A Man with Nerves of Steel (Joseph Hart) novel Chapter 107

Chapter 107

On the day Ernest was scheduled for surgery, Joseph came to the hospital as well. Instead of entering the operating room, he went into the observation room.

Inside, aside from several core members of the Ashmore family, Bernard and a few city representatives were also present. A few others whom Joseph didn’t recognize were there as well. Judging from their seating arrangements, they were influential figures in Jenton.

If Natalie had been present, she would have realized that the woman from the girls’ school dorm that night was also there.

It was quite a show Walt had going on. He was trying to assert his family’s authority while suppressing the Pierces. It was a clever little plan.

Joseph remained calm as he took in the situation in the operating room. Walt was already in position, so the surgery had begun.

Joseph observed Walt’s technique while keeping track of time. He realized Walt was going significantly slower, clearly for safety reasons.

However, dragging things out would only make it harder for Ernest.

A faint smile played on Joseph’s lips. The surgery itself was already difficult enough, and the patient’s condition was the biggest challenge.

In fact, the best time to operate would have been on the day of consultation. But Walt had postponed the surgery until today just to create some momentum, and Ernest was past the optimal surgical window.

Now, Walt was going slower in the name of safety, but that only put Ernest in greater danger.

Even at that point, Joseph didn’t bother to give Walt a heads-up.

Halfway through the surgery, Ernest’s heart rate suddenly dropped, and he went into ventricular fibrillation. 1

Everyone, including Walt, was taken aback. He quickly performed defibrillation, but it had little effect. He had no choice but to pause the surgery, turn off the observation room feed, and concentrate on resuscitating Ernest.

Frank and the rest of the family became frantic and made a beeline for the operating room door. They were only told that Ernest was still alive but had fallen into a deep coma.

Meanwhile, Joseph found Marvin and cut straight to the chase. “Dr. Loughlin is done for. Congratulations in advance, Dr. Pierce.”

“Can’t you save the patient first? Let me think about whether I should resign.”

“If it were any other patient, that would be fine. But since it’s someone from the Ashmore family, I need to stay out of this.”

Joseph walked out of the office and left the hospital.

Walt couldn’t stop him, so he gave Bernard a call. “Hey, Bernard. I believe Joseph knows how to handle Ernest’s condition.

“If he steps in, he can wake the patient up, but he won’t take my advice. Could you please speak to him about it?”

Hearing there was still a chance of saving Ernest, Bernard immediately contacted Joseph, but his phone was already turned off. Bernard sent his people to search the hospital, but there was no sign of Joseph, so he asked Cora to look for him.

Cora couldn’t reach Joseph either, so she had her people out looking for him too. After quite a bit of effort, they finally learned that he had gone to Blackveil River.

By the time she got there, he was already swimming in the river.