Free Let Him Live by Lurlene McDaniel

wouldn’t they? Why wouldn’t they say yes?”
    “People have a hundred reasons.” He shook his head. “They’re afraid of disfiguring their loved one—which we don’t. They feel it’s freakish to transfer body parts from one person to another. Too many Frankenstein movies,” he added. “Whatever their reasons, we can’t intervene. We can’t ever force anyone to agree to donation. It’s a tough thing to even broach with grieving relatives. I told you that once before.”
    She remembered, recalling her own feelingsabout transplantation. Hadn’t she herself once been turned off to the whole idea? Yet, now that she knew Donovan, her feelings had completely changed. “So, why do you even bother to ask at all? Why get somebody’s hopes up for nothing?”
    “First of all, we ask because it’s the law. We
have
to ask. Second, because there are many people who realize that this is the ultimate gift to others and an opportunity to do something good and kind. This is a way for their loved one to continue living.”
    “But not these people,” Meg said. “These people don’t care about others at all.”
    Her father came quickly alongside her. He took her arms and turned her to face him. “Don’t ever say that, Meg. These people just had their son die, and they are inconsolable.”
    Meg began to tremble, understanding exactly what inconsolable felt like. It was a deep, black hole. A bottomless well of tears and anguish. A place without sunlight or even air. Her lip began to quiver. “I don’t want Donovan to die, Daddy.”
    Her father drew her into his arms. “I’m doing all I can, Meg. There’ll be another donor for him. You have to believe that.”
    She nodded, forcing down the tears that were trying to burst free. “I thought this was it for him. I thought his waiting was over.”
    He looked down into her face with troubled eyes. “Meg, medicine is a strange business. It’s life and death. Sometimes it’s making choices that no one but God should have to make. I know whatyou’re feeling because I’ve felt that way myself. I want to tell you something, and I want you to listen closely.”
    “I’m listening.”
    “The only way to treat patients and not go crazy is to distance yourself from them. You can’t allow yourself to become so personally involved that you lose your professional perspective. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
    “Yes. You think I’m overreacting.”
    “No, your concern is all too human. But you can’t become too personally involved in any one case or in any one patient’s life. It’s the first rule of the doctor-patient relationship.”
    She took a deep breath, forcing down a retort. She wasn’t a doctor. Nor did she ever want to be. Medicine was her father’s world, and she was sorry she’d gotten mixed up in it at all. “Don’t you ever get involved, Dad? Doesn’t someone ever become special to you?”
    He shrugged and glanced away. “It’s a fine line to walk. I have to watch myself. My patients are just that—patients. No matter how hard I try, I can’t save them all.”
    She tried to apply brakes to her runaway emotions. She took a deep breath and attempted to distance herself from the drama she had just witnessed. “I’m all right now,” she said. “I-I’m sorry I got so angry.”
    “It’s understandable.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Now, I’ve got the tough job of telling Donovan.”
    “Will you tell him now?”
    “I’ll take you home first, then go check on him. My transplant team knows there won’t be any surgery. Donovan will be fairly groggy for the next couple of days, but sooner or later, he’ll figure out he didn’t have the transplant. You’re right about one thing—he’s going to be a very disappointed young man.”
    Her heart squeezed as renewed concern for Donovan swept through her. She was going to have to face his disappointment also. Meg took a deep breath and followed her father out into the hall. If