Page 1 of Rules of the Heart

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Ella

“Wendy? What are you doing?”

Wendy turned to Dr. Ella Ashton, her face blotchy with tears. “I’m leaving.”

“What are you talking about? You can’t leave! We’ve got your surgery scheduled for tomorrow.”

Wendy took a shuddering breath. “My insurance just called. They won’t pay for it.”

“But… But you need the surgery. I wrote them a letter explaining it. The only way to cure the cancer is to cut it out of your brain.”

“They say the procedure is too experimental. They won’t cover it.”

Ella wanted to scream. Yes, this type of tumor extraction wasn’t mainstream yet, but it had been done half a dozen times in different places all over the world. She hadn’t done one herself yet, but she had watched every video and spent hours reading up on the theory. She knew she could do it.

“Let me talk to them. There has to be a way to work this out. Don’t leave just yet.”

Wendy’s eyes lit up with hope. “You really think there’s a way we can figure it out?”

She knew this surgery was her last chance. If she didn’t have it, she would be dead within a month.

“I’ll figure something out, I promise.”

Wendy stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Ella. “Thank you, Doctor Ashton. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Don’t you worry, Wendy. I’m sure the insurance people can be reasonable.”

Five hours, seven phone calls and two screaming matches later, it turned out that the insurance people could not, in fact, be reasonable. Ella was fairly sure she had fractured something in her foot from kicking a wall in frustration. No matter which way she put it, Wendy’s insurance simply would not pay for the life-saving surgery Wendy needed.

The thought of going back to Wendy and telling her that she was going to die in a month was unbearable. There had to be something else she could do.

She shoved her phone angrily into her pocket and marched up to James’ office. James was the Head of Surgery. Surely, he could help her.

“Ella, come in.” James greeted her with a friendly smile. The knot in Ella’s chest loosened slightly. James wasn’t like the insurance people, just out to make money. He had become the Head of Surgery because he wanted to help people. Surely, he could be reasonable.

“I need permission to do a surgery pro-bono.”

The smile slid off James’ face to be replaced with a cautious expression. “Which surgery?”

“It’s the one for Wendy Anderson, to remove her brain tumor.”

“Ella, that’s a very expensive surgery.”

“Which is exactly why it needs to be pro-bono. She can’t afford it and her insurance won’t pay for it.”

“I’m sorry, Ella, but the hospital is already at capacity for pro-bono surgeries. We simply can’t afford to take on any more.”

“WHAT? How can you say that! She’s only nineteen, James! She has no one. Her parents disowned her when she was eighteen, when she came out as gay. She was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor a few months later and has been fighting ever since. Sheneedsthis surgery, James! She will be dead very soon if we don’t help her.”

“Don’t you raise your voice to me, Ella. I understand the situation, and it’s not that I don’t have sympathy, but I need to look at the big picture here. The hospital needs to stay in business if we’re to help anyone, and if we want to stay in business, we can’t just go handing out pro-bono surgeries to anyone who asks.”

“It’s not anyone,” Ella said through gritted teeth. “I’m asking. Consider it a personal favor. Please, James. Wendy needs this.Ineed this.”

“Like you needed the last one? That homeless refugee woman? Or the vet who was turned away by the VA? Do you realize that seventy percent of the pro-bono surgeries for the year have gone to you?”

Ella felt a flicker of guilt, wondering how many other doctors had been turned down because of her, but when she thought of the patients she had saved, she couldn’t feel truly guilty for long.

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