“Through the eyes?” Ruth didn’t understand. “For lobotomy?”
“Well, he isn’t using the access point regularly for lobotomy. But I think we can.”
“But, how can you . . .”
“We’ve been doing lobotomies for nearly a decade now. We understand where we need to be in the brain. Eddie could do them blind at this point. Not that he ever would.” Robert laughed, turning to Edward. “Perhaps you should try that first.”
“Robert, how can you joke?” Ruth admonished.
“I’m not joking, exactly. If we enter up through the eye socket—transorbitally—we would essentially be performing a lobotomy with no view of the brain. But we can do that, I think, because we know that part of the brain so well now. Plus, there is some margin for error. Right, Eddie?”
“Well.” He looked at Ruth, seeming a bit uncomfortable. “Robert believes that since none of the patients from whom we’ve taken samples have shown any difference in result from those who we haven’t, that if we weren’t perfectly precise in the transorbital approach, the patients wouldn’t suffer.”
“Samples?” Ruth sought confirmation.
“Yes, the live tissue we’ve periodically collected for our research has helped our progress tremendously.”
“Right, of course.” Ruth wasn’t certain she knew about this, but she assumed they had told her at some point, and she simply hadn’t thought to make a note of it. It was a common enough practice for patients to serve the double duty of research subjects. “So, what is the benefit of this new point of entry for lobotomy? How would it change anything?”
“If we can go up through the eye socket, we don’t need general anesthesia. I can simply knock people out with a few jolts of electroshock. No drilling into the skull. Minimal to no bleeding. No shaved hair. No stitches. Almost no recovery time. Lobotomy could become a simple office procedure.”
Ruth took a bite of her eggs and then turned to Edward. “Do you think this could work?” While Robert was a brilliant doctor, when it came to matters of neurosurgery, she trusted Edward more. He did not look nearly as sure.
“Frankly, I’m just beginning to wrap my arms around the concept. I can’t imagine I would feel comfortable performing a lobotomy outside of a hospital under any condition, but I do think that a transorbital approach might be more efficient—”
“Which would enable us to treat more patients!”
“If we can master the conditions in a hospital setting.”
“Details, details!”
“Boys!” Ruth laughed, standing from the table. “I am too tired for details. Please, let’s talk about it some more in the morning, okay?” And, with that, Ruth gave her husband a kiss and Edward a pat on his shoulder and went to bed.
Chapter Twenty
Ruth drove through the gate and up the gravel drive, feeling the tension in her body release at the smell of the salty air, overjoyed to be home. Now that they had moved full time to Magnolia Bluff, they had purchased a second car and often commuted to and from the city separately. She missed her drives with her husband, but with Robert spending entire days seeing psychiatric patients in his private office in the carriage house, and so busy with patients and lobotomies at the hospital that he sometimes didn’t come home until after midnight, it was simply impractical to travel together.
As Ruth approached the porte cochere, she saw a car parked at the far end of the circular driveway. Did Robert have a patient at the cottage? He had left the hospital hours before her and she was certain he hadn’t mentioned any patients in the afternoon. They were supposed to have dinner together. Work had been so all-encompassing lately she couldn’t remember the last time they had shared a proper meal. She felt low, and really needed a dose of Robert’s determination tonight. He was excellent at reminding her that things would be better for the men in their care than they had been for Harry.