The Merger Mogul (6 page)

“I’m listed as
his next of kin, although his father is still alive.  I’ll do the forms
when I get there.  Don’t worry and thanks for calling me, Angela.”

The neurologist
and the radiologist looked at the results of the MRI mounted on the wall.

“There’s the
culprit,” said the neurologist.  “It’s a big one.  
Acoustic
neuroma
pressing against the brain stem.
He
must have been getting some major headaches, but then again headaches can be
anything. He’s going to need surgery and soon. I’d better go down and break the
news to him.” He picked up the chart, scanned the information on it and wrote
down some notes.

“Daniel
Tennant.  That name seems familiar,” he said.

“He’s always in
the financial papers and sometimes the tabloids as well.  They call him
The Merger Mogul.  He’s one of those big time merger consultants with a
lot of money and a lot of women,” shared the radiologist.

“Well The
Merger Mogul won’t be doing any mergers for a while, business or otherwise.”

The neurologist
took the elevator back down to the ER and a nurse directed him to the room
Daniel was in.

Walking up to
the bed he said: “Daniel Tennant? I’m Gabriel
Bucknell
.
I’m a neurologist. I’ve just gone over the results of your MRI with the
radiologist.” He paused.  Daniel’s heart stopped. He felt like he was at
the top of a giant rollercoaster and braced himself for the drop. “You have an
acoustic
neuroma
the size of a golf ball pressing on
your brain stem and it’s affecting your right facial nerve.”

“What’s that?”
interrupted Daniel.

“It’s a tumor
on the nerve leading from your inner ear to your brain. These types are usually
benign.  You may have noticed some ringing in your ear, headaches or
dizziness…”

“A brain tumor?”
Daniel repeated incredulously. “It’s
benign?  Are you sure?”

“As I said,
these types usually are and they are operable but because of its position there
is a certain degree of risk.”

Daniel closed
his eyes in disbelief.  How was this possible?  Only a few hours ago
he was enjoying the beginning of what looked to be a great weekend and now he
was in the hospital with some doctor telling him unemotionally that he had a
brain tumor and he could possibly die in surgery?  This was too much!

“Our resident
neurosurgeon will be back on Monday and will be able to give you more
information about the operation and the likely outcomes.  You’ll be
admitted to a room until then. Is there someone here with you?”

“Yes,” Daniel
said vaguely, “Angela Pierce. She may be in the waiting room.”

The neurologist
nodded and left the room to find Angela.

Daniel closed
his eyes again. He felt a paralyzing fear come over him. It held him in its
grip and refused to let go.

Margaret and
her husband, Bob, arrived at the ER waiting area and found Angela sitting on
one of the hard, plastic chairs looking rather lost and out of place in her
revealing dinner dress. Margaret went over to her, followed by her husband.
Although they had spoken on the phone several times they had never met.

“Hello, you
must be Angela” said Margaret hugging her.  “I’m Margaret and this is my
husband, Bob.  How’s Daniel?”

“I haven’t
heard anything yet. They took him for an MRI. I started to fill out the forms,
but here, you can complete them.  I realize that I really don’t know
Daniel at all,” she ended handing over the clip board.

They sat down
and Margaret filled in the areas that Angela had left blank.  The
neurologist walked into the waiting area, looked around and said: “Angela
Pierce?”

Angela and
Margaret sprang up looking tense. “I’m Angela Pierce,” said Angela.  “And
this is Margaret Bryce, Daniel Tennant’s Personal Assistant and she’s also
listed as his next of kin. Is he going to be all right?”

“Let’s sit
down.  I’m Gabriel
Bucknell
.  I’m a
neurologist.  I’m afraid that Mr. Tennant has a brain tumor.” Both Angela
and Margaret gasped.  “It’s operable and there’s a good chance that he
should fully recover but there may be some complications.”

“Oh no!” said
Margaret, her hand going to the throat. “He’s been getting these headaches and
I told him to let me make an appointment with his doctor, but he kept putting
me off because he hates doctors and medicine and that type of thing. Have you
told Daniel yet?”

