Page 278 - Demo

278They were in the operating theatre. All, except Cecil. He always preferred to speak to the patient to allay any fears while they were given a pre-med. He normally came in as a nurse pushed the patient in behind him on a trolley. But this time, he came in alone.%u201cHenry. I don%u2019t want Matilda fully anesthetised,%u201d Cecil told him. %u201cIn the pre-med I gave her a dose of Ketamine and some LSD. I want you to give her a heavy dose of Nitrous Oxide.%u201d%u201cEntonox?%u201d Henry asked.%u201cNo. Not quite. Lower the dose of oxygen with the active Nitrous Oxide. I want her to go in and out of wakefulness, and to experience nightmares, throughout. And I want the pain to seep through to drive her conscious experience, too.%u201d%u201cWhat? If we%u2019re not careful monitoring the mix, we could end up killing her. It seems to me, a very cruel thing to do. She%u2019ll really suffer. Why?%u201d%u201cNo matter what we do here today, she%u2019ll still try to eat like a rhino. We can fix her body but we also need to fix her head. We need to associate a terrible experience that stays with her for years, with her thought of food and her strong desire to eat too much. We will break her addiction.%u201dHenry thought about it and saw the logic in it. %u201cWhy the LSD?%u201d%u201cSo that if she faintly realises she has been sexually abused and tries to relate it, we can say it was the effect of a trial with a new mix of anaesthetic; one that reduced the risk of death by lowering life signs.%u201dHenry got his idea. There was just one thing, %u201cUm... sexual abuse?%u201dCecil smiled. %u201cI thought we would test everyone%u2019s fortitude under The SurgeonChapter 2: A Whale Of A Time