, ambulance-chasing lawyer Gus Shimmer found out and showed up and got ahold of the Warren woman. Somebody inside the hospital had been supplying him with information about every potential malpractice event that took place, and it had cost the hospital millions. Good thing the Warren woman had been so stupid and had not read what she’d signed. She had a legitimate case; it was clearly their fault. But how much should one mistake cost? Was it worth the millions of dollars they would have to pay? It’s not like they were trying to kill their patients.
Franklin Pixton went straight back to his office as well. Now that the legal matter was handled with Mrs. Warren, he needed to get to the bottom of the situation ASAP. He pushed his intercom. “Brenda, I want the names of all staff on duty this morning.”
One staff member, the young nurse who an hour earlier had run out of Elner’s room screaming at the top of her lungs, had just been picked up by her mother at a 7-Eleven about two miles from the hospital. As they drove home her mother asked her again.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to take you back to work?”
“I told you, I’m never going back there. I quit.”
“You can’t just quit.”
“Yes, I can too.”
“Are you going to let all your nurse’s training go to waste over this one little incident?”
“When dead people sit up and start talking, you bet I am.”
“What will you do?”
“I’m doing nails, like I wanted to in the first place.”
The mother sighed. “Well, it’s your life, I guess.”
After the MRI
4:30 PM
A bit later that afternoon, after Elner’s MRI and CAT scan, they wheeled her up to intensive care and plugged her back up to all the machines again. By this time Norma was back in the waiting room with the rest of them, wondering what was going on. Macky was getting very impatient. He finally walked over to the desk and asked the girl where Elner was, and why they weren’t coming out and telling them anything. The girl made a phone call and then said, “She’s back up in intensive care, that’s all the information I have.”
“Where is intensive care?”
“That’s on seven, but you have to wait.”
Macky did not wait. He walked over to the others and said, “Come on, this is ridiculous, we are going to see her right now.” Susie stayed behind in case the doctor came out. When they reached the seventh floor Macky said to Norma and Linda, “Wait here and let me go in first, then I’ll come back and get you.” Macky passed by several rooms before he found her room, and just as he was about to go in, a male nurse was just walking out. When he saw Macky standing there, he asked somewhat indignantly, “Just where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going in to see my aunt,” said Macky.
“Oh no, you’re not!” the nurse said, closing the door behind him. “Can’t you read? The sign says no visitors.”
“Oh, I can read,