Medical Error by Richard L. Mabry, M.D.

Medical Error by Richard L. Mabry, M.D. ISBN-13: 978-1-4267-1000-1 Trade Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Abingdon Press Released: Sept. 2010

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Dr. Anna McIntyre’s life was going along just fine until someone else started living it.

Her patient died because of an identity mix-up; her medical career is in jeopardy because of forged prescriptions; and her credit is in ruins. She thought things couldn’t get worse, but that was before she opened the envelope and saw a positive HIV test with her name on it.

Her allies are two men who are also competing for her affection. Dr. Nick Valentine is a cynic who carries a load of guilt. Attorney Ross Donovan is a recovering alcoholic. The deeper Anna digs to discover who’s behind the identity thefts the higher the stakes. Finally, when her life is on the line, Anna finds that her determination to clear her name might have been a prescription for trouble.


My Review:
Medical Error is a well-written medical suspense novel with a romance. (While the culprit was unknown and was on my suspect list as someone who could have done it, there weren't enough clues to narrow it down to a specific name unless I missed something.) The suspense was created mainly by wondering what was going to go wrong next, but there was also physical danger to the characters near the end.

The characters were engaging, complex, and acted in realistic ways. The details about the job and setting brought the story alive in my imagination without slowing the fast pacing.

Anna was a Christian, but her main romantic interest felt he'd done something God wouldn't forgive. There were several comments made about God that occurred briefly and naturally in the conversation.

There was no sex and no bad language. Overall, I'd highly recommend this well-written and suspenseful novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
Eric Hatley’s last day alive began routinely enough.

He paused beside his brown delivery truck, shifted the bulky package, and turned in a tight circle to search for the right apartment.

Shouts filled the air. Firecrackers exploded all around him. A dozen red-hot pokers bored holes through his gut.

The package flew from his arms. He crumpled into a privet hedge at the edge of the sidewalk, clutching his midsection and recoiling when his fingers encountered something wet and slimy.

A wave of nausea swept over him. Cold sweat engulfed him.

Eric managed one strangled cry before everything faded to black.

***

Dr. Anna McIntyre bumped the swinging door with her hip and backed into Parkland Hospital’s Operating Room Six, her dripping hands held in front of her, palms inward. "Luc, tell me what you’ve got."

Chief surgical resident, Dr. Luc Nguyn, didn’t look up from the rectangle of abdomen outlined by green draping sheets and illuminated by strong surgical lights. "UPS driver, making a delivery in the Projects. Got caught in the crossfire of a gang rumble. Took four bullets in the belly. Pretty shocky by the time he got here."

"Find the bleeding source?"

"Most of it was from the gastric artery. Just finished tying it off."

Anna took a sterile towel from the scrub nurse and began the ritual of gowning and gloving made automatic by countless repetitions. "How about fluids and blood replacement?"

Luc held out his hand, and the nurse slapped a clamp into it. “Lactated Ringer’s still running wide open. We’ve already pushed one unit of unmatched O negative. He’s finishing his first unit of cross-matched blood. We’ve got another one ready and four more holding in the the blood bank."

"How’s he responding?"

"BP is still low but stable, pulse is slower. I think we’re catching up with the blood loss."

Read more of chapter one.