I nodded . " She's the only daughter of the CEO of Orion Corporation . He sent someone to ask about you . He wanted to thank you personally . " Sarah sighed . " But Dr. Matthews intercepted them . He said it was a departmental success , all thanks to Dr. Ryan's brilliant leaders- hip . " She shook her head . " You're just too damn honest , George . You never fight for yourself . " I just nodded , thinking , You have no idea what kind of trouble you've invited . I settled into my seat on the train back to my hometown . Just as it pulled out of the station , my phone rang . It was Kevin , the inte- rn , and he sounded like he was on the verge of tears . " George ! It's bad! Something terrible has happened ! " " The CEO of Orion Corporation - he had a massive heart attack ! He's here , in our ICU ! " My stomach dropped . " Ryan's the attending . He saw the EKG , knows it's a major MI , but the CEO has a rare drug allergy , and Ryan's too scared to use the standard thrombolytics ! " " He's just been staring at his tablet , looking up research papers , mumbling about evidence - based medicine , ' but he won't make a decision ! He's afraid to risk an emergency angioplasty , so now he's trying to get the family to sign transfer papers ! " Kevin's voice cracked . " George , it's a STEM !! Every minute counts ! How can he even think about transferring him ? " Before I could answer , another call came in . Dr. Matthews . I hung up on Kevin and answered . Matthews ' voice was a raw , unfiltered roar . " George ! You get your ass back here right now ! If anything happens to the CEO of Orion , I'll make sure you regret it for the rest of your life ! " I held the phone away from my ear until he was done screaming . Then , I replied calmly . " Dr. Matthews , first , I am currently on approved medical leave . Second , I am only a resident . I have neither the qualifications nor the authority to handle a patient of this magnitude . Isn't your esteemed , foreign - trained Dr. Ryan the expert 11.57 Chapter 1 you have on hand for precisely these kinds of complex cases ? " Then I hung up . 1157 A new text from Kevin popped up , laced with pure panic . " George , the CEO's condition worsened in the ambulance ! His heart stop- ped for a minute ! The family is losing their minds . They called the hospital president directly , threatening to sue us into oblivion ! " " The whole hospital is in lockdown ! The president , the VPs , they're all down in our department ! " Another message followed . " Dr. Matthews is spreading a rumor that you intentionally hid the CEO's allergy records to make Ryan look bad . He's telling everyone you knew about the special case and kept it secret to sabotage him ! " I stared at the screen and let out a cold laugh . The man was a master of shifting blame . As if that wasn't enough , things got worse . Another critical patient in the ICU , one who'd just had bypass surgery , suddenly went into ventricular fibrillation . The monitors shrieked . Kevin's live commentary continued via text . " Ryan is fumbling with the defibrillator ! He's shocked the patient multiple times , but there's no response ! He even set the energy levels wrong ! A nurse tried to correct him , and he screamed at her ! " " Sarah is saying they need to put the patient on ECMO immediately ! It's the last hope ! " ECMO. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation . The multi - million dollar , state - of - the - art machine our department imported from Germany . The ultimate lifeline . " Ryan is trying to start the ECMO , but it's failing ! The alarm keeps going off ! " Sarah was shouting , " The startup sequence and calibration parameters for this machine are specific ! Only Dr. Cole knows them inside and out ! He's the only one who ever operates it ! Don't touch it ! " Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!