every patient’s chart implicated in this outbreak?” Joelle asked.
“Bill talked with Pamela,” Danny said. “This should be it.”
“Okay, let’s first look at the folks who have had spinal taps and MRI’s.” Joelle’s silver earrings swayed as she moved quickly rearranging the charts closer. “Do you concur, Dr. Halbrow?”
“Good start,” he said.
When they pulled out a total of four spinal tap results, Danny lined up two MRI results behind them.
Dr. Halbrow pointed a stubby finger at a notebook. “We have to start a chart,” his southern drawl rang out. “And Mr. Hospital President, I’m going to start pinning on that bulletin board over there.”
Robert Madden overlooked the fact that he was the CEO and had a name, but even he couldn’t keep names straight. This was a group of professionals thrown together at the last minute and if this outbreak wasn’t contained quickly, his hospital’s name would be widely known soon, but not in a good way. “Be my guest,” he said politely to the CDC representative.
“If I can interject,” Danny said. “Substantial diagnostic evidence that we’re dealing with meningoencephalitis is right here. We now have two MRI results looking similar - Harold Jackowitz, a neurosurgeon and my partner, and Lucy Talbot, an anesthesiologist who works only at this hospital.” Danny briefly paused as Ralph wrote up columns. He had definitely done something like this before.
“What is their present condition?” Joelle asked.
“Dr. Jackowitz is in a coma.”
Dr. Paltrow leaned in, his right hand still resting on his cane. “And Dr. Lucy Talbot has succumbed to a coma as of this morning.”
Danny gulped. Time stood still and his heart sank. She looked terrible in the ER the day before. He wasn’t surprised she’d slid into unconsciousness, yet anger and sadness tangled with his mind at the same time. They had to get Lucy back, and Harold as well. Whatever this malevolent infectious organism was, it had to be identified and stopped.
Joelle broke into all their thoughts. “Spinal taps,” she said. She took four stapled sets of lab sheets. “All four of these are similar but not the same. Proteins up, white blood cells vary but mostly elevated, and glucose either normal or decreased. All look like they concur with our MRI findings that a meningitis and or an encephalitis is at work.”
Ralph began making a new column and filled in the two new patient’s names besides the neurosurgeon and anesthesiologist as Pamela Albrink added, “These two other positive spinal tap patients, Dotty Jackson and James, are both nurses in the operating room.”
“We have to link the patients together as well as find the original source and organism,” Joelle said. “Danny, what was your colleague’s schedule recently, right before he got sick?”
“He started feeling poorly sometime midweek. He was on call Sunday, I did one of his left over call surgeries Monday morning plus my own, and he covered my hospital rounds on Tuesday morning. We kind-of flip flopped patients.”
“Pamela,” Joelle said, “check nursing’s OR schedules and find out when Dotty and James were working over the last week and a half.”
“I’ll do it right after our meeting,” Pamela said.
“Let me call the OR right now,” Danny said. “I’ll ask the anesthesiologist on call what Dr. Talbot’s schedule was recently as well.” When Danny called from a desk phone outside the room, he lucked out. The doc doing a case had his monthly department’s schedule in his back pocket and rattled off Lucy’s working days.
Danny hurried back, taking his spot between Joelle and Ralph. “She worked last Sunday, the seven-to-three shift. She was the back-up doc to the main anesthesiologist call doc. And she worked on Monday seven to three, which is when she did my cases.”
“Okay, y’all,” Ralph said. “We’ve hit cheese grits. We’ve got a match of Harold and Lucy working on
“Bill talked with Pamela,” Danny said. “This should be it.”
“Okay, let’s first look at the folks who have had spinal taps and MRI’s.” Joelle’s silver earrings swayed as she moved quickly rearranging the charts closer. “Do you concur, Dr. Halbrow?”
“Good start,” he said.
When they pulled out a total of four spinal tap results, Danny lined up two MRI results behind them.
Dr. Halbrow pointed a stubby finger at a notebook. “We have to start a chart,” his southern drawl rang out. “And Mr. Hospital President, I’m going to start pinning on that bulletin board over there.”
Robert Madden overlooked the fact that he was the CEO and had a name, but even he couldn’t keep names straight. This was a group of professionals thrown together at the last minute and if this outbreak wasn’t contained quickly, his hospital’s name would be widely known soon, but not in a good way. “Be my guest,” he said politely to the CDC representative.
“If I can interject,” Danny said. “Substantial diagnostic evidence that we’re dealing with meningoencephalitis is right here. We now have two MRI results looking similar - Harold Jackowitz, a neurosurgeon and my partner, and Lucy Talbot, an anesthesiologist who works only at this hospital.” Danny briefly paused as Ralph wrote up columns. He had definitely done something like this before.
“What is their present condition?” Joelle asked.
“Dr. Jackowitz is in a coma.”
Dr. Paltrow leaned in, his right hand still resting on his cane. “And Dr. Lucy Talbot has succumbed to a coma as of this morning.”
Danny gulped. Time stood still and his heart sank. She looked terrible in the ER the day before. He wasn’t surprised she’d slid into unconsciousness, yet anger and sadness tangled with his mind at the same time. They had to get Lucy back, and Harold as well. Whatever this malevolent infectious organism was, it had to be identified and stopped.
Joelle broke into all their thoughts. “Spinal taps,” she said. She took four stapled sets of lab sheets. “All four of these are similar but not the same. Proteins up, white blood cells vary but mostly elevated, and glucose either normal or decreased. All look like they concur with our MRI findings that a meningitis and or an encephalitis is at work.”
Ralph began making a new column and filled in the two new patient’s names besides the neurosurgeon and anesthesiologist as Pamela Albrink added, “These two other positive spinal tap patients, Dotty Jackson and James, are both nurses in the operating room.”
“We have to link the patients together as well as find the original source and organism,” Joelle said. “Danny, what was your colleague’s schedule recently, right before he got sick?”
“He started feeling poorly sometime midweek. He was on call Sunday, I did one of his left over call surgeries Monday morning plus my own, and he covered my hospital rounds on Tuesday morning. We kind-of flip flopped patients.”
“Pamela,” Joelle said, “check nursing’s OR schedules and find out when Dotty and James were working over the last week and a half.”
“I’ll do it right after our meeting,” Pamela said.
“Let me call the OR right now,” Danny said. “I’ll ask the anesthesiologist on call what Dr. Talbot’s schedule was recently as well.” When Danny called from a desk phone outside the room, he lucked out. The doc doing a case had his monthly department’s schedule in his back pocket and rattled off Lucy’s working days.
Danny hurried back, taking his spot between Joelle and Ralph. “She worked last Sunday, the seven-to-three shift. She was the back-up doc to the main anesthesiologist call doc. And she worked on Monday seven to three, which is when she did my cases.”
“Okay, y’all,” Ralph said. “We’ve hit cheese grits. We’ve got a match of Harold and Lucy working on
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