Chapter 4

"Only a bit more time and maybe my misery will thus end, and we can both then enjoy the company of the other once again," she would gaze into my distressed eyes and reply. By 0500 hours she was tossing side to side, gnashing her teeth and weeping tears of shear agony...

"Please, my dear love, transport me back into the infirmary, or suffer the looming possibility of my eternal lose..."

Immediately we arose, I dutifully assisted her in getting properly dressed. We had maids on hand who were willing to assist, but I never even bothered to give them notice. All that then possessed my mind was tending to my dear Thea and assuring where she was properly nourished back into decent health. I moved so quickly that the prevailing situation was more like the passing of a dreadful dream, then we abruptly found ourselves back inside the foyer of that dreadful infirmary, hailing directly from the cape of ones most horrible fears.

Once we arrived back at the infirmary, I can honestly say that I had no trouble getting them to receive her, since she had not been totally released as of yet, from the surgeon's care. They whisked her away, but simultaneously demanded that I pay for the upcoming ultrasound tests and the CT scan. The price demand was three more thousand drachmae, before they would even attempt to initiate any efforts, or explore the reason for this sudden turn of fortune. I paid with cash in full, without any sort of questioning on my own part, since every concern occupying my mind at the present moment in time, was the health of my dear Thea. Upon the tests being completed, I walked into the room where the ultrasounds and the scans were performed. The skilled technician present was in her late forties, and obviously in possession of long years in expertise.

"What did you find?" I inquired of her.

She hesitated, while struggling to answer my direct question.

"I don't know how to say it, except to say it as it so stands..., but that surgeon blundered badly. You have a stem leak that has not been sealed off.... In other words, your problem is incompetence in your surgeon..., if not intentional neglect. I observe this all the time, but cannot dare make any comment, since I need this job and the reference."

"You mean that this man simply whacked the damn bladder off, then neglected to cap the stem...?" I asked firmly.

She shook her head, but with hesitation, signifying the word yes.

"So, this means, using simple plumbing logic here; the stem is leaking bile, filling up the empty space within her body cavity on the inside..., and this is what is causing all of my dear wife's horrible misery...?" I asked with heavy emotion.

The lady shook her head up and down readily, though again, hesitatingly.

"I cannot believe it!" I gasped. "I simply cannot accept this oversight here... What is the meaning of all this?"

The lady only half smiled, as if she did not know how else to reply.

"So how can this horrible problem be corrected?" I inquired. "In my mind, all that needs to occur is that the stem simply be capped off..., that's it!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"I cannot answer that question. I apologize here. The surgeon will need to answer that question for you. I simply cannot do so," the technician replied.

"Well, when can we see him again?" I inquired inflexibly.

"You will return back into your waiting room and wait for his reply. I can immediately put in for your request to him, and he will get back to you..., probably in the next six hours or so."

"But my dear wife is in horrible pain!" I exclaimed emotionally. "She needs for this matter to be addressed as promptly as possible."

"Pay the thousand drachma fee, and we will promptly address this issue of her pain. The surgeon in charge of your case will inform you of any other additional charges preceding her forthcoming surgery," replied the technician.

We made our way back into the surgical waiting room. Minutes lulled away feeling like hours, and hours felt as entire days. The question that kept returning into both our minds was why, why did they force us to wait for so dreadfully long? Why did these pigs allow her to suffer in such agony? In all honesty, my deduction from observation was where all of this was intentional, with the silent hope that another misfortune would arise necessitating a costly repair. I gritted my teeth in a gradual seething anger, but in all honesty, what was I to do for crying out loud here? Where else did I have a choice about in going to? Supposedly, this facility was among the very best. There were no other options, neither here nor on any of the surrounding islands. Not even the mainland could boast a better quality-service in the latest medical services provided, for the citizens to access...

My choices were obvious. We would simply have to endure these negative possibilities, and when logic bore out the truth in negative intentions, we could only suffer and endure to the very end..., hoping in dreadful silence for the best outcome. Our faith would reside in God Almighty and the skill of this Irishman, who for the moment appeared to be very accommodating in general personality.

Before Dr. Ekviostis entered into the waiting room, another surgeon wished to review her. Upon his entering inside the room, he greeted us both with what generated a feeling of being a forced smile. He requested that my wife lift her dress, exposing her delicate stomach. He pressed around in a place or two, inquiring if she felt pain. Upon her wrenching response, he then stood up straight and tall, turning to face me directly. His once charming composure instantly transformed, revealing a seething, teeth clenching anger underneath his calm facade. His breathing obviously became instantly heavy with an astonishing, inexplicable mounting rage on the inside.

