the realities that, for all intents and purposes, imprison us.
Institution-specific problems that augment the already difficult state
of health care in this city, county, state, and to some extent, the
entire country. I suggest that all of us work within a realistic
framework in order to keep this institution going at some level.”
“Some level?” said Kornblatt. “That sounds like more cuts a-comin’,
George. What’s next, another pogrom, like Psychiatry? Or radical
surgery on every division, like the rumors we’ve been hearing?”
“I really don’t think,” said Plumb, “that this is the right time to get
into that kind of detail.”
“Why not? It’s an open forum.”
“Because the facts simply aren’t available at present.”
“So you’re not denying there will be cuts, soon?”
“No, Daniel,” said Plumb, straightening and placing his hands behind
his back. “I couldn’t be honest and deny it. I’m neither denying nor
confirming, because to do either would be to perform a disservice to
you as well as to the institution. My reason for attending this
meeting was to pay respect to Dr. Ashmore and to express
solidarity-personal and institutional-with your well-intentioned
memorial for him. The political nature of the meeting was never made
clear to me and had I known I was intruding, I would have steered
clear. So please excuse that intrusion, right now-though if I’m not
mistaken, I do spot a few other Ph. D.”s out there.” He looked at me
briefly. “Good day.”
He gave a small wave and headed up the stairs.
Afro said, “George-Dr. Plumb?”
Plumb stopped and turned. “Yes, Dr. Runge?”
“We do-I’m sure I speak for all of us in saying this-we do appreciate
your presence.”
“Thank you, John.”
“Perhaps if this leads to greater communication between administration
and the professional staff, Dr. Ashmore’s death will have acquired a
tiny bit of meaning.”
“God willing, John,” said Plumb. “God willing.”
After Plumb left, the meeting lost its steam. Some of the doctors
stayed behind, clustering in small discussion groups, but most
disappeared. As I exited the auditorium I saw Stephanie coming down
the hall.
“Is it over?” she said, walking faster. “I got hung up.”
“Over and done. But you didn’t miss much. No one seemed to have much
to say about Ashmore. It started to evolve into a gripe session
against the administration. Then Plumb showed up and took the wind out
of the staffs sails by offering to do everything they were
demanding.”
“Like what?”
“Better security.” I told her the details, then recounted Plumb’s
exchange with Dan Kornblatt.
“On a brighter note,” she said, “we seem finally to have found
something physical on Cassie. Look here.”
She reached into her pocket and drew out a piece of paper.
Cassie’s name and hospital registration n”mber were at the top.
Below was a column of numbers.
“Fresh from this morning’s labs.”
She pointed to a number.
“Low sugar-hypoglycemia. Which could easily explain the grand mal,
Alex. There were no focal sites on the E.E.G and very little if any
wave abnormality-Bogner says it’s one of those profiles that’s open to
interpretation. I’m sure you know that happens all the time in kids.
So if we hadn’t found low sugar, we would have really been stumped.”
She pocketed the paper.
I said, “Hypoglycemia never showed up in her tests before did it?”
“No, and I checked for it each time. When you see seizures in a kid
you always look at sugar and calcium imbalance. The layman thinks of
hypoglycemia as something minor but in babies it can really trash their
nervous systems. Both times after her seizures, Cassie had normal
sugar, but I asked Cindy if she’d given her anything to drink before
she brought her into the E. R. and she said she had-juice or soda.
Reasonable thing to do-kid looks dehydrated, get some fluids in her.
But that, plus the time lag getting over here, could very well have
messed up the other labs. So in some sense it’s good she seized here
in the hospital and we were able to check her out right away.”
Any idea why her sugar’s low?”
She gave a grim look. “That’s’ the question, Alex. Severe
hypoglycemia with seizures is usually more common in infants than in