"I did," Regina said, staring at Jeffrey.
Jeffrey knew Regina vaguely as one of the evening OR nurses. He didn't remember seeing her on the day that Patty died.
"Where was Dr. Rhodes when you saw him?" Davidson asked.
"He was in the anesthesia alcove for operating room eleven," Regina said, keeping her eyes directly on Jeffrey.
Again, Jeffrey had a premonition that something detrimental
to his case was c6ming, but he couldn't guess what it would be. He remembered working in room eleven for most of the day. Randolph leaned over and asked in a hushed voice, "What is she leading up to?"
"I haven't the foggiest," Jeffrey whispered, unable to break eye contact with the nurse. What disturbed him was that he could sense real hostility in the woman.
"Did Dr. Rhodes see you?" Davidson asked.
"Yes," Regina replied.
All at once, Jeffrey remembered. In his mind's eye he saw the image of her startled face as she pulled the drape aside. The fact that he was sick that fateful day was something besides his addiction problem that he had failed to tell Randolph. He'd considered it, but had been afraid to tell him. At the time he thought of his behavior as evidence of his dedication and self-sacrifice. After the fact, he'd not been so sure. So he'd never told anyone. He started to reach for Randolph's arm, but it was far too late.
Davidson was looking at the jurors, one after another, as he posed the next question: "Was there something strange about Dr. Rhodes being in the alcove of operating room eleven?"
"Yes," Regina answered. "The curtain was closed and operating room eleven was not in use."
Davidson kept his eyes on the jurors. Then he said, "Please tell the court what Dr. Rhodes was doing in the anesthesia alcove of the empty operating room with the drapes closed."
"He was shooting up," Regina said angrily. "He was injecting himself intravenously."
An excited murmur rippled through the courtroom. Randolph turned to Jeffrey with a shocked expression. Jeffrey shook his head guiltily. "I can explain," he said lamely.
Davidson went on. "What did you do after you saw Dr. Rhodes 'shooting up'T'
"I went to the supervisor, who called the chief of anesthesia," Regina said. "Unfortunately, the chief of anesthesia was not reached until after the tragedy."
Immediately after Regina's damaging testimony, Randolph had been able to get a recess. When he was alone with Jeffrey he demanded to know about this
"shooting-up" episode. Jeffrey confessed to having been ill that fateful day, and said that no one but he had been available for the delivery. He explained everything he'd done in order to keep working, including giving himself the IV and taking paregoric.
"What else haven't you told me?" Randolph demanded angrily.
"That's all," Jeffrey said.
"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Randolph snapped.
Jeffrey shook his head. In truth, he wasn't completely sure himself. "I don't know," he said. "I have never liked admitting when I'm sick even to myself, much less anyone else. Most doctors are like that. Maybe it's part of our defense about being around illness. We like to think we're invulnerable."
"I'm not asking for an editorial," Randolph practically shouted. "Save it for the New England Journal of Medicine. I want to know why you couldn't tell me, your lawyer, that you were seen 'shooting up' on the morning in question."
"I guess I was afraid to tell you," Jeffrey admitted. "I did everything possible for Patty Owen. Anyone can read the record and attest to that. The last thing I wanted to admit was that there could be a question of my having been in top form. Maybe I was afraid you wouldn't defend me with the same intensity if you thought I was even remotely culpable."
"Jesus Christl" Randolph exclaimed.
Later, back in the courtroom, during the cross-examination, Randolph did as much damage control as he could. He brought out the fact that Regina did not know if Jeffrey was injecting himself with a drug or merely starting an
IV to rehydrate himself.
But Davidson was not done yet. He brought Sheila Dodenhoff to the stand.
And just like Regina, she glared at Jeffrey while she testified.
"Miss Dodenhoff," Davidson intoned, "as the circulating nurse during Mrs.
Owen's tragedy, did you ever notice anything strange about the defendant,
Dr. Rhodes?"
"Yes, I did," Sheila said triumphantly.
"Would you please tell the court what you noticed," Davidson said, obviously relishing the moment.
"I noticed his pupils were pinpoint," Sheila said. "I noticed it because his eyes are so blue. In fact, I could barely see his pupils at all."
Davidson's next witness was a world-famous ophthalmologist from New York who'd written an exhaustive tome on the function of the pupil. After establishing his eminent credentials, Davidson asked the doctor to name the most common drug to cause pupils to contract to pinpoints-miosis, as the doctor preferred to call the condition.
"You mean a systemic drug or an eye drop?" the ophthalmologist asked.
:'A systemic drug," Davidson said.
'Morphine," the ophthalmologist said confidently. He then commenced an incomprehensible lecture about the EdingerWestphal nucleus, but Davidson cut him off and turned the witness over to Randolph.
As the trial dragged on, Randolph had tried to rectify the damage, proposing that Jeffrey had taken paregoric for diarrhea. Since paregoric is compounded with tincture of opium, and since opium contains morphine, he proposed that the paregoric had caused Jeffrey's constricted pupils. He also explained that Jeffrey had given himself an IV to treat flu symptoms, which are frequently caused by dehydration. But it was apparent that the jury did not buy these explanations, especially after Davidson brought a well-known and respected internist to the stand.
-Tell me, Doctor," Davidson said unctuously, "is it common for doctors to give themselves IVs as it has been suggested that Dr. Rhodes had done?"
"No," the internist said. "I've heard some scuttlebutt about gung-ho surgical residents doing such a thing, but even if such reports are true, it's certainly not a common practice."
The final blow in the trial came when Davidson called Marvin Hickleman to the stand. He was one of the OR orderlies.
"Mr. Hickleman," Davidson said. "Did you clean OR fifteen after the Patty
Owen case?"
'Yes, I did," Marvin said.
'I understand you found something in the biohazard disposal container on the side of the anesthesia machine. Could you tell the court what you found?"
Marvin cleared his throat. "I found an empty vial of Marcaine."
"What concentration was the vial?" Davidson asked.
.,It was.75%," Marvin said.
Jeffrey had leaned over and whispered to Randolph, "I used.5%. I'm sure of it."
As if he'd overheard, Davidson then asked Hickleman: "Did you find any.5% vials?"
"No," Marvin said, "I did not."
On cross-examination, Randolph tried to discredit Marvin's testimony, but only made things worse. "Mr. Hickleman, do you always go through the trash when you clean an operating room and check the concentration of the various drug containers?"
"Nopel"
"But you did on this particular case."
.,Yup!"
"Can you tell us why?"
"The nursing supervisor asked me to."
The final coup de grace was delivered by Dr. Leonard Simon from New York, a renowned anesthesiologist whim even Jeffrey recognized. Davidson got right to the point.
"Dr. Simon. Is.75% Marcaine recommended for obstetric epidural anesthesia?"
"Absolutely not," Dr. Simon said. "In fact it is contraindicated. The warning is clearly labeled in the package insert and in the PDR. Every anesthesiologist knows that."
"Can you tell us why it is contraindicated in obstetrics?"
"It was found to cause occasional serious reactions."