“What shall we do, ma’am?”
She stared at her husband and rubbed his forearm. With moist eyes and with quivering lips, she whispered, “Let him be.”
Within twenty minutes, everyone in the hospital knew that Dr. Mark Harrison came to the Emergency Department dead on arrival. “Would you care to have an autopsy?” asked one of the emergency physicians.
She stared ahead for a few seconds before she answered, “No, we know his problem. Thank you.”
A week later, hospital administration would hold a memorial for Dr. Harrison in the hospital chapel. Dr. Jason Pollard, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine would be there. He would be one of those selected to give a eulogy. Having worked often with Dr. Harrison in the Emergency Department, Pollard could relate many examples of his dedicated and selfless care.
CHAPTER 3
Dr. Arnold Spann was another member of the Medical Executive Committee of Covenant Hospital. He was chairman of the Department of Orthopedics for the last fifteen years, and as a result served on the committee. He was nearing retirement from a very successful practice of orthopedics where he gained fame as one of the pioneers of joint replacement surgery. At five feet ten inches tall and weighing in at one hundred and seventy pounds—the exact weight of his college days—he still had the springy step of the outstanding collegiate baseball player he once was. He passed up a tryout for the Chicago Cubs in order to attend medical school. He was married with children and grandchildren and volunteered some of his time as an orthopedic surgeon in attendance at high school football games where his sons had played.
Dr. Spann arrived home from work late one evening. “Did you get my prescriptions?” his wife asked.
“Oh, damn, I forgot. I’ll go to Walgreen’s and get them now,” he said.
What Dr. Spann didn’t know was that there was a man close by in his car watching his house. A brisk summer rain had cooled the air, but the man kept the air-conditioner on to reduce the humidity that hung like a cloud over the Chicago evening. He liked the purity of the night air—the better to think. The night was his friend.
What a break. I can’t believe my good fortune. There’s the good doctor coming back out of the house and getting in his car. He’s alone. I’ll follow him. If conditions are right, tonight will be the night. I’ll slap on my beard and toupee. I didn’t think that my surveillance would be so short, but that’s why it pays to always be ready. I wonder where he’s going at this time of night? I’ll follow him from a comfortable distance. We’ll see. Okay, that’s it; the local shopping mall. They’re only open about another half hour. No one’s around. I’ll pull right alongside after he parks there and exits the car.
I’m sure he’ll be able to get whatever it is he’s getting pretty fast. I’ll just wait here as long as it takes for him to come back to his car. I got news for you, doctor…I’ll be waiting for you with my revolver…There he comes…“Dr. Spann.”
“Yes, who are you?”
“Never mind, doctor, see this gun and silencer. Don’t move. Don’t shout. Stay right behind the wheel. Any opposition and you are a dead man. I won’t hesitate to kill you on the spot. Is that clear.”
A startled doctor shook his head in disbelief. “What the hell is this?”
“Just walk into the back seat of my car. Hands behind your back. Now do it. Now! My finger’s itchy, doctor.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“I’m taking you to visit a friend.”
“A friend…who…what?
I’ll put these handcuffs on and strap on the seat belt. “We’re going for a short ride, doctor. Don’t piss me off or I’ll silence you right now. Understand? Keep your mouth shut. Get a whiff of this doctor. Hey, you’re pretty strong for an old guy, but not strong enough. Let’s see how long you can keep up that struggle. There you go. Out like a light.”
The traffic is light, doc. Let’s get you to my place. I’ll put him on the bed and get right to work. I thought about this one for a long time. This is going to be interesting. My little bug friends are ready and waiting. Okay, the spinal tap tray is ready. On his side, knees up, chin on chest. Pull him to the edge of the bed. Okay, good position. No need for any local anesthesia. Prominent spinous processes at L3-L4. Good intervertebral space. Needle and trochar in. Good shot. Trochar out. Spinal fluid clear, but not for long. Now I’ll just fill that syringe with my little bug friends and give them a place to set up shop. In you go guys. I think you’ll take right to your new environment. I know you’re hungry. What a treat I got for you, yum…all that good food. We’ll watch pathophysiology in action. I wonder how long it’ll take? The way you guys divide, it should be pretty fast. Just to screw things up, I think I’ll inject some of these bugs someplace unusual. Here, right near the rectum should do it. That’ll get the doctors hopping. I hope you enjoy your new experience doctor. You deserve it. You won’t know anything…that’s the bad part. I’ll keep you sleeping until I don’t have to anymore. Probably will take a few days. I’ll put a Texas catheter on you. As soon as the bugs have done their good deed and you’re terminal we’ll get you out of here. That shouldn’t take long. Two down now. We’re getting there. Say hello to Harrison for me.
CHAPTER 4
Dr. Jason Pollard arrived in the Emergency Department at 7:00 in the morning. Last week had been very busy. He hoped for a slower pace this week, as his medical students would be starting their clerkship. He took a short cut through the Emergency Department to get to his office adjacent to the rear entrance.
The hospital’s Emergency Department was the largest in the state. Shaped like a rectangle, there were ten rooms occupying each long arm of the rectangle and four rooms occupying one of the shorter arms. The other shorter arm included the patient and ambulance entrances, registration area, and waiting room. This made for a total of twenty-four rooms, each equipped to reflect their purpose. This number of rooms was necessary to handle the almost ninety thousand patients per year who sought Emergency Department services. Besides being the largest ED facility by volume, it also carried the largest patient census in the state. There was a nursing station in the shape of a smaller rectangle extending the full length of the center of the large rectangle. Here is where they kept supplies, nurses charted, physicians dictated their reports, and consulted on difficult cases.
As he walked to his office, he saw a nurse wave to him and call out, “Dr. Pollard, I have the paramedics on the line. They’re bringing in a bad one.”
Pollard reversed direction and went to the nursing station. “Stay on the line, Gail. Give me the other phone, please.” He had long ago learned to have a nurse listen in to medical conversations from paramedics. This saved time and facilitated the teamwork between doctor and nurse so necessary for good patient care. He placed the phone on his left ear and with pen in his right hand he said, “This is Dr. Pollard.”
“This is Betty, Dr. Pollard.”
He smiled. He liked Betty. She was new to the paramedic business and she reflected the kind of eagerness to learn that only reinforced his desire to teach. She was twenty-three years old, with short blond hair, a necessity in her new business. She was five foot eight inches tall, athletic, and nimble. A track star in high school, she was always the first one out of the ambulance, more often than not with a graceful leap.
“Good to hear from you, Betty. What have you got?”
“The police called us to see a man about sixty years old. They found him unconscious in his car off an expressway ramp. His wife reported him missing and it was about forty-eight hours before they found him. She told the police that her husband went out to the pharmacy to get her prescriptions, but he never came back. When we arrived at the scene, he was still in coma, and just after we transferred him into