Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Blitz
At 06:45 AM the following morning, the executive boardroom on the twelfth floor of Hartwell Medical Center was filled with sixteen men and women in dark suits, sipping expensive coffee from porcelain cups.
At the head of the table sat Dr. Richard Sterling, the Chief Executive Officer of Hartwell Health Systems, alongside Dr. Catherine Howard and four senior legal representatives from Apex Mutual Insurance.
The heavy mahogany doors of the boardroom swung open without warning.
I walked into the room, flanked by my lead legal counsel, Marcus Vance, and two senior investigators from the State Department of Health Services.
Behind us walked Gabriel Rowan.
He was no longer wearing his gray coat. He wore a crisp dark gray suit I had purchased for him the previous evening, his dark hair neatly cut, his face clean-shaven. The bandaged hand rested at his side, steady and relaxed.
The room froze. Dr. Howard dropped her pen onto her tablet, her face going completely white.
"Eleanor?" Dr. Sterling stood up, forcing a diplomatic smile that failed to reach his eyes. "Ms. Sinclair, we weren't expecting you until the clinical briefing at nine. And why is... why is this individual on hospital property?"
"This individual," I said, stepping up to the center of the table and slamming a thick stack of legal documents onto the polished wood, "is Dr. Gabriel Rowan, the newly appointed Chief Medical Consultant for the Sinclair Pediatric Cardiac Trust."
"That's preposterous!" Dr. Howard shouted, rising from her chair. "Gabriel Rowan is a revoked practitioner! He is currently facing trespassing and practicing without a license charges from yesterday's incident!"
"The state licensing board issued an emergency administrative stay on Dr. Rowan’s revocation forty-five minutes ago," Marcus Vance announced, stepping forward with an official state seal document. "Pending a full judicial review of the falsified administrative records filed by Apex Mutual five years ago."
One of the Apex Mutual attorneys stood up, his jaw tight. "This is an administrative ambush! Apex Mutual holds the primary insurance contract for this facility's specialized pediatric procedures. We do not recognize Dr. Rowan’s authority, nor will we insure any surgical procedure performed under his direction."
"You won't have to," I said, turning my gaze directly onto the attorney. "Because as of 6:00 AM this morning, the Sinclair Group purchased sixty-one percent of the outstanding debt obligations of Hartwell Medical Center. I am no longer just a donor, Mr. Sterling. I am your primary mortgage holder and majority board trustee."
Dr. Sterling sank back into his chair, looking as though he had been struck by a physical force. "Eleanor... you can't buy a hospital's debt overnight..."
"I can when your quarterly reports show a forty-million-dollar deficit caused by insurance payout denials," I replied coldly. "Effective immediately, Dr. Catherine Howard is suspended from her administrative duties as Chief of Cardiology, pending an internal investigation into patient care delays and insurance kickback schemes."
"You can't do this!" Dr. Howard gasped, her hands trembling as she looked around the table for support. But every single board member was looking down at their documents, realizing the power dynamic had shattered in less than three minutes.
"I can, and I have," I said. "Dr. Gabriel Rowan is assumes full clinical oversight of my daughter's case. He will perform her surgical correction in Operating Room 1 at 10:00 AM today."
Gabriel stepped forward, placing both hands flat on the mahogany table. He looked down at Dr. Sterling and Dr. Howard with an expression of quiet, absolute authority.
"The angiography scheduled for 8:00 AM is canceled," Gabriel stated cleanly. "We are proceeding directly to an unroofing procedure and coronary reimplantation under moderate hypothermic bypass. Prepare OR 1, mobilize the senior pediatric surgical scrub team, and have six units of O-negative blood on stand-by."
"Gabriel..." Dr. Howard whispered, her voice cracking with a mixture of terror and lingering shame. "Her anatomy... her coronary artery origin is extremely high risk. If you misjudge the flap by even a millimeter..."
"I built the technique you use in this hospital, Catherine," Gabriel said softly, his voice cutting through her panic like a surgical blade. "I know where the millimeter is."
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He turned on his heel and walked out of the boardroom. I looked at the stunned board members one last time.
"Ten o'clock, gentlemen," I said. "Don't be late."
