The Lobotomist's Wife(26)

“Ruth, you need to temper your emotional attachments to every patient. Your oversized heart is part of what makes you so beloved with them, of course, but it is your oversized brain that makes you good at your job. You know patients like her are easily triggered. And, the unfortunate fact is that often, once deterioration begins, there is almost no known treatment to reverse the effects. Well, no treatment as yet, right, Eddie?” Robert looked at Edward, the corners of his mustache turning up in a tentative smile.

“Robert? What are you suggesting?”

“We have seen in Moniz’s latest work that his greatest successes have been treating obsessive tendencies and agitated depression. So, we have been thinking that perhaps Miss Connor is the one for us.”

“Edward?” Ruth looked to him for confirmation. “Do you think Penelope should be your first subject? Are you ready?”

“The primate experiments we’ve conducted in Yale’s lab have had even better results than Drs. Fulton and Jacobsen.”

“Don’t let them hear you say that,” Robert chided playfully.

“True.” Edward smiled. “But, if we can perform this procedure on a flailing ape, I do feel confident that we are ready for live subjects.”

“I can’t believe the two of you are just telling me this now. You didn’t say as much when you returned from New Haven!” Ruth looked accusingly at both men, slightly hurt to have been left out.

“Calm down, dear. We needed to wait for the longer-term results, and they just came in a few days ago. Meanwhile we have been discussing various patients at Emeraldine while we work, so we would have a good list of candidates when we felt ready.”

“And you both feel ready? Really?” Ruth looked more at Robert than Edward.

“We do,” Robert said emphatically.

Ruth took a deep breath. “Oh my, this is exciting. Unimaginable. And Penelope! If this worked, she could have a chance at a real and full life.” She paused, considering the true implications of this conversation—imagining, for a moment, how the course of her life might have shifted if this had been available to Harry in his darkest days. She shook away the fantasy. Dwelling on the past was useless. “But I thought you wanted to begin with a more extreme case?”

Edward jumped in. “Ruth, I know much less about the nuances of the clinical psychology in this case. But I do know that Miss Connor fits the profile identified by Moniz almost exactly, and from what I’ve heard about her assessments, leucotomy could significantly improve her quality of life.”

Robert applauded. “Exactly. Well said, Eddie!”

“I will add, Ruth, that Miss Connor’s youth is helpful—her brain matter is likely healthy, and her system strong.” Edward smiled reassuringly.

Ruth stood from the dining table and began to pace. “We will, of course, need to get Charles’s approval. And ready the hospital. And then there is Father . . .” Ruth turned ashen; she knew that Bernard had become more skeptical of Robert’s research. She couldn’t imagine trying to convince him to let Emeraldine be the first hospital in the country to conduct surgery on a technically healthy brain.

“Ruth, your father may be the chairman of the board, but it is Hayden’s go-ahead that we truly need. Your father and the board should simply be presented with the positive results after the fact.”

Ruth thought about it. Technically, it was true. Her father did not need to know in advance about every new treatment they tried. Still, this was brain surgery. Could they really proceed without telling him? If he found out . . . She had done her best to establish a firm division between her personal relationship with her father, as his daughter, and her professional relationship as a representative of the hospital. But, technically, in her professional role, it wasn’t necessary to get his approval, unless Charles asked her to. She looked to Edward, hoping he might offer her some sense of comfort, or an opinion, but he simply shrugged. He knew better than to weigh in on this.

“Okay, I suppose that makes sense. Then we just need to get Charles up to date on your progress. Shall I set up a meeting for the three of you next week?”

“As soon as his schedule allows. And, Ruth?”

“Yes?”

“You should, of course, plan to be there as well. This is our big moment, and we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

Ruth’s heart warmed even as it pounded fiercely in her chest. She was acutely aware that her hospital stood on one side of the line between being mildly progressive and entirely radical. Although terrified to make the leap, she couldn’t wait to jump across to the other side.





Chapter Thirteen


Ruth gently patted the sweat from her brow as she, Robert, and Edward walked from Charles Hayden’s office back to her own to regroup.

“Well, that was more challenging than I anticipated.” Robert lifted his eyebrows for emphasis. He was right to be angry.

“I should have realized,” Ruth said apologetically. “I’ve been giving Charles periodic updates on your progress, but he hasn’t been with the two of you every evening to hear you debrief on your day as I have. I can see now that it was too large a leap for him to go from preliminary results of lab and primate research to suggesting brain surgery on one of our patients. I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t apologize, Ruth.” Edward looked at her, the kindness in his eyes offsetting the disappointment in Robert’s. “It is our job to make the case for this next step, not yours. Mr. Hayden was right to be concerned. There are risks inherent in any brain surgery.”