Chapter Six

Issues of the Heart

The wet, sunny Boston spring gave way to a hot and muggy summer.

And Jordan still found herself on the fast-paced treadmill at Boston's Children's Hospital's cardiac unit. She continued to see patient after patient, often working twelve to fifteen hour shifts with few breaks.

She had been through one of those days…days that seemed to run on adrenalin and caffeine – when her pager went off just as she was putting her coat on to go home. The code read cardiac emergency. Without thinking twice, she called down to the emergency room. "Who's the patient with the code?" she asked.

"Alice Hoyt."

With her heart in her throat, Jordan didn't even wait for the elevator. Taking the stairs two at a time, she pushed her way through the emergency area to the room where Alice was. Quickly glancing at the nurse and then at a white-faced Woody, she quietly asked the resident on-call what was the status. "The girl just about coded," he responded, still monitoring Alice's vitals.

Shit…What happened? She was fine a few weeks ago….Swallowing her own panic, Jordan tried to ease Alice's and Woody's fears. "Hey, sweetheart," she murmured to Alice. "It's Jordan…remember me?"

Alice nodded. That's a good sign…

"Okay…I need to take a few more pictures of your heart…but this time we're bringing the machine to you…"

The next couple of hours went by in a blur to both Jordan and Woody. More sonograms were taken, each one now confirming what Jordan feared. Alice needed a transplant and she needed a transplant now.

But transplants were beyond her area of expertise. However, Dr. Baines, one of the leading specialists, was on staff at Boston's. Determinedly she picked up the hospital phone and called him at home, quickly explaining the critical situation and Alice's need. "She needs a heart…bad, Lewis," she told Dr. Baines.

"Okay … okay," yawned a now awake Dr. Baines. "I'm on the phone now with the National Transplant Board…and I'll be at the hospital in fifteen. Have the nurses get the girl a room and the dad hunker down for the night. If we have any luck…"

"Yeah. I know."

After making sure Alice was in her room and the nurses were getting her ready for surgery, Jordan made her way out to the waiting area. Technically, she was no longer Alice's doctor…Lewis Baines was. But that didn't lessen any of the concern she had for Alice or for Woody. She planned on staying with Woody until the surgery was over…and Alice was stable.

And Woody was okay.

So armed with two large coffees, one laced with caramel and extra sugar, she found him in the waiting area, nervously pacing. "Hi," she said, handing him his coffee. "Thought you might could use the company and the caffeine."

"Thanks," Woody responded, gratefully taking the coffee and accepting the company. "Both are appreciated. I have a feeling it's going to be a long night."

Jordan nodded and looked over Woody's shoulder, out the window to a dark, wet Boston night. She eyed the weather with mixed emotions, because she knew what may not have dawned on Woody yet.

Transplants can be a bitch. For the recipient, it's a chance that, if all goes well and the body doesn't reject the new organ, health will be regained and lives return to some kind of normalcy.

But for the donor, it meant someone would have to die. Another child would have to die in order for Alice to get a heart. Jordan took a deep breath and fought back her tears. She loved Alice, and God knows she wanted the little girl to get a heart, but the cold, hard facts still hurt. Someone would have to die in order for Alice to live. And in order for the heart to be compatible with Alice's size and weight, more than likely that donor would have to be another child. Sighing, she said without thinking, "It's a wet night…maybe we'll get lucky."

"Lucky?"

Woody's voice brought Jordan back to the reality that she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

"I mean…." Her voice faltered.

"What do you mean, lucky, Jordan?" He walked over and took her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes. "Does Dr. Baines know what he's doing?"

She nodded furiously. "Lewis is the best. I wouldn't have turned Alice over to him if he wasn't…."

"Good…but what did you mean? What does luck have to do with this? I'd like the odds to be a little more in favor of skill than luck."

Swallowing hard, Jordan looked down at the coffee cup in her hands for a moment, composing herself and trying to figure out the best way to tell Woody the cold, hard facts of transplants…something he obviously hadn't thought about. Quietly, without raising her eyes, she asked, "Where do you think heart transplants come from, Woody?"

"Donors, of course."

"And you know that heart donors…"

"Have to have agreed to donate their organs upon their death…yeah, I know…they explained that to me when I agreed to be an organ donor."

"So where do you think Alice's heart is going to come from?"

"I don't know…an accident victim…I'm not sure. Why?"

Jordan looked up at him then…those blue eyes a mixture of concern for his daughter and questions for her. "Do you know how old this victim will have to be?"

It hit him then. She saw the impact on him as if she had punched him in his solar plexus herself. "It will have to be another child, won't it?"

Nodding, Jordan continued. "She's too small for an adult heart. The donor will have to be another child…or a young teenager."

"Oh my God…"

"So when I said we might get lucky….tonight's a wet night.."

"A child could be in an accident…" his voice trailed off and he sank down to the couch and put his head in his hands.

Jordan nervously sat down beside him…not sure of how to comfort him… "I'm sorry, Woody. But you needed to know the odds…."

He nodded, still trying to pull himself together. "What kind of job do you have here, Jordan?"

"Pardon me?"

"You heard me…what kind of job do you have here….one that depends on someone else dying in order to be successful. At least in the morgue you were a voice for the dead…here you're just waiting on someone to die in order to further your own success…."

"Woody…it's not like that at all. I do plenty of other work besides dealing with transplant patients."

"But it could all boil down to another child dying so another could live…how do you deal with that? How do you deal with yourself?"

"Woody…I …."

"I just can't fathom…"

"Woody…I want Alice to live… to grow into a healthy adult…to be with you, as your daughter…with a normal life span. I don't chose who dies…call it fate, a higher power, whatever, but I don't chose who dies and who lives…and who gets the heart. That's beyond my control. I'm just trying to bring the families of those that have lost love ones a little comfort in the fact that their child didn't die in vain ….that a part of them is living on…and I'm trying to help those who receive the transplants live a normal life…if that's dealing with myself, then I'm guilty as charged."

Woody opened his mouth to respond, but whatever he wanted to say would have to wait. A voice from the door way interrupted them.

"Dr. Cavanaugh…Mr. Hoyt…we've found a heart for Alice," Dr. Baines said from the entrance of the waiting area. "The nurses are prepping her for surgery. I thought you may want to go speak to your daughter before we take her in…"