The Final Push: A short story of surgical suspense

Richard Van Anderson

Dec 2013 · White Light Press

About this ebook

While on call for the trauma service, third-year medical student Michael Higgins finds himself in an extraordinary situation. He is summoned to the ER to participate in the evaluation and management of a critically-injured patient and soon discovers that the unconscious man lying before him is the same man who, one month earlier, committed a heinous act of violence that shattered Michael’s personal life. Following a lengthy emergency operation, the patient—known only as John Doe—is now under the care of the trauma team, of which student doctor Mike Higgins is a member. As John Doe’s condition gradually improves, Higgins’ personal life deteriorates further, but there might be a way to reverse the downward spiral: if he sees to it that John Doe never leaves the hospital, Michael Higgins’ world may right itself.

Ratings and reviews

Tightly wrapped package of intense and suspenseful drama. Good read.

Good read, short tho

Good story

About the author

Richard Van Anderson is a former heart surgeon turned fiction writer. His surgery training took him from the "knife and gun club" of LSU Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, to the famed Bellevue Hospital in Midtown Manhattan. His education as a writer includes an MFA in creative writing from Pine Manor College in Boston, Massachusetts. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two sons.