A Routine Procedure

Horror - Part of the TIF 'Eye See You' Friday the 13th Event

Photo by Bruno Kelzer on Unsplash

This story is part of the TIF ‘Eye See You’ Friday 13th event. You can read all the other terrifying and spooky stories here: EYE SEE YOU

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Dr. Richard Talbot, head surgeon at Acacia General Hospital walked backwards through the swinging surgery doors, palms raised to his temples, gloves suctioned tight over ten fat fingers. Rain hammered against the hospital roof, a loose tin slat warbling along with the howl of the wind and the deep rumble of thunder as it rolled towards the city. The lights flickered in the theatre, but did not go out. Newly graduated Perioperative Nurse Clara, attending her first surgical assist, stood beside the table, organising the trolley lined with shiny surgical tools, tubes and cotton gauze.

His regular patient, Ms. Temperance Price, a rotund woman of approximately sixty years, was prepped and laid out on the operating table, shiny red toenails poking out from underneath the surgical cloth. Ms. Price had scheduled an impromptu mani-pedi two days prior to what she was advised would be a routine procedure. She had, for the past three months, complained of a bowel obstruction and what she described as a gnawing pain which rendered her unable to roll her pink glitter ball with usual precision in her weekly round of lawn bowls. The preliminary diagnosis was gastric polyps (with a long-term sequelae of hypochondria), with Dr. Talbot’s final diagnosis to be reserved until further endoscopic exploration.

Dr. Talbot peered up over his mask at the looming silhouette of Perioperative Nurse Clara standing on the periphery of the overhead lamp light.

“Shall we get started?”

The television bolted to the theatre wall flickered on and off before casting the cavernous image of Ms. Price’s slick pink throat onto the fifty-inch screen. With careful precision, Dr. Talbot began to slide the long thin tube down her esophagus, his eyes glued to the live video. The theatre was pin-drop quiet under the muffled splatter of rain, heart monitor beeping steadily. Perioperative Nurse Clara stepped into the pool of white light, watching with curiosity as the camera inched down the narrow tunnel and illuminated Ms. Price’s stomach cavity- a pink balloon with lightning-shaped veins. The image flickered in and out of focus.

“Esophagus is clear. Patient described a feeling of fullness in her abdomen, pressure extending under the rib cage, limited mobility when bending at the waist and infrequent bowel movements. CT scan indicated three egg-shaped masses in the stomach. Let’s see what we can find.”

The endoscope twisted, the image on screen becoming pixelated. Dr. Talbot realigned the tube, and scanned the surrounding area, coming to a stop in front of a pink nodule, the colour of uncooked chicken thigh, poking up from the stomach lining, not more than a millimeter in size.

“Ah, as expected,” Dr. Talbot said, a rumble of thunder rolling closer, “this looks to be a benign polyp, but let’s extract a sample for a biopsy. Nurse, loop please.”

Perioperative Nurse Clara reached for the silver looped tool, her elbow brushing an empty sample cup as she turned, sending it clattering onto the floor. Dr. Talbot blinked at her and held his hand out. The tool was passed through the tube, and looped around the thin stem of the polyp, the silver wire holding it in place as Dr. Talbot made quick work of the biopsy sample, handing it to her to store safely in a pre-labelled tube.

“The CT scan showed the masses located in the upper left quadrant of the stomach.”

Dr. Talbot continued, the camera panning left, snaking over foothills of pink bubbling tissue.

“Now this is interesting.”

He paused, the camera focused on a fleshy sack, the shape of a deflated balloon, blood pooling out from the jagged slit along the side. Perioperative Nurse Clara was ready with the forceps. She stepped closer, the rain overhead now a roar. Dr. Talbot tugged at the sack, turning it over to inspect the veiny outer casing, using the saw-toothed pincers to pry back the top layer. Inside was a pool of blood and a mass of ground up raw tissue, bite marks along the inner walls.

“This is very interesting.”

“What is it, Doctor Talbot?”

“I am not entirely sure.”

He panned the camera further to the left, the image flickering as a clap of thunder boomed overhead. Perioperative Nurse Clara jumped, knocking the trolley of instruments.

“No need to be startled, I am sure-”

Dr. Talbot paused. He adjusted the camera, tilting it up slightly to get a clearer image of two egg-shaped bulbs attached to the left side of Ms. Price’s stomach lining, mottled red, purple-blue veins pulsating over the outer casing.

“What on Earth?”

