“Thank you. That’s a real compliment coming from someone in his fourth year.”
“Despite what that medical resident said, don’t beat yourself up about Laney Chesney. Like the nurse said, we all have to take some blame. Hell, even me. I told her to get some sleep, and I’m the one who wanted the OB consult to come see me before going to her. That was an added delay.”
“You’re just trying to make me feel better.”
George sat quietly a moment, then looked up. “You’re right. But I’m beginning to think it wouldn’t have mattered even if she had been checked on by you or anyone else.”
Kelley looked at him, puzzled.
George looked around to make sure no one was listening in. Suddenly, in response to her honesty, he had the urge to be totally open with her. “I know this is going to sound a bit off the wall, but people are dropping like flies around me. I mean, I’m seriously beginning to think I’m the Grim Reaper.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re all very sick to begin with, don’t get me wrong. But they’re still dying before they should be.”
“I’m not following you.”
George counted on his fingers, “Kasey Lynch, Greg Tarkington, Claire Wong, Sal DeAngelis, and now Laney Chesney. Five people. My fiancée, my next-door neighbor, and three patients. My fiancée was three months ago, then the other four in the past three days.” He absentmindedly took Sal’s cell phone from his jacket pocket and set it on the table.
“Fiancée?” Kelley appeared dumbfounded. “Your fiancée died?”
“Unfortunately, yes. But I don’t mean to drop that on you.” He looked her in the eye. “As bad as that was, and believe me it was bad, it’s like these deaths are accelerating.” He paused, worried that he was coming off as a crazy. “I feel as if death has been following me around, and I should be doing something about it.”
“What can you possibly do?”
He shrugged. “It’s just a feeling I have.” He suddenly felt embarrassed, wondering what could have made him open up with someone he hardly knew but would like to get to know. “Sorry. Forget I said all that. The point I’m trying to make is that I might have had more to do with Laney’s death than anyone.”
Kelley looked at George skeptically. “Are you being serious?”
“I don’t know, to tell the truth. Anyway, don’t be too hard on yourself about Laney. I don’t think it was your fault in the slightest.”
Kelley looked at the smashed-up phone that he was twirling absently on the table. “Cracked your screen, I see. Did the same with mine, but not nearly that bad.”
George looked down. “No, this isn’t mine.” Earlier, with the help of a charging wire, he’d managed to get the screen to come on.
“I see it has the iDoc app.”
“Yeah, it does. Well, it did, anyway.”
“You seemed to know a lot about iDoc when we talked earlier.”
“I’ve been learning quite a bit. A crash course, you could say. For better or worse it’s going to play a big part of medical care in the near future. Medicine as we know it is going to change dramatically.”
“Really?” Kelley said. She straightened up in her chair. “I’d love to hear more about it.”
George gave her a five-minute summary of what he knew about iDoc. She seemed intrigued. Her eyes never left his face.
Just then the door to the lounge opened and a nurse stuck her head in. “Doctor Babcock, your presence is required in the emergency room.”
26
Clayton took the time to head back to the ER yet again, hoping he wasn’t calling too much attention to himself. Once more he was on a mission for Amalgamated, at the behest of Langley and secondarily Thorn. First it had been to try to locate the drug reservoir that had been implanted in Sal DeAngelis, which was a bust. Then it had been to gauge the general reaction to DeAngelis’s spectacular death, particularly from his neighbor who, by chance, happened to be Dr. George Wilson, which was ongoing. Now it was another death of an iDoc beta-test user, someone who was a Medicaid beneficiary, by the name of Laney Chesney. Clayton had recognized the name immediately, and unfortunately George Wilson was involved again.
The news of any problem with iDoc had bothered Clayton considerably. He had all his assets, including his entire IRA, tied up in the company. Inadvertent deaths with iDoc were the last thing he wanted to hear about. “Have you alerted the FDA about this problem?” Clayton had asked Thorn. Either yes or no had potentially bad implications, but Thorn had failed to answer.
Clayton reached the ER, which was as busy as he’d ever seen it. Holiday eve traffic had resulted in the expected mayhem. Six ambulances were lined up at the receiving dock, several still unloading their patients. Clayton made a beeline for the reading room, hoping to see George about the Chesney girl. He hadn’t decided exactly what he was going to say, but there was no George anyway.
Checking his watch, Clayton understood why and lambasted himself for not remembering the Thursday compulsory physics lecture for all the residents. So much for confronting George. Instead he went to the main desk to see Debbie. He knew she was officially off at three, but she was so conscientious, she was always around for another hour at least. Sure enough he found her sitting at the desk with the charge nurse on duty for the three-to-eleven shift. They were still going over the patients whose cases were pending.
Clayton interrupted the conversation and took Debbie aside. She was surprised and wary to see him. Clayton didn’t waste words: “I heard a young pregnant woman passed away here in the ER. I’m sorry, I know that’s tough on you and everybody else.”
“Bad news travels fast,” Debbie said, eyeing Clayton suspiciously.
“How did it happen?”
“Cardiac,” Debbie said. “The patient had a long history of progressive cardiomyopathy.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. But it’s my own damn fault. I dropped the ball. I should have been sending people down there to continuously monitor her when I realized that the OB resident couldn’t show up for several hours. But a lot of folks around here should have checked in with her without having to be told by me or by anybody. It’s standard freaking procedure, for God’s sake.”
Debbie paused and looked up at Clayton. “What’s this sudden sympathy? It’s not like you to come down here in the middle of the day, worried about my mental status.”
“Well, there is an ulterior motive. My understanding is that unfortunately George Wilson was again involved. I’m worried about his response, because the patient, like DeAngelis, was part of the iDoc beta test.”
“What the hell are you worried about? I don’t understand. Do you think he’s dangerous in some way?”
“Let’s just say that we don’t want any adverse publicity at this stage of the iDoc testing. He’s a smart guy. We need to know what he’s thinking in case some intervention is called for.”
“So you want me to sound him out about both Laney Chesney and Sal DeAngelis? Make sure he won’t make any waves? Is that what I’m hearing?”
“Always right on the money,” Clayton said. “Sharp as a tack! I knew I could count on you.”
“Wait a second. One condition. You and me. We start going out again.”
“Absolutely. I would want that even if you weren’t helping me with George Wilson,” Clayton lied. “You know that. I like you. It’s just that my ex-wife was giving me such problems, I had to back off for a bit. It’s better now. I know I mentioned this weekend. How about dinner at Spago Saturday night? Does that work for you?”