Assumed Dead: A Monika Everhardt Mystery
"When the human head smashes through a windshield, it's not the multiple weave of lacerations criss-crossing the face that's life threatening, it's the damage you can't see. The skull stops on impact but the brain continues its trajectory and slams into the bony interior, leaving a cascade of destroyed brain tissue in its wake. Blood vessels swell, slowing and eventually cutting off the flow of oxygen to the brain. Without oxygen, the brain dies. Survival depends on the extent of the damage and how fast the swelling can be reduced. If the brain hits the skull with enough force, sooner or later-usually later-death follows."
After a John Doe arrives unconscious to the intensive care unit of St. Teresa's Hospital, head nurse Monika Everhardt learns he might be a man thought killed in NYC on 9/11. Monika tries to discover the man's identity "for his mother's sake."
At the same time a recently remarried widow is in a coma following a vicious beating, and her husband is suspected of attempting to murder her for her money. Monika thinks he's innocent but knows she's biased by his resemblance to her own husband's death recently on her mind after a trip to DC where she couldn't find his name on the Vietnam Wall.
Is the unidentified patient lying in intensive care the man assumed dead as his mother insists? As complications develop and both patients hover near death, Monika struggles to uncover the truth before her patients die.
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