Jack, you'll give
anaesthesia, and it will be a tricky job. Try to use local blocks as
much as you can, and have the heart-lung machine ready well in advance.
We'll only have a few seconds to make the shift. Now let's get moving."
Tiger stared at him. "Are you sure that you want to do this?"
"I never wanted anything less in my life," Dal said fervently. "But do
you think he can survive until a Hospital Ship arrives?"
"No."
"Then it seems to me that I don't have any choice. You two don't need to
worry. This is a surgical problem now, and I'll take full
responsibility."
The Black Doctor was watching him, and Dal knew he had heard the
conversation. Now the old man lay helplessly as they moved about getting
the surgical room into preparation. Jack prepared the anaesthetics,
checked and rechecked the complex heart-lung machine which could
artificially support circulation and respiration at the time that the
damaged heart was separated from its great vessels. The transplant
prosthetic heart had been grown in the laboratories on Hospital Earth
from embryonic tissue; Tiger removed it from the frozen specimen locker
and brought it to normal body temperature in the special warm saline
bath designed for the purpose.
Throughout the preparations the Black Doctor lay watching, still
conscious enough to recognize what was going on, attempting from time to
time to shake his head in protest but not quite succeeding.
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