It was May, 1986, my marriage to my lesbian biochemistry phd student wife was unravelling as the pressures of surgery took their toll that first year, hours insane, frequently 100 -110 hrs of blood, trauma, stress - just crazy. The night was stormy, the moon was full though hidden by the storm colds, we knew it was full, we all did, stuff like this didn't just happen without celestial causes being involved. I was in the ER, I had admitted two patients with acute peritonitis that were going to need surgery, as I am talking with an attending on the phone, another ER doc interupts me and tells me 2 head injury motorcycle patients are being life-flighted in, eta of 12 minutes. My Phd lesbian biochemist wife calls me, juggling all this stuff she is screaming I WANT YOU OUT into the phone. At that precise moment the chief resident Doug W. saunters by, yes he just sauntered, and casually says, " dude, Mrs S. in ICU, she's bleeding to death, go up and see what you can do"
So I hang up on Phd lesbian biochemist wife (NTTAWWT) and rush upstairs and into the unit. My friends, it was not a mystery to identify Mrs S., In this expansive space of blinking lights, bleeping monitors stood a cluster of folks scurrying around the bed of Mrs. S., an unfortunate post op bypass with a Swan Ganz catheter used to monitor cardiac outputs. A great tool but on this occasion proper technique had not been used and the balloon had been overinflated rupturing the pulmonary artery. She was dead, she was going to stay dead, but there was something unique, nearby the bed was a new Internal Medicine intern, beautiful, a great smile obscured by worry, looking to me for clues of what to do, rotating in ICU, watching and learning and yes my friends, watching me, how I handled that code, the decisions I made, we clicked and that was the beginning of the most insanely exciting year of my life. She was, I confess married but alone, I was married and soon to be unmarried to my then lesbian Phd Biochemistry wife. It was wild magic and let me tell you, in this pre AIDES time frame there were no rules, "Grey's Anatomy" looked like Mr. Rodgers by comparison.
Funny thing, I just re connected with this gal 23 years later on FaceBook and guess what, she's a lesbian now, I kid you not. It must be me. I drive them across the great divide.
BTW every word of this is gospel truth, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.