Lisa Kudrow had never been so nervous before. As an actress, she had been through a lot of cosmetic surgeries. When she was eighteen the casting director asked her to plump her lips, as they were too thin and lacked the required luster. She made her lips full by getting collagen injections. This was followed by micropigmentation for her eyebrows for her original brows were too thin. As she grew older, the knives got bigger and the recuperation more painful. She was now sixty and was lying on the steel operating table, under the influence of anesthesia and awaiting a major surgery, a facelift. It guaranteed to take her face twenty years into the past. The procedure was risky; she was made aware by her surgeon. But to run in the race of showbiz she knew she had to take it.
Dr. Joseph Anderson gave a peck to his wife Dr. Katie McBeal on her forehead. They both were standing right in front of the receptionists table. The receptionist looked fondly at the couple. She by now got accustomed to Dr. Joseph’s lucky charm. Before every surgery, he gave a peck to his wife, that too positioned right in front of the receptionists table. “What if the hospital underwent a major renovating stint?” Everyone would joke with Dr. Joseph. But he knew the possibilities of the hospital getting refurbished were zilch just as the possibility of his wife not turning up at the reception area five minutes after his call. He always thanked God for blessing him with a wonderful wife. Being in the same profession in addition to sharing the same workplace caused terrible fights between them. But he always felt guilty later and she would always wait up for him sulkingly. Five years as a friend, ten years as a lover and ten years as a wife, she had always been by his side.
Dr. Joseph entered the operation-theatre brusquely, recognized the face of his patient as the famous Lisa Kudrow and coolly got about his work.
“Scalpel please.” he said to a nurse.
* * *
After prescribing the post surgery treatment to the nurse in-charge, he left the hospital and got into his Porsche. His wife called him just then. She had a great sense of timing.
“How did it go, honey?”
“Great sweetheart, tell me what’s for dinner?”
“Umm. I just ordered Chinese food, is it fine?”
“Its fine sweety. Bye, take care.”
“ Bye, hon.”
At two am in the morning, Joseph was rudely roused from his sleep by a phone call. Although he was quite used to such midnight calls because of his profession it still irritated him nonetheless. It irritated him even more if the call was for his gynecologist wife. With his eyes still shut tight, he groped for the receiver.
“Hello, Dr. Joseph speaking.”
“Dr. Joseph, this is Adriana the nurse in-charge for tonight.”
“Yes Adriana, what’s the problem?”
“Doctor, its Lisa Kudrow, the one to whom you gave a facelift today. Her face has turned purple black. Is it normal?”
No, it wasn’t normal. Going red was normal. That’s how the skin reacts after being exposed to laser radiation, which is a routine follow up after the facelift. But purple black?! Oh God! This is new, thought Joseph. The news unnerved him. But as a doctor, he was taught to be calm even under the most trying circumstances.
“Can you specify the regions which have acquired the color?”
“Well, doctor, it’s hard to say. At present, her face is completely covered in a blanket of purple-black. But the color transition had started from around the nostrils, the hairline on the forehead, under the eyes… basically from all the places where the incision was made.”
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes, make sure it doesn’t spread farther.”
“We cant, we don’t know what caused it.”
“Well then keep trying to find the cause will you?”
Bang! Joseph hung up on the nurse.
* * *
Joseph rushed to his patient and with all of his expertise managed to stop any further damage. A bit of relief. But later after sixteen whole hours, Joseph felt an appalling sense of defeat clouding over him, because he could not undo what's already been done to Lisa Kudrow’s face. How could he when the root cause never came to the surface?
The elderly actress’s face was now as pigmented as of an African woman. Since she was a celebrity, every news channel reported the incident during primetime. Katie was patiently answering all of the phone calls from various media persons. Lisa wasn’t allowed to see her face yet. The papers that she signed before the operation bound her from doing so. But the papers did not stop her from contacting her attorney and sue Dr. Joseph.
A day later, a notice arrived at Joseph’s home. He was in dire depression leaving Katie to handle everything. She opened the notice and read the damage charges pressed against her husband by Lisa. They were ordered to pay half a million dollars as compensation.
“Jesus!” Katie thought. “This is going to put us in heavy financial crisis.”
The amount wouldn’t have been that big if it were not for the tuition fees that they were footing for their twin daughters in Stanford University.
Two days later Katie had smoothly finished paying the compensation with the help of her generous father. It helped that her father Mr. Mark McBeal was a retired judge. Thanks to him, all the legal formalities were easily taken care of.
Now Katie had to take care of Joseph. Joseph was starting to doubt his abilities as a cosmetic surgeon. After the misfortune, he declared he would never operate on anyone. He blamed himself for being an inefficient doctor. He held himself responsible for being overconfident. It did not help that the media, too, continued to butcher his image as a doctor.
Katie knew she had to take control. If only she could know the cause of that day’s accident, she might be able to help her husband. She called the hospital and asked them to send her a videotape of the surgery and the detailed handwritten reports too.
She then called Joseph's mentor Dr. Antonio Salvez to review the video and the written material. Surprisingly, both of them could find nothing wrong.
“What was it that Joseph did to make Lisa’s face go black?” Katie questioned, her voice filled with anxiety.
“Katie,” Dr. Antonio, replied, “Have you ever thought of the possibility that your husband was never at fault?”
“How, Antonio? It was Joseph who operated on Lisa!”
“Yet we both, even after such scrutiny couldn’t find a thing that went wrong, could we?”
“You’re right. We couldn’t.”
“I’ll tell you where I think the problem is, Katie, the problem lies with the post operative care. Check on the nurse who was assigned to look after Lisa on the night of the surgery.”
When Katie called at the hospital, she came to know that the nurse who was assigned to look after Lisa resigned two days after the disastrous incident took place. Now Katie knew that there was something more to what met her eye. She was amazed and at the same time glad because now she had hope that what she found supported Antonio’s theory of someone other than Joseph being at fault. She called the local police and informed them that she suspected a nurse named Adriana with regard to actress Lisa Kudrow’s mishap. Then she called her father judge McBeal to catalyze the investigations. Soon Adriana was tracked to be living in another state in a huge mansion.
Meanwhile Antonio tried to rouse Joseph from his depression by telling him that it wasn’t his fault after all and that all this time he was feeling guilty for someone else’s crime. Joseph at first couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Then it dawned on him that this is the light at the end of the long dark tunnel he was passing through. In a matter of minutes his depression transformed into fury.
Before he knew he yelled at his mentor, “Who and for what reason made me a scapegoat? I want the answer and I want it damn soon!”
* * *
Damn soon came thirty-six long hours later. It was divulged that Adriana was not entirely guilty but was an accomplice. She was paid by Lisa Kudrow’s long time professional rival Goldie Hawn to ruin Lisa’s post operative treatment. Goldie chose a professional nurse like Adriana because she wanted irreversible damage done to Lisa or to be more specific, her way of making a living, her face. She paid Adriana well, a billion dollars. But now Goldie was going to pay big-time with her whole life behind bars.
Joseph, as soon as his name got cleared renewed work with full gusto. When Adriana revealed how she adulterated Lisa’s post operative treatment, it was easy for Antonio and Joseph to find a remedy. Both of them performed a corrective surgery on Lisa, which leaved the lady quite blemishless. Katie and Antonio were honored at a small function, for their presence of mind. The function was attended by the local police and the hospital staff. Joseph continued following his superstitious ritual of giving a peck on his wife’s forehead, right in front of the receptionist’s table!
The End.
