More than two hours later, while struggling to get the aortic valve leaflets to precisely lie as they should, Natalie became more and more frustrated that she was under Matthew’s watchful eye, blaming him rather than the difficult nature of the surgery.
“May I?” he asked at one point, causing Natalie’s gaze to lift to his astute one.
Seriously? What was she supposed to say? Although Dr. Luiz’s official partial retirement date hadn’t yet arrived, Matthew was her boss.
She watched with reluctant fascination as he made a deeper cut in a modified Ross procedure and then meticulously worked to repair the uncooperative valve leaflets.
When he was done, the flaps fell into place perfectly between each beat.
Ecstatic for her patient and what should be a great surgical outcome, Natalie found her annoyance with Matthew slipping a little over her excitement at what she’d just witnessed.
How could she be annoyed with him when what he’d just done had been nothing short of genius?
If only she hadn’t had sex with him.
When their tiny two-day-old patient was off to Recovery, Natalie was all too aware of Matthew beside her as she left the operating room and slipped off her protective gear.
“Tell me why that worked so well, what it’s called, and if it’s something you’ve been working on for a while or just came up with.”
Stripping off his protective gear, Matthew regarded her. “You know the Ross procedure?”
“What you did was a modified version. I caught that. When you were finished, the valve leaflets fell perfectly.”
“Only because you did a great job with the resection on the ventricle,” he praised, leaning against a long sink used for scrubbing. “Otherwise, what I did wouldn’t have worked.”
“You’ve done this before, then?”
“A few times.”
“Success rate?”
“So far we’re at one hundred percent.”
Natalie’s eyes widened. “Seriously? What are the parameters?”
“I did my first one just over a year ago. About a year and a half ago, now,” he amended. “Currently, she’s had no further need of surgery.”
“Valve is growing with the body? No issues with scar tissue causing stenosis?”
“Thus far, it’s a success, but we won’t know for sure until Kenzie gets older.”
Kenzie. The name clicked.
“I read about her,” Natalie admitted, wishing his work didn’t fascinate her so much, wishing there wasn’t a hint of a smile in his eyes. “You used the Libertine robot during that procedure.”
“Yes.”
“She had other heart issues.” She thought back. “Something to do with her pulmonic valve.”
He seemed surprised. “That’s right. I did a repair of her pulmonic and aortic valves.”
“I read the piece you published on the procedure, but I don’t recall anything about what you just did on my patient.”
“There wasn’t anything in the article about what I just did. The article was about the Libertine, not the specifics of the valve repair. I’ve done that particular procedure a total of five times, including the one I just did. More research needs to be done prior to anything being published.”
“Did you record Kenzie’s surgery?”
His lips curved into a smile. “You want to watch my private stash?”