Chapter 5: Evicting the Toxicity
The lead trauma surgeon strode into the room, flanked by two massive hospital security guards whose sheer size immediately forced my father to halt his advance.
“What is going on in here?” the surgeon demanded, looking at the screaming monitors by my bed. My heart rate had spiked, the stress of the confrontation triggering the alarms. “The patient needs to be prepped for the O.R. right now!”
Naomi didn’t miss a beat. She seamlessly pivoted from corporate shark to protective proxy.
“Doctor,” Naomi said clearly, projecting her voice over my mother’s rising hysteria. She held up the freshly signed and notarized document. “I am the patient’s legal medical proxy. These two individuals are causing the patient severe emotional and physical distress. They are elevating her blood pressure and actively threatening her health. They are no longer authorized visitors. I demand they be removed from this floor immediately.”
My mother’s eyes widened in sheer disbelief. “Removed? Arrested? We are her family! We have a right to be here!” She grabbed the sleeve of the surgeon’s white coat. “Doctor, tell this woman to leave! My daughter is heavily medicated, she doesn’t know what she’s doing!”
The surgeon looked at the notarized document in Naomi’s hand, then looked at the blood seeping through my bandages, and finally at my parents, who were screaming about bank accounts and paint colors instead of asking about my surgical odds.