“Yes, I have.
Our resident neurosurgeon won’t be back until Monday. He’ll be able to discuss
the surgery more fully with Mr. Tennant. Until then we will be admitting him to
a room.”

“May we see him
now?”

“Yes, of
course.”

He led Margaret
and Angela to the room in the ER where Daniel lay in a bed with his eyes
closed. Angela started to cry softly and ran outside.  Margaret felt like
crying too but she held it in.  Daniel was like a son to her and seeing
him lying on the bed looking so vulnerable hurt more than she would have
thought possible.  He could be a pain but she loved him.  He had so
little love in his life and while on the surface it seemed as if everything was
fine, she knew that inside he was really very lonely and empty.

“Please don’t
let him die,” she whispered in prayer. She walked to the side of his bed. “Hi
Daniel,” she said. She stroked his hair back from his brow which was now
normal. 

“Margaret? 
What are you doing here?  Where’s Angela?” he asked opening his eyes

“She’s
outside.  She’s a bit upset to see you like this.  She found my
number and called me.”

“Have you
heard?” Daniel asked.

“Yes, Dr.
Bucknell
told us.”

“A brain tumor, Margaret!
Why?  Why now when I’m
finally living the life I’ve always wanted? Is this some sort of sick joke? I’m
not ready to die.”

 “Only the
good die young,” she teased gently trying to ease the tension.

“Then I should
live to a hundred!” scoffed Daniel. “Their big shot neurosurgeon is supposed to
come in on Monday to give me the details. How the hell am I supposed to lie
around here for two days without knowing anything?”

“I know that
will be hard for you Daniel but you can use the time to do some soul searching.
Perhaps someone is trying to get your attention. I’ll come and see you
tomorrow.” Margaret kissed his brow and left quietly.

Daniel lay in
the bed with feelings of helplessness, anger and fear washing over him in
turn.  If someone was trying to get his attention, then they certainly had
it. 

New York Chronicle

Monday September 29, 2008

The Merger Mogul, Daniel
Tennant, was rushed to hospital on Friday night after what appeared to be a
stroke; however this has not been confirmed as yet.  Tennant, who is only
thirty-five years old, was said to have been accompanied to the hospital by an
unknown young lady…

Daniel flung
the newspaper which had been delivered to his room to the bottom of his
bed.  Was nothing sacred?  How did the press find out these things
anyway? And where the hell was the top notch neurosurgeon who was supposed to
come and see him?

For two days he
had lain in this uncomfortable hospital bed, waiting and wondering with his
thoughts torturing him.  He couldn’t concentrate on anything showing on
the wall-mounted TV and now his head was beginning to pound again and he felt
hot.  He pressed the button next to his bed and a nurse appeared in a few
minutes.

“Nurse, can you
give me something for this headache? And I think I may have a fever. I feel
hot,” he complained.

She took his
temperature with an ear thermometer and noted that it was 101
^o
F.

“You do have a
temperature, Mr. Tennant. I’ll go get you some pills to bring down the fever
and help your headache.”

“Thanks.”

Daniel was once
again left with his thoughts. The neurologist had told him he had a tumor the
size of a golf ball in his head!  How was that even possible?  He
didn’t know what the risks of removing it were, if he’d ever recover completely
or at all.  He’d asked Margaret to bring his laptop so that he could do
his own research but she’d refused.  He felt so helpless and
frustrated!  He was going crazy just lying here.  He was going to check
himself out if the surgeon didn’t show up soon. In fact he should probably get
a second opinion.

Half an hour
later the door opened and a tall man with graying hair wearing blue surgical
clothes entered the room.

“Mr. Tennant,
I’m Luke Wellington, the neurosurgeon here.  I’ve been away and just got
back this morning.”

“I’m glad to
see you.  The waiting was driving me crazy!”

“I’m sorry
about that.  OK this is what we’re dealing with. As you know you’ve got an
acoustic
neuroma
, which is resting on your brain
stem.  It’s also impacting your facial nerve which is why you may have
felt shooting pains in your face and then numbness.

