is superior.
– And what is the second patient´s state?
– Rib fracture and lung perforation.
– Let me see both files. João Henrique Nogueira, 60, stable. Transferred from Teresópolis. The other one...
Conrado receives the message with the recommendation in favor to the hit and run patient. The doctor communicates the decision to remove the shot man from the ICU and "place the insured one, that is, the 60-year-old patient. Matter of age ”.
Gil is abandoned in the corridor and the nurses transfer the tube and artificial respirator to the new patient. João Henrique receives first care at the ICU. Fate hangs on the balance: who will survive?
The question´s echo does not survive in Conrado´s mind, watching a TV shopping channel in the call room.
Conrado has adapted. Back int he day, he was an idealist in his profession. The son of dedicated doctor Miguel Conrado Connor operated on insects as a child. He started by capturing beetles on his father's farm. Conradinho amputated the beetles' legs and recovered them with improvised prostheses made from matchstick barbs. Miguel always guided him on Medicine, he used to say that Medicine was not limited to a promising profession, but to humanitarian work. As a matter of fact, he wanted to be a veterinarian. “One day I will save all the animals”, he dreamed. At the age of eight, he already had skills. He took care of Mimi, a gecko with a cut tail. Conradinho had fixed it with a band-aid using eyebrow tweezers. The patient was kept in a soluble coffee glass with a roof adapted from a perforated red plastic lid, in order to provide ventilation. Conradinho visited her every morning in a sacred ritual. He picked up the house inside his church shoes box in the closet, and, when Mimi reacted, it was a relief. “How cute, she's dancing, she's happy!”, He vibrated. Feeding was solved thanks to the food he kept in a matchbox containing live insects. One day, Mimi was not interested. He found her dry with her belly up, she was his first patient to die. He vowed never to treat animals again. He isolated himself inside the closet and his parents never knew what happened, much less that their son was sensitive.
Well, nowadays, death still lingers in the doctor's mind, however in an uncompromising way. General practitioner, Conrado specialized in oncology by his own choice. Some of the old people who attend his private practice three times a week are already gone. Conrado always advises his patients that "cancer is not only physical, it is the pain of the soul, sadness, anguish and loneliness".
– But who doesn't have these problems? – questioned his mother, whom even he couldn't save.
That day, back in the 90s, in a hospital bed, he noticed death showing his compassionate face. He never forgot the expression in his mother's eyes, asleep on the horizon, and how they seemed inert and opaque, so far away. Darkness took over his heart for many years, without medicine, without a cure, without the soul he once sought in his actions.
“Now it's boredom: fame and money. Every kind of rite of passage results in a change in behavior and that's the way it is, it settles, Conrado ”, he repeats to himself until the nurse enters with a new emergency.
Wagner looks 40-something years old thanks to his long hair with almost no gray, in a pure rock singer biotype. Nervous, he has an eyebrow twitch as if transmitting in a special Morse Code.
– The pain is here, in the chest, a sharp pain. I was playing soccer with friends and felt my heart.
– Do you smoke? Do you use any medication?
– No, just pot.. and lightly ...
– Wagner, let's do this – the nurses laugh in secrecy, but the doctor remains discreet. – We will apply a medication to normalize your heartbeat. Initially, it seems like an extra systole, but I need to confront the exams first.
– No problem, Doctor Conrado, I can take a leave for a few days. I'm a musician. I don't have a wife or children, I'm a loose animal in life.
Conrado decides to proceed to a complete check-up and leaves the room avoiding an “immature” explanation as a response. On the way to his office, he is commonly checked out by the infirmary girls, including Carminha, responsible for his nickname, "Doc Cock", Conrado checks them out discretely, but she continues to look at him as a divine delicacy. The doctor responds the gesture by stroking his red Lamy in his lab coat pocket as a sign of his potency, leaving a trail of testosterone. The rumors that he likes all kinds of sex genders, numbers and degrees, make the subject much more interesting for Carminha.
– Everything that is consented between sexual partners is ok – Carminha states. – Girls, this has become a thing of the past: sex for three, group, tribal. Have you read Erica Jong in your life? I bet you never read anything but self-help books. A woman who doesn’t act on her sex fantasies is problematic, see? And that does nothing but get her fat!
Carminha is never limited in this regard, her famous stories are told at times, when the emergency room is not very busy. Speaking of which, lately she has been dwelling on the development of her pure pleasure theory. The nurse uses a refined technique and introduces the secrets of pompoirism to colleagues hidden behind the counter.
– Gently place one at a time. It is necessary to learn to control yourself completely and introduce the balls little by little. When you feel that you are already full, expel one by one. The feeling inside is like being particularly lubricated. As the air bubbles come out, a small vacuum occurs inside the vagina. At each round, the feeling gets greater and longer, better even than coming through traditional ways.
– But it is still a penetration, right? – a colleague questions .
– I would say a selected penetration. And, in particular, a sure and practical satisfaction. Thai balls are to be used anytime and anywhere, even in the bathroom.
On this personal issue, Carminha prefers to refrain from details, but recalls that, until today, the only person in the hospital to whom she confessed her innovations was a beloved patient, the old lady who died after a coronary catheterization. She liked her as if she were her mother and always took the opportunity to amuse her. She appreciated her eccentric humor, her curious eyes and the accent that gave her a prophetic air. The nurse had never forgotten their conversations.
– Sex is the driving force of life. Renews the skin, the cells and even the soul, you know? It is like an exfoliation of the soul, removing the skin and dead residues and creating a new layer instead.
It is true the old woman never doubted the kind nurse´s stories, but expressed concern, with her reticent eyes, at the excesses committed by the "sexually restless" young woman.
– But Carminha, aren't you afraid of being targeted?
– I have a firm position here, I will soon assume a tenure, a lifelong position. Seriously, I do many favors in this hospital, in addition to being very competent.
– You are very dedicated, caring and intensive.
– That is the right term, I see that you are getting the mood. Keep this secret between the two of us. In fact, here I have already “had” everyone, that is, the ones who interested me, only Doc Cock is missing, that's how I call Doctor Conrado. He's the hunkiest and one of the most experienced doctors here at the hospital.
– I am happy for that, Carminha, because it is he who is taking care of me.
– You are in good hands, ma´am.
Noise of hurried heels