The image on the screen in front of them flickered again. Dr. Talbot gripped the endoscope tighter as it began to shudder in his hand. A shadow crept rapidly across the right side of the screen.

A malformed marbled blob, approximately three centimeters in diameter, the colour and texture of sandstone, rolled into view and stopped in front of the camera. Tufts of coarse ginger hair sprouted straight up from the left side, a cluster of ivory molars in a horizontal half-moon rising like jagged mountains from the right, bloody sinew trailing behind.

The thing, for want of a better description, began to vibrate, jostling from side to side until a slit formed at the topmost point, fleshy mounds pulling away to reveal a small, red-rimmed eyeball rolling upwards- a thick black pupil surrounded by an icy blue iris.

Perioperative Nurse Clara, despite her recent training, gasped. Dr. Talbot remained steady, holding the endoscope in position. The eye darted, zigzagging wildly until it locked onto the camera before flipping backwards and rolling, teeth over eye, out of view.

Dr. Talbot followed, swinging the camera around, searching the plush pink landscape for the anomaly. It took a 180 turn before the image on the screen showed movement in the upper corner. The thing, back turned to the camera, was bobbing and pushing up against the stomach wall, a puddle of blood accumulating in the surrounding tissue.

“Doctor, it’s ripped right into the stomach lining.” Perioperative Nurse Clara said, pointing up at the screen. The thing’s molars making pulp of Ms. Price’s stomach. The monitor beeped, Ms. Price’s heart rate rising.

“Quite right. That explains the patient’s description of gnawing pain. I will attempt to contain the anomaly.”

Dr. Talbot thrust the forceps forward, clamping onto the thing’s bulbous side. It jerked, twisting around, eyeball wide and searching. The forceps slipped, pinching off a slither of flesh, beads of blood appearing over the raw rectangular wound. The cold blue eye flicked up and down, the thing shivered, rolling back, out of reach of the endoscope. Thunder crashed overhead, the lights dimmed, the image on screen blacking out before flashing back up, the thing no longer in view.

“What is it?” Perioperative Nurse Clara asked, hugging her arms to her chest.

“Well, it appears to be a mature Teratoma, but I have never in my life seen anything like this.”

He turned the camera again, scanning Ms. Price’s stomach cavity. The thing was nestled in between the two egg-shaped sacks, orange whisps peeking out revealing its hiding place. Dr. Talbot inched the forceps forward, clasping onto the stringy sinew curling out from the bottom of the thing and yanking it forward. It flipped, falling onto its back, iris frantically flipping from side to side. The thing squirmed as Dr. Talbot dragged it across the stomach lining. He slid the looping tool back down the tube and hooked onto its hard, rounded side, holding the thing down before clamping down with the forceps and inching the thing back up the esophagus.

Perioperative Nurse Clara watched, gloved hand covering her mouth as the mottled malformation was eased up the pink tunnel, the stark white surgery lights illuminating Ms. Price’s mouth as Dr. Talbot popped the thing up over her tongue and onto the cold steel kidney tray she was holding as far away from her body as her arms would allow.

The lights flickered, the storm worsening, rain lashing the roof. As she looked at the monstrous formation, it twitched, the eye swiveling slowly upwards to meet her gaze. A loud crack of thunder above her made Perioperative Nurse Clara yelp and she dropped the tray, the thing tumbling to the floor and rolling towards her.

In complete opposition to her medical training, she instinctively lifted her foot and stomped down hard on the cyclopean creature with a sickening squelch.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” She said, peeling her white sneaker off the pink and orange mess on the floor, “we probably needed that for testing.”

Dr. Talbot grimaced. “Yes, but I dare say we will find enough to test in the two remaining sacks.”

The surgery lamp went out, plunging the theatre into darkness aside from the glowing red numbers and lights on the heart monitor now returned to a regular pattern of beeping. The lamp stuttered back on a few seconds later, much to the relief of Perioperative Nurse Clara who was clutching the bottom of her surgical gown in her white-knuckled hand.

“Shall we finish up here before the storm gets any worse?”

Perioperative Nurse Clara nodded gratefully.

When Ms. Temperance Price awoke in the recovery room, feeling more than a little tender in her abdomen, she enquired as to the outcome of the procedure. Perioperative Nurse Clara, committed to the highest level of professionalism, informed her that, although they would need to schedule a follow up surgical procedure for her, everything had gone according to plan, the obstruction had been removed and it was, everything considered, a perfectly routine procedure.