Cashing In

Chapter 4

4

Two years prior to his prison sentence, John had had a dramatically different life.

The phone rang as John slept in his bed.

“Dr. Brown, I’m sorry to wake you up. There’s a fifty-year-old man having a heart attack. He’s in the ambulance, twenty minutes out from Jackson Memorial.”

“I’ll be right there. Please have the Cath Lab technicians make sure everything is ready to go.”

“Thank you, doctor. I’m sorry to get you out of bed at this hour.”

“No problem. It’s my job. No need to apologize.”

John hopped out of bed, put on his scrubs, and grabbed his white coat.

“Shoot, I need to brush my teeth,” John said to himself. He still wasn’t great at getting out of bed in the middle of the night. Maybe he should’ve been a dermatologist. Nobody needed an emergency pimple popped at 3 a.m.

John pressed the elevator in his Brickell apartment, and the door opened on the twentieth floor. There was a young couple making out in the elevator. They stopped when they noticed John and started to giggle.

“Sorry,” said the guy in the elevator.

“No need to apologize. Hope you’re enjoying your Saturday night in the magic city of Miami. The elevator is going down, right?”

“Yes, sir. We’re going for a late-night swim. I’m sweating like a pig and need to cool off.”

“Isn’t the pool closed?”

“Yes. Don’t tell anyone,” he said, chuckling. “Are you off to work at this hour?”

“Unfortunately,” replied John.

“What kind of doctor are you?”

“A cardiologist. A patient had a heart attack, and I was called into work.”

“That’s awesome. You’re saving people’s lives. I’m a personal injury lawyer and spend my day representing people who want to sue their own families for money.”

The doors of the elevator opened to the fourth floor.

“This is us. Good luck, doctor. Keep saving lives. That’s just so cool.”

“Thanks, man. I’m doing my best. Take care.”

John got into his ten-year-old Toyota Camry in the parking lot. He still had medical school loans to pay off, and he did not feel the need to invest more money driving some fancy car to impress people in Miami. John was a simple guy and did not care.

He pulled out of his building in Brickell and drove past Mary Brickell Village, which had lines of people waiting to get into several popular nightclubs and local bars. While Miami was a city where people could have fun in the sun and party all night, John had sacrificed so much to become a cardiologist. He grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan with working class parents who instilled in him the values of hard work and dedication. John attended Columbia University, where he double majored in biology and chemistry. He went to medical school at Mt. Sinai. On match day, he found out he’d been accepted into the University of Miami’s cardiology program. He completed three years of internal medicine residency followed by a cardiology fellowship for another three years.

John considered going back to New York, but he received a great job offer in a successful private practice that had fifteen cardiologists working out of offices in downtown Miami and Miami Beach. The doctors rotated through three different hospitals, including Jackson Memorial.

John pulled into the parking lot. He started to jog to the entrance and made his way up to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab, known as the Cath Lab.

“Doc Brown. How’s it going, sir? Good to see you,” said Ryan, one of the Cath Lab techs.

“Nice to see you too, Ryan. How’s the Cath lab crew? We’re all set. The patient is being wheeled up as we speak.”

The elevator doors opened, and the paramedics wheeled in Mr. Jones on the stretcher.

Ryan and two other Cath Lab techs brought in Mr. Jones to the Cath Lab.

“Mr. Jones, I’m Dr. John Brown. Can you please tell me what happened?”

“I’m having severe chest pains. It feels like an elephant, or maybe my ex-wife, is sitting on my chest,” he said with a large smile.

John smiled and said, “We’re going to do a Cardiac catheterization to get a better look at your heart. If you have arteries blocked, I can go in and open them up with a stent. This is known as an angioplasty. I can use a little balloon to widen arteries that are obstructed.”

“Thanks, Doctor.”

Ryan and the Cath Lab team moved the patient onto the table.

“You may feel a little warm. It might feel like you’re urinating,” said John.

“Yes, Doc.”

“There are two obstructed arteries. I’m going to put in a stent.”

“Yeah, look at that,” said Ryan. “Huge blockage.”

“Doctor, which type of stent do you want? You want a Drug Eluting stent?”

“Let’s go with the Drug Eluting Stent,” responded John.

“Roger that, Doc.”

John spent the next hour and a half saving Mr. Jones’s life.

“Mr. Jones, you’re all set. We put in two stents to reduce the blockage. My colleagues are going to take you down to the cardiac recovery room. You will be here overnight, and I will check on you tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Doctor. You saved my life.”

“That’s what I’m here for, Mr. Jones. Did you come here with any family members? I can go and speak to them.”

“My daughter. She’s in the waiting room,” responded Mr. Jones.

“Take care now,” said John.

John gave Ryan a fist bump as John left the area to go meet with Mr. Jones’s daughter.

“Thanks for your hard work, brother. Great job,” said John.

“You got it, Doc. Let’s get together soon to watch the Giants play. Us New Yorkers have to stick together.”

“Sounds great. Call me soon, brother.”

Ryan and the other Cath techs loved John. He was down to earth and treated everyone with respect. Some doctors had giant egos and did not always treat the staff nicely. John appreciated every Cath Tech and their dedication to the patients.

John walked down the hall and into the waiting room.

“Hello, Doctor. How’s it going?” said Martin, one of the hospital janitors who worked the graveyard shift.

“Martin! How are you, my main man? Is your wife feeling better?”

“She is. You’re the best, Doc. I can’t thank you enough for seeing her on such short notice.”

“My pleasure. I’m here to help in any way I can. Please have your wife call my office if she needs anything or has any questions. She should make a full recovery.”

“Bless you, Doc. You’re the best.”

John walked into the waiting room and said, “Hello, are you Mr. Jones’s daughter? I’m his doctor.”

“Yes, Doctor. How did everything go?

“Everything went great. He had two blocked arteries. I was able to use a technique where we basically blow up a balloon in the obstructed artery. He’ll have some slight pain and should take it easy over the next couple days. I’m going to send him to a cardiac rehabilitation center.”

“Thanks so much, Doctor.”

“We used a stent to fix this. Luckily, he didn’t have any more blockage,” said John, as he rubbed his hands together. “If there are too many blockages, patients sometimes need more stents, which we jokingly call a full metal jacket. The other option is bypass surgery with a cardiothoracic surgeon.”

“It is good to know he doesn’t need surgery.”

“He should do just fine and make a full recovery. I will see him tomorrow and then for routine visits in my office,” said John. “Do you have any other questions?”

“No, Doctor. Thank you so much.”

“Excellent. We’ll take good care of your dad here.”

John left the waiting room and headed down the hospital hall. I’m so tired. I need to get some rest, he thought to himself. He looked at the clock on the hospital wall. 5 a.m.

John headed for the parking lot and passed one of the Cath Techs.

“Great work in there, Doctor,” said the Cath Tech.

“Thanks. Great team effort.”

“Can you at least get some rest?”

“Yeah, I’m going to run home to sleep for a couple hours before I have to see patients.”

“On call is rough,” said the tech.

“Indeed! I’m off to bed before I have to start work again,” said John.

“Take care, Doc.”