CHAPTER FIFTEEN O: THE ADJOURNMENT
The hearing officer opened the session by addressing Walter’s unexpected appearance.
She said the board would accept the work order for preliminary review but would not make findings about it until both parties had a fair chance to respond.
The center’s attorney requested a postponement.
Vanessa opposed a lengthy delay because my suspension had already lasted months.
The hearing officer proposed a short recess and asked the investigator to determine whether the work order could be authenticated promptly.
We waited in separate rooms while Walter answered questions about his inspection.
I sat beside Vanessa and watched rain gather on the window.
She told me the center might argue that the new work order made the original schedule less important.
I asked why anyone would do that.
She said parties sometimes focused on the newest evidence because it drew attention away from older decisions.
I told her both problems mattered.
She agreed and asked me to remember that during my testimony.
After the recess, the hearing officer said the parties could proceed with the scheduled witnesses.
Walter’s testimony would be considered separately after the center reviewed the work order.
The attorney objected to any implication that the center had knowingly used faulty equipment.
The hearing officer said no such finding had been made.
I appreciated the restraint even though I wanted someone to say plainly that the device should never have been used.
Pilar entered the room first.
She described the original staffing schedule and the request to replace it.
The center’s attorney asked whether she had ever made a scheduling error.
She said she had made ordinary corrections when staff called in sick or changed assignments.
He asked whether this could have been another correction.
She said it could not because the revised sheet placed Thomas in two rooms at the same time.
He asked whether she had a personal disagreement with the operations manager.
She said she had disagreed with him when he asked her to certify something she knew was false.
The hearing officer asked the attorney to move to his next question.
I watched Pilar straighten in her chair.
She had been afraid of this moment for months, but she did not raise her voice.
When she finished, she walked past me and touched the back of my chair for a second.
It was the smallest gesture of support I had received all week.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN P: THOMAS TAKES THE STAND
Thomas entered the hearing room with his work shirt buttoned to the collar.
He placed his phone on the table and swore to answer truthfully.
The board investigator asked where he had been assigned on the afternoon of the injury.
Thomas said he had worked in the west wing assisting a patient who required continuous monitoring.
He identified the original assignment board from his photograph.
The center’s attorney asked why he had taken the picture.
Thomas said he photographed the board at the start of every shift because the printed copies often disappeared during schedule changes.
The attorney asked whether he might have photographed an outdated assignment.
Thomas said the time displayed on the phone and the patient transport records showed he was in the west wing during the transfer.
The investigator asked whether Thomas had been asked to sign a revised schedule.
He said he had.
He described the supervisor telling him that the form was an administrative correction.
The attorney suggested Thomas had misunderstood the request.
Thomas answered that he understood the form placed him in a room he had never entered.
He said he refused to sign for that reason.
The attorney asked whether Thomas was angry about being moved to a different shift later that month.
Thomas said he was angry about being asked to lie, but the shift change had happened afterward.
The hearing officer asked him to explain the sequence clearly.
He did so without looking at me.
When Thomas finished, the center’s attorney asked whether he had seen the patient fall.
Thomas said he had not.
The attorney asked whether he could testify about my decisions inside the room.
Thomas said he could not.
Then he added that he could testify about where he was and where he was not.
The hearing officer thanked him for the clarification.
As Thomas left, I noticed his hands trembling around his phone.
He had answered every question without trying to make himself the hero of someone else’s story.
I thought about how easily the revised schedule had tried to turn him into a person who had been present when he was not.