"We are NOT a general practitioner service... You are aware of that, aren't you?" he snarled. "We are an emergency facility only!"

"But this was an emergency...!" I responded with both shock and lightening anger. "She collapsed out into the floor, wreathing in pain, and we came here as a result... If this was no emergency, then indeed, I am not aware of specifically what would quantify as an emergency."

"What I am saying to you is that all of us are getting older, and we must engage the services of a general practitioner. She obviously neglected to do so. Had she done so, then this matter would not have advanced into this level of seriousness. She only visited the local back-alley shop herbalist, as I understand it."

"But who can afford the practitioner's extortionist rates?" I responded with the inquiry. "We are well off and we would have trouble doing so on a regular basis, as it appears that you are demanding so rudely...; his rates are literally ridiculously insane. I am absolutely shocked that the law here even allows such predatory rates, and all of the general practitioners everywhere around are nearly the same in their outrageous demands. My blessed Lord in bloody Heaven above!" I exclaimed.

I never responded otherwise, I only stood by in shock while he continued examining her, then he arose only to walk out of the room without speaking another single word, leaving us shivering with cold and all alone to wonder as to specifically what additional horrors possibly lay ahead. In the end, all we had ever wanted to do was request medical assistance. We bore no negative intentions, whatsoever. Where had we gone so dreadfully wrong in simply appealing for much needed medical services?

My wife continued slumbering there in the bed for the next six hours. She had been loaded up with a variety of painkillers derived from poppy, and a number of exotic tinctures in addition. There was the anti-biotic. All of these services I demanded at once upon paying the additional thousand drachma. At least my dear Thea was no longer suffering in pain. Finally, at long last, in walked Dr. Ekviostis. This time, however, his composure was more ridged and firmer, not at ease in the least. Behind all of this rigidity, I detected an additional negative air of dark hubris, the kind where one is possessed, but cannot admit to any level of incompetence, no matter how obvious it is to any sort of observer. The feeling extended by my honest observation, was where I was dealing with a perverted type of dual personality.

"What is the verdict, Doctor?" I inquired, as much to investigate the demeanor of his person in suspect, as it was to find out where my wife truly stood in her deteriorating condition.

"What is the verdict?" he sneered as he gritted his teeth. You dare to ask me what the verdict is...? I will tell you what the verdict is then...The verdict is that the stem upon which the gallbladder once sat is leaking, and it has filled her body cavity up, and we absolutely have to address the issue at hand here. That's what the verdict is...," he continued sneering.

"Well... how are we going to address this matter?" I asked. "Something must be done, and very soon," I stated.

"Well, it's like this," replied Ekviostis, "I have a visiting Doctor who travels the world doing these types of operations, like those he will do on her. His name is Doctor Aloise von Mueller, from the hospital at the University of Berlin. Certainly, one of the best on earth, if not the very best. He got his start during the war, beginning with his short stint in the military. I am not sure as to what facility it was where they had him stationed in, but it was one relatively well known at the time, I am most certain. This man brings many years of experience to all of us. This procedure is all that he does, and I have been knowing him very well for a very long time now.

"Well, this is what we are going to do to get this ball rolling on. First, we need to pay the necessary surgeons' retainer fee, required for any type of specialty surgeon. Soon as you pay this fee and get your paperwork, simply turn it in to your nurse who will be checking on you promptly. When she receives this paper, then at some time following, indeed when the busy gentleman has the time to spare, Dr. Mueller will drop by to visit and discuss the procedure he will perform on her. Right now, however, we must take care of first things first... So, let's get on with it," he announced as he clapped both hands together and smiled a thin fleshless smile in my direction.

As the surgeon concluded his address with us, the nurse walked inside immediately behind him. She closed the door, then turned to make an address so it appeared.

"How are you doing," she said to my wife. "I hope that you are feeling much better. Are you?"

My wife only lay there moaning.

"Are you in pain?"

My wife moaned again. This time moaning louder.

"Very well, then. Let's get your new pain killer into your IV bag here," she said.

"Is that morphine?" I asked.

"No, this painkiller is much stronger than morphine," she replied. "So, I understand Dr. Mueller will be working on you?" asked the nurse to my wife.

