Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 106150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
You should probably get more information before jumping to conclusions, Dayne.
Right.
I blew out a breath and summoned a smile. “Sorry,” I told Rowe. “I was just startled. Keep going. How’d you come up with the idea?”
Rowe looked confused for a moment before he recovered. “Okay, um. I told you how Daisy died—”
“You did. A softball to the chest,” I said gently, playing with his fingers. My heart hurt for him. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for him to experience such a traumatic loss.
He nodded and ran a hand through his hair, sending his adorable curls tumbling around his face. “The technical name for what happened is commotio cordis. It’s when a blow to the chest disrupts the heart rhythm. It’s pretty rare for someone to die of it because usually when someone performs CPR or the paramedics bring a defibrillator, they can get the heart back into normal rhythm. But that didn’t work with Daisy. We found out later she had a heart defect called dextrocardia—her heart was on the right side of her chest instead of the left. If the EMTs had known about it, they could have adapted the typical CPR position to accommodate that—”
“And they could have saved her?”
“I don’t know,” Rowe admitted. “Maybe? But better trauma response could save someone. There are a ton of emergency response situations that would benefit from a real-time assessment communication tool. If EMTs and physicians could communicate during the initial response and that critical time be used to make decisions about where to route a patient, imagine how much better the outcomes would be.”
“I can imagine,” I said grimly. It was one of the reasons I’d been so excited about the MRO project when Austin had first brought it to Sterling Chase. “Go on.”
“So, I was watching a rerun of an old medical drama about a similar situation when the idea came to me that there could be a data-secure mobile device— but maybe with a satellite connection, which would make it more useful in rural places like Linden that don’t have a lot of cell towers—that EMTs could use to access medical records but also communicate with the hospital in real time during the initial trauma response. And at first, I figured there had to be some reason that wouldn’t work because otherwise, someone else would’ve come up with the idea before I did, right? But then… well, I told you, I heard Daisy’s voice in my head, and I… I decided to look into it more. To develop it into an actual business plan.”
“Whoa. I know you said you had to teach yourself all kinds of stuff to get your project off the ground, but…” I shook my head in disbelief. “With no science background, no business background… The kind of process you’re talking about requires extensive research and knowledge of emergency response protocol, patient medical record data security, not to mention the GPS and mobile software integrations needed—”
“No shit.” Rowe’s ears were already red, and now the blush spread to his cheeks. “I didn’t do great in school—partly because of what happened with Daisy and partly because it just wasn’t my thing. But that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. When I’m passionate about something, I go all in, whether it’s interior design or reading dry medical journals with a dictionary app open on my phone.”
“You got caught up,” I whispered.
“Yeah, and I guess it’s not always a bad thing,” he said with a little smile. He pushed his free hand through his curls. “But, yes, I was way out of my comfort zone on this, and everyone I talked to knew it. Took me ages to get people to take me seriously because no one wanted to waste their time on what they figured was the equivalent of a little kid working on a science project.” He picked at the silver-studded side seam of his black uniform pants. “Eventually, though, I got through. I interviewed EMTs, firefighters, and dispatchers. I researched the existing dispatch software and the other technologies used in emergency response. I had sit-down meetings with emergency room administrators at two area hospitals and brought lunch to a group of trauma specialists to beg their thoughts and ideas on a system like this.”
I was impressed. The report Kenji had pulled together on Rowe Prince had indicated he’d been a mediocre high school student who hadn’t been on a college track, but I’d known already that was bullshit. Academic success wasn’t an indicator of career success… and I knew plenty of underemployed Yale grads to prove it.
“What did you come up with? A process or a software system?” The idea Austin brought to Sterling Chase had been both.
He stopped picking at the seam on his pants and leaned forward. The light from the window danced through his hair and lit up one side of his face as much as his passion for the subject lit up his eyes.