Hunting
for
Hippocrates
A Novel
Warren Stucki
© 2004 by Warren J. Stucki. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Stucki, Warren J., 1946-
Hunting for Hippocrates: a novel / by Warren Stucki.
p. cm.
ISBN: 0-86534-381-0
1. Trails (Murder)—Fiction. 2. Medical ethics—Fiction. 3. Physicians—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3619.T84H86 2003
813′.6—dc21 2003008008
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This book is dedicated to all the hard working men and women at Dixie Regional Medical Center. In no way does, or should, this book reflect on the competent, compassionate and professional health care they administer to the good people of Washington County.
And Jeremy Christensen, my son-in-law. Like our protagonist, he also is battling diabetes and in his own way, no less a hero.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to:
Alan Boyack, J.D. for guiding me through the confusing maze of courtroom procedure, jargon and nuances.
Scott Moesinger, M,D. and Vicki Noble, M.D. for keen insights into the invisible world of histo-pathology and tendering intriguing nuggets that helped mold the plot.
Judd Larowe, M.D. who assisted me in relearning the complexities of internal medicine, the ICU and critical care.
John Graff for helping me understand prisoners, prisons and prison life.
Mary Nieto and Jackie Murray, P.A., a special thanks. They were my tireless readers and gentle critics.
Linda Stucki, my wife and life’s companion, who also moonlights as a sounding board and a reader. And when necessary, my not so gentle critic.
Jim Smith, publisher and editor, for his patience, skill and friendship. With the hands of a surgeon, he slices through redundancy and mishmash to create a readable piece.
PROLOGUE
There was only one way to say it. Walter P. Maughn was an odd child. At birth he seemed fairly normal with dark straight hair, an unusually big head and a puffy, swollen face that bore more than a passing resemblance to a prize fighter on the losing end of ten rounds. The only thing that bordered on peculiar was his lack of the usual baby fat. Walter was definitely skinny, but otherwise a fairly nondescript baby with all the appropriate body parts.
As he matured, it was obvious he was going to be tall, in contrast to his parents, who were both compact and downright short. People speculated, in jest of course, as to Walter’s true lineage and it did not go unnoticed that the postman and milkman at the time, were both taller.
With his long gangly legs and arms, Walter seemed just slightly out of kilter. He wobbled and swayed when he walked, like the tires of an automobile with its front-end out of alignment. Like soaring birds, Walter’s arm span was enormous and appeared too long for his torso, eventually he developed a paunch, a beer belly, though Walter