"Yes, I think that is the name," I replied.

"Well Dr. Mueller is a fine doctor. He is really good at what he does. He has had many years of experience. Matter of fact, he has been doing that service more years than I have been alive."

"I take it that he must be up in age a bit," I inquired.

"He is, he is quite up there," stated the nurse. "But do you want to know a very strange thing about this man...; he appears much, much younger than he actually is. He appears at least half his age, or even less. He appears to be not a year over thirty-five, to be quite honest about it. Many say he is a genius. He is not a good conversationalist, I must honestly warn you..., but an extraordinary surgeon."

"Where do I pay the money?" I asked her.

"Just go to the window out in the hall there. Hand them this form-there," she states, as she hands me some paperwork written in the local island language. "Then they can take up the cost with you. I must honestly warn you, however, that cost for specialized work tends to run a bit high 'round here."

"Just show me where that window is," I snapped. "The cost for me emotionally is running much higher than any damn cost for this procedure. I can assure you of that much."

I walk over to the glass covered window, handing them the paperwork through the slit at the bottom. The lady behind the glass opens it, carries the paperwork into the back room, then returns, taking her seat by the window.

"The cost will be thirty thousand drachmae," she bluntly states in an icy voice void of any emotion.

"What!" I snapped in utter astonishment.

"If you want the procedure, then pony up... Otherwise, we will be glad to escort both of you out into the streets there to find some medical vendor in one of those tent shanties who will do it for you at a much lesser rate," she coldly snapped.

"Honestly, I do not understand why it is that I must pay for that Dr. Ekviostis' oversight. He should have to pay for his own incompetence, I feel. If any of us are guilty of oversight on our jobs and it cost anyone this amount of money, we would have to cover the cost..., then the employing institution would fire all of us. Why does he not have to endure any inconvenience for being incompetent?" I angrily snapped.

"Well, to be quite honest about it, it is not my position to discuss any doctor's level of incompetence. I am only the lady in the window collecting payment and files the paperwork. You'll have to take this matter up with the doctor," she replies nonchalantly, without any emotion.

I did so then, and quietly, even though underneath my exterior I huffed about it. Something suddenly did not appear correct in all of this business. I could not put my finger on it, but there was a big problem... somewhere. Sadly, for us both, however, we really had no other choices but to use their services and accept their claims as being valid, even in the face of the fact that our gut instincts informed us differently.

I made my way back into the surgical room where my wife was already in limbo. She still slumbered as though she were oblivious to every detail around her. At least she was not in any more pain. For the moment, I was even at rest in the matter. Some three hours passed, then the German entered into the room.

"Hello there, Dr. Mueller...," I said, attempting to maintain a nonchalant air. "What is about to transpire here?"

The surgeon strode into the room standing some six foot five, and very hard in appearance. His complexion was hard and somewhat vivid, as though he tended to imbibe at the bottle a bit more than what may have been acceptable. His military style of short hair was a sandy brown, and his character appeared to have been chiseled from the very stone of the hillside. He spoke not as he proceeded to mill about, shuffling two or three handfuls of paperwork at the desk in the corner of the room. He then pulled up a stool, taking a seat before us with two or three sheets of paperwork in his right hand. He spoke to us as though he were totally void of any emotion or concern in any measure, as far as the human aspect of the situation was.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," he said with a nod, in a heavy German accent reminding me of Count-Dracula, directly from the old horror movies. "Indeed, we have a situation here before us on this moment." There was a pause as if he expected some sort of response, but when there was none, he continued on. "The good news here is where I am in possession of the proper solution to address this situation."

"What do you propose, then sir?" I asked in great anticipation.

"We are going to place a simple stint directly into the intestine, connecting the intestine at the point of intersection into the bile duct. This move will effectively open up the bile duct, allowing zee bile from zee uncapped stem to drain backward into the duct, and then drain into zee intestine. Once the drain ceases in its outflow at zee stem, then zee natural healing process will cap it off automatically. This move should correct the problem, almost instantly, but we shall allow a couple of hours to initiate itself."

"How are you going to insert this stint?" I inquired.

"We are going to make use of zee least invasive process... In other words, sir, we are going to avoid doing another operation to zee best of our efforts. What we are going to do, instead, is to take this hose that I am holding here, insert it down into her throat, and consequently, directly into her bile duct from there."

