Dr. Lambert nodded. “I’m sorry about Mr. Moore. Was he a friend?”
Lexi shook her head, tears threatening to flow again. Crap. “No. I’d never met him before bringing him in the other night.”
Whether she wanted them to or not, the tears made another appearance. She wiped them away with the heel of her hand. She wasn’t sure why Wayne’s death was hitting her so hard.
Dr. Lambert gave her an understanding smile. “It’s okay. You don’t have to try to hide the fact that you have a heart and care about the people you rescue. I only talked to Mr. Moore once while I was taking a group of residents on a rotation, but he seemed like a very nice man. Someone should mourn the loss of a person like that.”
Lexi nodded, not trusting herself to speak right then. She could see why the hospital had put Dr. Lambert in charge of training the next generation of doctors. He clearly cared about the people he’d taken an oath to heal.
“How could this have happened?” she asked, wondering if she and Trent had missed something when they’d treated Wayne. “His pulse and blood pressure were slightly elevated when my partner and I brought him in, but nothing serious.”
Dr. Lambert shook his head. “There was nothing in any of the initial screening work that indicated a problem either. It was a surprise to us when Mr. Moore’s heart gave out during the night, but he was in his seventies, so it isn’t unusual. Especially after what he’d been through. The stress of the fire, the concussion, and his anxiety over what he was going to do next now that his home was gone were probably too much for him.”
Lexi frowned. “Wayne couldn’t be revived?”
“Unfortunately, no. Dr. Patton did everything he could, but he couldn’t save him.”
Lexi sighed. Poor Wayne had no one in his life to miss him or mourn him, except for them. It made Lexi realize more than ever the importance of friends and family, and about surrounding yourself with people you loved and who loved you in return. The time she and Dane had spent together last night seemed even more special.
