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Hector nodded again.
“He knew we were submitting the paper soon. He alerted his contact at the journal, and the request to change authorship to me was made without my knowledge.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better, Hector? That you didn’t want your name listed as PI? Because it doesn’t. You should have requested a correction.”
“I couldn’t. My hands were tied.”
“That’s convenient—”
“Please, Carolina. Hear me out. I think you’ll be glad you did.”
I tried to relax my muscles a bit, but the tense situation made it difficult. “Go on.”
“The night before the article would be uploaded to the journal website, I was paged to the hospital. When I got there, they told me to report to the chief’s office, and he told me what he had done.
“I told him I would request the correction, but he ordered me not to. He had leverage over me at the time, and my hands were tied. Believe me, Carolina. If I could have fought it, I would have. We had a heated conversation, and I gave him an ultimatum. Either the authorship would be corrected, or I would end my contract at Heartland Metro.”
“He told me your contract was over at the conclusion of my trial,” I said.
“It wasn’t. I had an ongoing contract, but I had the prerogative to end it whenever I wanted. It was one of the perks of being in that position.” His ego reared its head.
“Don’t get so cocky, Doctor. Don’t forget that he chose to keep the authorship in your name instead of keeping you.”
“Touché,” he said.
“What I don’t understand is why did he do it?”
“I have my theories, but it’s probably better that you talk with him directly.”
“Chief Stuart is no longer at Heartland. He retired a couple of years back.”
“Yes, I know. Once he retired, I requested the correction in the journal of medicine.”
“That was you?” I asked, my heart quickening in pace. He had fixed it. All this time, I had no idea why, years later, the journal had reached out to me with the correction. Did Hector think I was going to thank him for doing the very least he could have done?
I shrugged. “But I’d still like to hear your theories about why Dr. Stuart did it.”
“All right. Do you remember when the results first came in? A doctor from Peak View in California was interested in you?”
“Yes. I remember. I turned their offer down.”
“They didn’t pull it?”
“No, why?”
“The chief wasn’t too happy about the attention you were getting. When Peak View expressed interest, the chief perked up. He couldn’t afford to lose you, but he couldn’t afford a hefty competing offer while at the same time offering Dr. Keach the fellowship and an attending position.”
“He was always going to have to make that choice.”
“Yes. But was Heartland’s offer even close to Peak View’s?”
“Initially, it was, but it was conditional on the retirement of an attending who would leave the spot open.”
“Did it change after the article was published?”
“Yes. It went quite a bit down.”
“And I bet you had already turned down all other offers, thinking you had the luxury of staying in your hometown.”
