Free Lassiter 01 - To Speak for the Dead by Paul Levine

this point, the electricity goes off or there's a bomb threat, but today, we started working.
    Roger Salisbury came off well, just as I thought he would. I had told him not to overdress, and he was just right in gray slacks, a blue sportcoat, and tie. I had him wear a beeper on his belt to remind the jury that here was a man who responded to emergencies, who could be called at any moment to mend the injured. His salt-and-pepper hair was neatly trimmed and his face reflected confidence without being cocky. He looked like a skilled, compassionate surgeon who took the greatest care when working inside a man's spine. He spoke quietly, evenly, with no trace of the condescension that marks so many doctors in court.
    I took him through the story. Philip Corrigan's office visits, fixing the bad knee, then complaints of back and leg pain. Even hurt when he coughed. All the usual tests, ankle jerk, knee jerk, straight leg raising. Salisbury found sensory deficits, a myelogram confirmed it. Finally the diagnosis, acute herniated disc at the L3-L4 vertebrae.
    "Was there anything unusual about the surgery?" I asked.
    "No, it was routine," Salisbury said.
    I liked that. Here's a man who cuts into living flesh, fixes the problems inside, then puts it all back together again. And it's routine. No wonder we're in awe of doctors.
    "I cut from approximately LI to just above the sacrum," he said. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Down through subcutaneous tissue and adipose tissue. Bleeders were clamped and cauterized. I identified the L3—L4 interspace. I removed the ligamentum flavum and superior portion of L4 and inferior portion of L3 without incident."
    I walked him through every step of it, sending the jurors messages that this doctor knew what he was doing. He was there, dammit. Dan Cefalo wasn't. Wallbanger Watkins wasn't. Now Salisbury was a teacher and the jurors, his students, listened to every word. Some might not have followed every move of the scalpel, but it didn't matter. Roger Salisbury knew his stuff, knew more than the jurors—a travel agent, two housewives, a student, two retired businessmen—
    ever would. The impression I wanted to create was simple: Who are we to judge this man?
    "I removed the disc material, the nucleus pulposus." Roger Salisbury pointed to a chart we blew up to poster size. "In a herniated disc, it's like toothpaste that's been squeezed out of the tube. It's pushed out of the disc space and there's no putting it back."
    Good imagery. It should have been. We practiced it for months.
    "Then what did you do?" I asked.
    "I removed the degenerative disc material with the rongeur."
    "Was there anything unusual up to this point?"
    "Nothing up to then or later," he said evenly. "The procedure was without incident."
    "What were the patient's vital signs?"
    "All normal. Blood pressure, pulse rate, breathing."
    The anesthesiologist would confirm this when we read his deposition to the jury.
    "You heard Dr. Watkins's testimony about the rongeur?" "I did."
    "Did anything unusual happen with the rongeur?"
    "No, it never went through the disc space, certainly not around to the front of the aorta. In all respects the patient tolerated the surgery normally."
    "When was the last time you saw Philip Corrigan?"
    "I checked him in the recovery room and once later in his private room."
    "And his condition?"
    "Normal. No evidence of a mass in his abdomen, normal 78
    blood pressure, hemoglobin, and hematocrit. No sign of hemorrhage or aortic aneurysm."
    I kept him up there a few minutes longer to say how surprised he was the next morning when he learned that Corrigan's aorta ruptured during the night. And, sounding sincere, he expressed regret at the death of his patient. I nodded gravely with my own look of sincerity, a look that took three years of law school, a dozen years of practice, and a couple Jimmy Stewart movies to perfect. Then I sat down, and Dan Cefalo stood up.
    Cefalo was in a box. He had deposed everyone in the OR,