Director Father Refused Mom's Surgery, I Made Him Regret

My father was the youngest private-hospital director in the country, and chief of cardiothoracic surgery besides.

The heart operations that passed through his hands had a success rate that came almost impossibly close to a hundred percent.

But he refused to operate on my mother.

He said he was tired.

Only later did I learn it wasn't fatigue at all. On the very same day, the woman he'd never gotten over had a sudden heart attack and was rushed to his hospital.

At that moment, he was busy saving her. He had no attention left to spare for my mother.

For the next eighteen years, I worked my way through Harvard and graduated.

After I came home, I passed the screening and the certification, and became the youngest chief physician-licensing examiner in the country.

That day, the certification secretary came to my office, bringing the deputy director with him.

He set a doctor's certification file down in front of me.

"Examiner Delgado, this girl's name is Cornelia Pruitt."

"All you have to do is sign, and she'll become the youngest cardiothoracic attending physician in the country."

I paged through the file on this Cornelia Pruitt.

Then I reached the line marked 'Father.'

I sat still for a few seconds.

Then I closed the file and said evenly, "She doesn't meet the certification standard."

...

The deputy director's brow knotted. "She scored full marks on both the practical and the written exams. Her supervising instructor gave her the highest evaluation."

"There's the co-signature of every department chief at the hospital as well."

"Where exactly does she fail to meet the standard?"

I pushed Cornelia Pruitt's file back across the desk toward him.

Then I answered, calm as before, "I'm the chief examiner. I have the authority to reject any certification I have doubts about."

The deputy director stared me down.

A long moment passed.

Only then did the words come out of him.

"Examiner Delgado, leave a little room for yourself."

"Do you have any idea who Cornelia Pruitt's father is?"

At that, I leaned back in my chair and looked at him, my expression untroubled.

"Who?"

"Cole Pruitt!"

I let out a flat little oh and raised an eyebrow. "The honorary chairman of the State Medical Association?"

"Director of Deren Hospital and chief of cardiothoracic surgery?"

The deputy director nodded hard. "Yes!"

"You refuse to sign."

"You're not afraid of making an enemy of Director Pruitt?"

Before I could say anything.

The deputy director's tone softened. "Examiner Delgado, I know you haven't been back from overseas very long."

"There are things about this city you don't quite understand yet."

"But let me warn you, there are some people you absolutely do not cross."

"Otherwise the consequences will be very serious!"

I heard the threat under his words.

But I only smiled, entirely unbothered.

"Listen to you."

"What, am I going to get hit by a car when I walk out the door?"

The deputy director gave a cold little laugh.

"These days a lot of young guys like to street-race."

"Some day... something like that really could happen."

At that.

I took out my phone and, right in front of him, dialed three digits.

Looking at the '911' showing on the screen.

His face changed in an instant.

"Examiner Delgado, what do you think you're doing?"

"Someone's threatening me."

"Of course I'm going to call the police for my own safety!"

Just as I was about to place the call.

He rushed to stop me.

"Examiner Delgado, I'm sorry, that's not what I meant..."

The deputy director stood there, furious and out of options in equal measure.

I gave a faint smile and pointed at the door. Don't let me keep you.

He ground his teeth, then finally turned to go.

But before he stepped out.

He left me one more warning.

Examiner Delgado, there is nothing wrong with Cornelia Pruitt's certification file.

Her practical exam and her written exam.

Both are fully documented.

Blocking her certification on purpose is an abuse of authority.

We can report you to your superiors at any time.

When we do, you won't just lose your chief examiner status.

You could even end up in prison.

We'll give you one day to think it over carefully.

I'll be back tomorrow.

After the deputy director left.

My secretary stepped out and pulled the door shut for me.

I took a few yellowed files from the drawer.

One of them held the complete surgical record from eighteen years ago, when my mother died despite treatment.

On the surface, the surgical record looked clean.

But after years of relentless effort.

