A Case of Need Study Guide

John Berry is in the pathology lab when Frank Conway enters, throwing a tantrum over having lost a patient on the operating table. John says that Conway's mortality rate is very low, and that's the reason his theatrics are tolerated. Conway notes that Mrs. McPherson died during heart surgery, that he massaged for thirty-five minutes with no results, and that he doesn't know how to tell her four children. He says he should have been a dermatologist because they never lose a patient. He arranges for an autopsy table that night, and departs. John notes that Conway always does his own autopsies late at night, as if to punish himself, and that some said he giggled while performing them while others said he cried, but no one knew. (read more)