David shook his head. “Without the antibiotic, the infection would have hit him like a fire storm. But believe me, don’t ask how I know this, call it a nightmare, the infection will still be strong. I’m praying the drug I gave him will keep the bacteria from raging out of control.”
“I’ve never heard anything like this.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like this. You think I didn’t realize I could go to jail if I gave him the Vancomycin?”
“You’re that sure of what you did?”
“I could have given him the Gentamicin and carbenicillin, too. But I knew they wouldn’t work on the staph and strep that’ll cause Matt’s infection.”
“How in God’s name did you know they wouldn’t work against staph and strep? You’ve been spending all your time reading medical texts?”
“No. I can’t explain it. I just knew. There’s one way to prove it, isn’t there? Wait till three o’clock-when Matt’s fever’s going to start.”
The doctor looked startled by David’s certainty. “I’m appalled by the risk you took. Disgusted by your irresponsibility.” He shook his head. “Why on earth am I starting to…? Don’t test my patience anymore. Get lost. I don’t want to see you till three o’clock. But listen carefully. If what you’re so sure about doesn’t happen, it’ll be my pleasure to testify against you.”
“Fair enough.”
“More than fair. If I didn’t like Matt so much…”
“That’s the point, though, isn’t it? Matt. He has to be saved.”
“And you don’t think we’ve been trying?”
“You and everyone else, you’ve acted perfectly. What you don’t understand is, something you never expected is about to happen.”
“What you don’t understand is, till three o’clock I want you out of my sight so I can pretend I didn’t find this syringe.”
“You don’t know how much I thank you.”
“Thanks? What you need now are prayers.”
“I’m praying, too, believe me.”
David staggered toward an exit.
12
David’s impulse was to rest in the rear of Donna’s mini-van in the parking ramp. But he feared he’d fall asleep and fail to wake up before three. He also worried that if the authorities started searching for him, a logical place to look would be his wife’s car. So he spent the interval pacing through the parking lot at the university’s football stadium two blocks away, pausing often to lean against cars and bolster his strength. He’d expected the hours to drag, but they passed with astonishing speed.
He returned to the Bone Marrow Ward five minutes before three. A crowd had gathered-the physician in charge of the ward, several associates and nurses, the doctor he’d argued with at noon, and Sarie and Donna. The medical personnel frowned as he approached.
David held his head up.
The physician in charge of the ward stepped forward. He kept his voice low to avoid disturbing the parents of the other patients. But his whisper might as well have been a shout. “What I’d like to do to you, you don’t want to hear.”
“In your place, I’d feel the same. Please, you’ve got to trust me.”
“Got to? The only thing I’ve got to do”-the doctor glared at his watch-“is phone the hospital attorney in a couple of minutes. We checked your son’s temperature just before you arrived. It’s perfectly normal.”
“It’s not three o’clock yet.”
“One minute to,” the doctor said.
“Then I guess it’s almost time you checked his temperature again.”
“My pleasure. So I can pick up that phone.” The physician spun and entered Matthew’s room.
David took two more steps, stopped before Sarie, and hugged her. “I’m sorry I tricked you.”
“Dad, I…” Tears trickled down her cheeks. “Why did…?”
“The simplest reason I can give, is I had to.” He turned to Donna. “Sweetheart, I know you must think I’m…”
Donna touched his arm. David felt as if a spark leaped through him. Her eyes had a depth that he’d never seen in them, except yesterday afternoon when he’d hugged her, after what felt like years instead of hours. Again he had the dismaying sense that she truly understood.
But how was that possible? If she’d come back, why hadn’t she given Matt the antibiotic? Doubt surged through him.
“Okay, it’s three o’clock,” the physician from the Pediatrics Ward said. “It’s time to prove I wasn’t a fool to listen to you.”
“Let’s go.”
13
They entered Matt’s room.
Matt’s flaccid pallid face was appalling. It took enormous effort for him to whisper, “Dad, what’s going on?”
“Don’t be afraid.”
“But they say you gave me…”
“All you have to know is I love you.”
The nurse slipped a plastic sleeve onto a metal tube. The tube was attached to a box that showed digital temperature readings. She slipped the sleeved tube into Matthew’s mouth. David sensed the anger and skepticism around him.
The box was timed to beep in three minutes.
The silence lengthened. The red numbers on the box kept changing, starting at zero and climbing toward…
The timer beeped.
“Absolutely normal,” a physician said, his tone a mixture of relief and indignation.
Normal? David thought. Matt should have started a temperature!
The doctor in charge of the ward braced his shoulders. “I’ve got a phone call to make.”
The physician from the Pediatrics Ward shook his head at David. “Looks like you’re not the medical expert you thought you were.” He didn’t add what David guessed he was thinking-And I was foolish to think you might impossibly be right.
“For what it’s worth,” David said, “you can’t know how glad I am to be wrong.”
“Dad, wrong about what?”
“My imagination got the better of me. Don’t worry. At least, no harm was done. You’re safe.”
“No harm?” the doctor in charge of the ward said. “Your imagination might have jeopardized his treatment. Your amateur medical practice is about to put you in-”
“Just wait a few more minutes.” David’s momentary doubt was suddenly replaced by a certainty that made him quiver.
“Wait for what? You’ve had all the time you deserve.”
“I just thought of something. If the antibiotics I gave him started to work, if they started to subdue the staph and strep-”
“Which we have absolutely no reason to assume will-”
“Matt’s temperature wouldn’t start to rise when I expected.”
“It won’t rise at all!”
“You don’t understand how strong the infection was.”
“Was? You mean how strong you think the infection might be.”
“Will be. The schedule’s been delayed,” David said. “Give me fifteen minutes more. Just to put me at ease before-”
“You’ve had all the leeway you’ll get!”
“I just took his temperature again,” a nurse said.
The doctor stared toward the numbers on the box.
“His temperature’s up.”
14
The ensuing events were so rapid the doctor didn’t have time to call the authorities. He and his staff were too busy working.
“My stomach,” Matt said. “It feels worse. I’m going to-”
Matt vomited. Not just vomited. Spewed.
The contents of his stomach shot to the end of the bed.
“My God,” Sarie said.
A nurse scrambled for a plastic basin. Another nurse grabbed for towels to clean away the vomit. Donna rushed to help her.
A doctor lunged for the cart beside the bed. Grabbing the syringes marked Gentamicin and carbenicillin, he injected them through Matt’s IV line.
“He’s already getting the Vancomycin,” the doctor in charge of the ward said. “With these others, we ought to be able to attack whatever infection he’s got.” He frowned toward David. “How the hell you knew this would happen…”