CHAPTER ONE
But hospitals are like that. They deal in life, but are constantly faced with death. There is so much to do, so many people who need caring for, that the men and women who work there can only concern themselves with the limited world of their own individual tasks.
It was Dr. Arthur Ridgeman's task to drop the chart he was reviewing and race to the emergency ward to find out why he was needed. As he stood impatiently in the descending elevator, he wondered what it would be this time: car accident, assault? He gripped his feelings and pounded them into unconsciousness as he had every time he had stepped through those swinging portals.
"Appendicitis, Dr. Ridgeman, acute," said the nurse who was waiting by the door.
"Has the patient been prepared," he asked, washing his hands i