“There are
risks associated with removing the tumor because of the size and
position.  We can take two approaches: Try to remove the whole tumor surgically
or remove part of it and treat the rest with radiotherapy.  If we remove
the whole thing we risk damaging the facial nerve which could result in
permanent paralysis of the right side of your face and make your face droop, to
put it in layman’s terms.  We should be able to get around the facial
paralysis by preserving the facial nerve and we will work closely with an ENT
surgeon to do that. We would leave the part of the tumor that’s resting on the
nerve and deal with it afterwards using radiotherapy. Whichever approach we
take, you’re likely to lose the hearing in your right ear. How do you want us
to proceed?”

Daniel closed
his eyes.  He couldn’t believe this!  How did he want them to
proceed? What he wanted was to go to sleep and wake up and find that this was
all a dream. He could either die in the operation or, if he survived, he could
lose the hearing in his right ear and possibly have half his face
drooping!  What options were those?

He took a deep
breath. “I certainly don’t want my face drooping. Leave in part of the tumor
and treat it afterwards.  How long will the operation take and how long do
I have to do the radiotherapy, assuming I survive?”

“Your survival
chances are excellent, Mr. Tennant.  I’ve done this operation a number of
times successfully. The operation takes about 10 hours. Because of the size of
the tumor, we’ll need to make an incision in your skull to remove it, so we’ll
have to shave your hair in that area.  The trauma to your brain will cause
some swelling but once the swelling goes down we can begin the
radiotherapy.  That could be anywhere from 25 to 30 treatments. It’s
usually done from Monday to Friday for five to six weeks. You could be out of
commission for three to six months, depending on how quickly your body responds.”

“Three to six
months!” exclaimed Daniel.

“You’ll have to
learn to function again,” said the neurosurgeon seriously. “In addition to the
trauma to your brain, your balance will be affected which may feel like you’re on
a rocky boat for a while or you may experience dizziness, so you’ll need to do
exercises to improve your balance. You’ll also find that you’ve lost a lot of
your strength, especially after the radiotherapy and you may experience adverse
effects from that like nausea, hair loss and dryness in your mouth.  I’ll
make sure you have a brochure so that you’ll be aware of the symptoms and side
effects that you may experience.

 “I’ve
scheduled the operation for Wednesday morning if you’re in agreement.” Daniel nodded
vaguely.  “You’ll need to sign consent papers before then.  I’ll see
you in surgery.”

God! Why was
this happening to him? He knew that he wasn’t a saint, but there were a lot
worse people than him, who were walking around perfectly healthy. Why
him?  Why now? Was it only a week ago that his father came to see him to
make peace, as he put it, before he died?  At that time he never
considered that he was anywhere near death himself.  Maybe that was why
this was happening, to show him how it felt to know that death was just around
the corner.  What he did know, was that he wanted to avoid that particular
corner at all costs.

He needed to
see his team before surgery to make sure that things would run smoothly in his
absence, or worse case scenario, his death. He didn’t even want to go
there.  That just could not happen.  He reached for the telephone
next to the bed and called Margaret at the office.

“Hi, Margaret.
  I’m to have the surgery on Wednesday
morning so I need to see you and the rest of the team here later today or
tomorrow for a quick meeting.”

“OK,
Daniel.  I’ll arrange for the team to come tomorrow but I’ll see you
later.”

“Thanks
Margaret. Oh and Margaret, say some prayers for me.”

“Already on it,
Daniel,” replied Margaret.

Next day

Margaret
knocked on Daniel’s door, opened it a crack and stuck her head in.

“Ready to see us, Daniel?”

“Yeah Margaret.
  I’ve been waiting for you guys.”

The team filed
into the room feeling kind of awkward to see Daniel lying in bed.  It was
only a couple of weeks ago that he was leading them in the brainstorming
session and he had looked perfectly healthy. It made all of them very aware of
their own mortality.

“Hi Boss,” they
chorused.