As he spoke, he held up a rubber hose appearing to be approximately a yard long and about three quarters of an inch in diameter. This I envisioned him inserting down her throat with a camera on the end, then while observing in the screen above, he would manipulate a set of wires inserted into the hose; and in this manner, he could manipulate the stint into its proper place. In all honesty, all of it looked like absolute hell to me, but I said nothing as I continued to sit, listen and observe. My heart was breaking for Thea, however, deep down on the inside. When I looked at her laying in the bed like that, thinking about the bloody hell she was about to endure..., it was almost more than I could even bear.

"The transport crew shall return in approximately four hours to pick her up. On the screen above you may view her status as we proceed along. The operation will not last but about an hour and a half at most. In a majority of the time, we are finished in thirty minutes or even less. When the crew comes inside to claim her, they will hand you the paperwork with the special number for you to view up on the screen and observe her status as we go along. There is nothing to worry about, my friend. I tell you, everything will be just fine," the surgeon stated with a hard firmness in his low pitched heavily accented voice.

Before he made his exit from the room, he handed me a vividly sketched and colored picture showing what the procedure appeared as, hoping maybe where I could comprehend the exact specific details. The problem was that I did clearly comprehend the procedure, in vivid detail, like the screen on an HD television. In fact, the simplicity of it all was what upset me most, because I was wondering as to why all of this was taking place to begin with. I my mind I continued to ask the obvious question...; how did this Dr. Ekviostis, a supposed master surgeon, make such an obvious oversight?

During the four hours wait time, my dear Thea slumbered as though she was totally unaware of what was about to take place. From time-to-time Ekviostis would step into the room, looking about at the place on her stomach and sifting through the paperwork. I never could deduce the reason as to why, but I had begun to smell a rat..., an incompetent one... or even something else more sinister, in fact. Waves of anger began to mount within my body as I glared upon him sitting there at the desk, with his back turned toward me. He was now just as vulnerable to me sitting there at the desk …, as my dear Thea was to him lying there so helplessly in the bed.

How foolish of him not to realize this fact in the face of what I honestly suspected his true intentions to be. Did he think that we were all fools, only to be trifled with? I was determined to remain calm, however, and to think my way through this situation. I would simply allow the upcoming correction to take place, then I would observe and deduce the scenario from that point upon its materialization, once it was displayed before me.

The wait felt like days rather than hours. I imagined the following morning had already passed, since I had not stepped outside to view the light of day in a while now, so it seemed. Through it all, my best consolation was where my dear wife was still slumbering. I knew well that while she slept, at least she was not in pain. The fact that she hurt, even in the very least, was far more than my poor heart could tolerate, but my feelings at present were slowly transforming from one of being consumed by astonishment at the fact of the situation..., into one of a gradual welling heat wave of white-hot rage. I could feel it rising on the inside..., like an invisible hand pushing me to respond in kind to all of the negative motivation surrounding me.

Why was there not a check somewhere within the system to hold these base extortionist tendencies of enterprise at bay? Where were the police during these threatening situations? Why did they not rush in to arrest these obvious criminals? I truly came to feel on the inside that the individuals who organized this hideously repressive system felt impervious to the consequences of their own motivations. Nay, I should say that the general feeling was almost one of antagonism... like these monsters were pushing...: even daring the targeted individual to respond, as if they felt themselves impervious to any consequences absolutely justified in forthcoming, be they legal or otherwise.

Without a doubt, if we survive this horrible ordeal, we most certainly will be investigating a new place to call home. Obviously if the deteriorating observed corruption here, broadly speaking, should continue, then the only step left would be a situation where the entire population was literally rounded up to be delivered into a labor camp containment facility, of one sort or another. Now that the astounding possibility loomed before me forthright, this horrid fact of reality was impossible for me to deny!

Abruptly the transport crew appeared at our door to the room. I was somewhat awake, though my dear Thea, still slumbering. There were three of them with the stretcher by the door, as they moved into place about her bed. Soon the one at the door by the stretcher moved it, parking it beside the bed of my Thea. The other two then simply tugged upon the cloth sheet beneath her bosom, transporting her from the bed directly onto the stretcher itself. They moved the stretcher heading out the door as two of them remaining by the sides, raising the railings into place until they snapped. Soon they were all racing away toward the operating room. The crew worked smoothly as a well-organized team, each one taking up areas where he was strong, replacing areas where another was weak.