CHAPTER 1
The small electric saw stopped rotating when the sternum snapped. The saw´s teeth, painted red, kept spinning for a few seconds longer, before slowing down gradually until it came to a complete stop.
Alvaro put the saw down and separated the ribs. The red mass came into view, palpitating at a constant rhythm.
“It´s a very big heart.” The nurse said
“You’re not wrong there. But it has to come out.” Alvaro said in a bored voice.
He´d already done several heart transplants and this one didn´t feel anything remotely like a challenge. It was nothing more than routine procedure. The patient would get a new heart and would spend the rest of his time trying to prolong his life as much as he could. He would meekly comply with an endless amount of rules, that would require him to give up a great quantity of vices and activities that the vast majority of people consider pleasant, and would fight to cling to this awful world as long as possible.
Alvaro envied him.
“Ok, let´s do it.” He said to the team around him. “I don´t want a single . . .”
The door opened suddenly, cutting the conversation abruptly. Alvaro stared at the intruder and thought about taking his mask off to speak. He wanted to make sure that this person heard all the insults that he was about to throw his way. Nobody walked into an operating theatre during an operation.
The intruder wasn´t even wearing a surgical gown. He was wearing street clothes and had walked in here as if it were nothing more than a shop on the blocks outside the hospital.
Alvaro put the saw down on the table and approached the newcomer. His companion and the two nurses were so surprised that they hadn´t had time to react. The stranger offered Alvaro a black envelope with white edges that the surgeon grabbed out of his hand. He had a fair idea what its contents were. The messenger didn´t wait to watch Alvaro read it; he just turned and left the room without saying a word.
Without any doubt it was a court order. Somebody wanted the operation stopped. Alvaro hadn´t paid sufficient attention to the details of his patient’s personal history. He vaguely remembered that there had been two women fighting over what the right course of action should be. One had been in favor of the transplant, his wife, if his memory didn´t fail him, and the other, possibly the patient´s sister, was against it. But maybe he was confusing who was who.
In any case the medical report didn´t seem to have carried sufficient weight to guarantee that the poor individual, who wasn´t in any condition to decide his own fate, would receive a healthy, new heart. Part of the blame for that lay with Alvaro; he hadn’t offered his professional medical opinion. He’d checked the physical condition of the patient, and recommended the transplant and then forgotten about it while the two hags tore themselves apart in their fight to show who loved the patient more, and who therefore had more right to decide the outcome.
He was sure that the loser had resorted to legal means to get her way. Some foolish judge somewhere, someone who didn´t understand anything about medicine had decided to stop the operation in its tracks. The doctors would have to attend a hearing and explain the need for the operation over and over again until the judge understood what it was all about. There was no doubt that this was what the letter was all about.
Alvaro knew about a similar case a few years before. It had been an operation to amputate a leg, but the court order had arrived late and the leg was no longer attached to the body. On this occasion the patient only had his chest completely open. Things were looking up.
“What is it?” His companion asked.
Alvaro sighed dispiritedly.
“I can imagine.” He said while he scratched the envelope with his blood stained gloves. “It’s a pity it didn´t arrive a couple of hours before. We wouldn´t have had to open the patient up. He´s going to have a beautiful scar and all for nothing. That happens when . . . “
Alvaro fell silent and swallowed the rest of the sentence. The letter inside the envelope wasn´t a court order. It wasn´t even an official letter. The paper was folded twice. He opened it quickly, and was immediately surprised by what he saw. He´d never seen anything like it. It was very elegantly handwritten, in stylized words with long flourishes that gave it a certain antiquated air. A little overdone perhaps. It was written in red ink and appeared heavier on some lines than others. Alvaro couldn´t imagine a fountain pen or biro capable of doing that and no computer or typewriter had been used either. No, it was handwritten, but by whom and how remained unknown.
He was hooked before he started reading, and surprised that his latex gloves hadn´t left blood stains on the letter paper as they had on the envelope that contained it.
The words formed in his mind with surprising ease, flowing smoothly, compelling him to read on. For a second, he forgot where he was and what he had been doing only a few minutes before.
When he finished reading, Alvaro understood everything perfectly.
He threw the letter on the ground and walked to the door, taking his face mask and gloves off as he went.
“Where are you going?” The nurse asked.
“Eh! We´ve got a man with his chest opened up here on the operating table!” The other surgeon shouted at him, amazed by what was happening.
Alvaro didn´t pay any attention to either of them. He took his surgical gown off just before he got to the door, letting it drop to the floor as he left the room without saying a word. Nobody there knew what to say or do. The two nurses and the surgeon stared at each other dumbfounded.
“It must have been bad news. “ One of the nurses said bending down to pick up the letter. “Maybe a close relative had an accident?”
The doctor didn´t believe that. Alvaro had run out of the room without giving any explanation whatsoever. That wasn´t like him, he was methodical and even in the event of a serious accident he would have said something to explain his leaving. No, it wasn´t that.
“He should have given us a good excuse to leave us in the lurch like this. Damn him! Fool!” The surgeon shouted after him before turning back to the others. “Well, what does the letter say then?”
The nurse said nothing. But her trembling hands told the doctor that something was wrong .He lost his patience and snatched the sheet of paper from her and looked for the explanation himself.
But there was none to find. The page was blank.