I had finally traced the flaw buried inside it.

At the time, my father was busy operating on the one who got away.

He had no attention to spare for my mother.

So he handed her surgery to his assistant.

His assistant's certification rank wasn't high enough.

An attending physician with three full years of service could be granted Level III surgical privileges.

But my mother's operation was Level IV.

An ultra-high-risk major surgery!

By rank, my father's assistant could only serve as an assistant on a Level IV procedure.

He was in no way qualified to lead one.

So the surgery they performed on my mother that day.

Was nothing less than an unauthorized procedure.

And it was the root cause of why her surgery failed!

Only because my father was a chief physician.

He buried the whole thing.

Apart from the few people who knew at the time.

No outsider had any way of learning the truth.

The hospital was afraid the case would blow up into a public scandal.

So they didn't dare make the facts known either.

And because I was only a child then, I had no way to pursue it.

In the end, it all faded away with nothing done.

I studied hard for eighteen years.

All to bring the people whose unauthorized procedure killed my mother on that operating table to justice!

I had planned to go after Cole Pruitt once the certification exams were over.

But whether it was fate at work, I couldn't say.

Cole Pruitt's daughter wanted to pass the physician-licensing exam.

And I just happened to be her chief examiner!

Word spread quickly.

That I had refused to sign off, citing Cornelia Pruitt's failure to meet the certification standards.

A superior made a point of coming to see me.

Asking for the details.

I knew he'd been sent by Cole Pruitt, pulling strings to sound me out.

I kept my mouth shut and answered with a single line.

I have my own standards.

It came off as high-handed.

But as long as the disciplinary inspection team hadn't opened an internal investigation, hadn't stripped me of my chief examiner authority.

I had the power to decide, with one word, who passed and who didn't!

But Cole Pruitt was no pushover, and his counterstrike came fast.

The next morning.

The deputy director showed up at my office, this time with the disciplinary inspection team.

"Examiner Delgado. We meet again."

The deputy director looked flushed and pleased today.

When he spoke to me.

The corner of his mouth he couldn't quite hold down was proof enough that he was in a good mood.

Maybe he figured.

That once the disciplinary inspection team from the state health authority stepped in.

The pressure would make me cave.

That I wouldn't dare keep giving Cornelia Pruitt trouble.

Pity.

He'd taken me for someone far weaker than I am.

Before I could say a word.

Asher Lawrence from the inspection team waved the deputy director into a seat.

Then his face slowly hardened.

"Roderick Delgado, every senior official at Deren Hospital has filed a joint complaint against you for abuse of authority."

"How do you explain that?"

The deputy director sat waiting for me to panic, or to start begging.

But my answer left him stunned.

"A chief examiner has full and independent authority over the evaluation."

"I found her assessment file too vague, not precise enough, with no detailed video record of the skills examination attached."

"I ruled that she failed. What's wrong with that?"

"Or am I supposed to pass her just because her father is Cole Pruitt?"

"Every department head at Deren Hospital signed the joint statement."

"Cole Pruitt himself signed a personal guarantee."

"So I have to pass her?"

"Then what's the point of an exam at all?"

"Whoever has the most power, whoever has the most influence."

"They get to ignore the rules?"

The deputy director sat there with his mouth open, staring at me in shock.

The one thing a chief examiner fears most is the inspection team.

Because the team has the authority to investigate examiners.

He never imagined.

That I would fire straight back at Asher Lawrence without holding anything back.

Asher Lawrence was a little stunned himself just then.

He sat frozen for a long moment.

Then he clapped and sneered. "A Harvard top graduate, all right. Real presence, real nerve. But don't forget."

"One word from me and you lose your standing as chief examiner."

I gave an indifferent shrug.

"As long as I'm still the chief examiner."

"Who passes and who fails."

"Is still my call."

"If you want to strip me of my examiner status."

"I suggest you convene an inspection team meeting right now, file it upward, wait for approval, and open an internal investigation into me immediately."

