Resumo de Coma 1974 - Robin Cook

COMA

            Susan Wheeler, an attractive young
woman, and a surgical resident at the Boston Memorial
Hospital. In the
beginning of the story her friend Nancy Greenly undergoes a routine therapeutic
abortion. There is a momentarily problem that in the middle of the operation,
she was on premature ventricular contraction that is sometimes unnatural to
most operation, apparently she was stable but when the operation is over her
pupil was fixed and dilated; she is brain dead and transferred to the intensive
care unit. Upon knowing her friends fate Dr Susan Wheeler rushed to the ICU to
see her friend. There she was devastated; she could not believe that a simple
and routine procedure could end her friend?s life. The central computer ordered
a random test. Dr Susan visits the computer room to investigate all occurrences
of coma in the past year. She finds out that some of the past deaths were
unexpected: patients were young and healthy. But Dr Susan violated protocol.
This invasion of privacy is smoothed over. Next there is unexpected case of
coma. A similar case was that of Sean Berman, a young man in his thirties with
good physical conditions, who underwent a knee operation that he was scheduled
for. Despite the operation being a success, Sean fails to regain consciousness.

            She insisted to find justice for her
friend so she continues to investigate. She finds out that all coma patients
are usually transferred to Jefferson Institute under the sign out name of Dr
George, the Chief of Anesthesiologist.

            Baffled by the sudden
unconsciousness of these two patients, Susan decides to unveil the mystery
behind these peculiar events. She delves into the details on Nancy?s medical history, occasionally
skipping lectures and missing rounds. After unraveling various details and facts
relating to her case history, She learns from a pathologist that the patients
can be killed in an OR: administering CO (carbon monoxide) instead of O2
(oxygen) there are traces which might be overlooked in an autopsy.

            Upon her return to the hospital, a
janitor tries to tell Dr Susan something and ask her to go to the basement for
he wanted her to see something. But the janitor is electrocuted by a killer who
makes it look like an accident. Later she finds a tank with a hose leading
somewhere. There is a remotely controlled device that connects to OR8, where
the coma cases originate. But the killer is following her in the lonely hall of
the hospital. The killer chase her and they end up in a morgue, she escape from
death by pushing those frozen hanging corpse to the killer that pinned him down
because of the weights of those corpse. Dr. Susan immediately went in to his
boyfriend?s apartment and told him what she discovered, but he young man seems
reluctant to believe her, so when he made a phone call, she fled to her
apartment.

            The following day, she takes a tour
of the Jefferson Institute, she finds that bodies are suspended from the
ceiling by wires in rooms walled by glass, and moved from room to room with
little human involvement in a computer controlled environment. This is where they
are kept until a call for a kidney or liver of a certain type comes in, at
which time the right recipient is prepared, and the organ of choice is removed
surgically. As she investigates, she was seen in the security camera and was
chased in order to contain her and not to report her findings. She escaped by
clinging on the ambulance roof.

            Soon enough Dr. George Harris, Chief
of the Department of Surgery at Boston Memorial, realizes that Susan now knows
more than she can handle, that the well-hidden, gruesome facts about the
hospital may soon be revealed, decides to put Susan in a coma too after an
appendix operation. He put a drug that produces abdominal spasm and mimics sign
and symptoms of acute appendicitis. But as she was wheeled on to the operating
room, even lethargic, she was able to made Dr Mark her boyfriend that she was
about to get into coma on and upon
hearing that Dr George Harris insisted that he wants to perform the operation
in OR8, he immediately went to the basement to look for the mysterious line
connected from a tank to OR8 so he finds the hose and followed it to its destination
with the help of the pantyhose left by Dr Susan Harris days later when she
climbed an air shaft leading to OR8, there Dr Mark saw a device that controlled
the flow of carbon monoxide to OR8, he destroys it and called a police.
Meanwhile at the OR8, Dr George Harris performed the operation, his patient Dr
Susan Wheeler was on PVC and afterwards she was stableAfter the operation the
anesthesiologist wake Dr Susan, at first she wont woke up, Dr Harris says it?s
just normal, thinking that he actually led her to coma. But afterwards Dr Susan
regains consciousness and he was surprised to find out that she escape from
death. As Dr Susan was wheeled to the recovery room and Dr Mark her boyfriend
waited for her outside OR8 with the police officer waiting for Dr George Harris
to arrest. Then One-by-one, all the horrid deeds and organ-trading secrets of
the hospital are uncovered.

Resumos Relacionados