Asher Lawrence saw that I wasn't the least bit afraid of him.

And his face went the color of raw liver.

"Roderick Delgado, you won't give me even a shred of face?"

"Face I can certainly give."

"But it depends on the man!"

"If you're going to throw in with certain people."

"Why would I give you any face at all?"

Asher Lawrence shot to his feet and glared at me, furious. "Roderick Delgado, you're the one who sealed off your own road."

"Don't blame me for being ruthless!"

With that.

Asher Lawrence stormed off, the deputy director trailing after him.

That same day.

Word of it spread through the workplace.

The way everyone looked at me changed.

After all, an examiner who dared to go head to head with the inspection team.

I was, for the first time in anyone's memory, the very "first."

But standing my ground came at a price.

Just before the end of the day.

The deputy director called me into his office.

Inside the office, the deputy director studied me for a long while before he finally asked, slowly, "Is there really something wrong with Cornelia Pruitt?"

"I'm not sure."

He blinked, then frowned. "You're not sure, and you still put it that firmly? You think the certification exam is a game?"

"Deputy Director Whitney, whether there's a problem with Cornelia Pruitt's exam records will take time to check. But there's definitely something wrong with her father."

"Something wrong with Cole Pruitt?"

"Yes."

"What kind of problem?"

"An unauthorized procedure. He threw away a human life."

"Roderick Delgado!"

Whitney's expression turned sharp in an instant. "Do you have any idea who Cole Pruitt is, or how much weight he carries?"

"Slandering a renowned, deeply respected hospital director, a man who also serves as honorary chairman of this state's medical association, do you understand how serious a charge of defamation that is?"

"Director, I'm not slandering Cole Pruitt. Give me a few days."

"I'll prove it to everyone."

"All that talk of saving lives, of the revered elder statesman, the towering authority in medicine, is nothing but a mask. Behind it he's a man of loose morals, chasing fame, a butcher who threw away someone's life without a second thought."

Whitney stared at me, stunned.

"You..."

"I only need a few days. If I can't prove Cole Pruitt is a hypocrite hiding behind a saintly face."

"Then I'll accept any punishment you hand down."

The next day.

Asher Lawrence's request to open an internal audit into me was shelved for the time being.

When Asher heard the news, it shook him.

He assumed someone powerful was backing me.

He rushed to report it to Cole Pruitt, the director of Deren Hospital.

Once Cole got the news.

After talking it over with the deputy director.

He sent the deputy director to invite me to a family dinner.

I knew what Cole was after.

He wanted to use the chance to size me up.

He might even try to bribe me.

To make me pass his daughter's certification.

I didn't refuse.

That evening, the deputy director came to pick me up in person.

I put on a suit and went to the Pruitt house for the dinner.

When I arrived at the Pruitt house.

Looking at the familiar gate and courtyard in front of me.

My mind drifted for a moment, unsteady.

Eighteen years.

I had come back again to this place, so full of childhood memories, and of the deepest despair and grief I had ever known.

A few minutes later.

I finally came face to face with Cole Pruitt, his temples gone gray.

Two women stood beside him.

One was about his age, older, yes, but poised and elegant, refined down to the smallest detail.

The other was young, so beautiful it took your breath away. Clearly, she was Cornelia Pruitt.

Maybe because I'd been so young when I left all those years ago.

Eighteen years without seeing me.

Cole Pruitt didn't recognize me at all.

He looked me up and down, then smiled and put out his hand. "Mr. Delgado, I've been hearing about the youngest chief examiner they'd sent. Now that I meet you, it's true, accomplished so young, and quite the striking figure."

Listening to Cole Pruitt heap praise on me without holding back.

I couldn't help but smile.

Just then.

Asher Lawrence's voice came suddenly from behind me. "Director Pruitt, there's nothing wrong with your daughter's exam records at all."

"This guy deliberately failed Miss Pruitt."

"He's pursuing a personal vendetta!"