One of the women removed her ear piece as Marissa approached. “May I help you?”
“I’m one of the doctors from the CDC,” Marissa said warmly. “Do you know if any of my colleagues are here?”
“I don’t think so,” said the secretary, starting to rise. “I can ask Dr. Stewart. He’s in his office.”
“I’m right here,” said a big, burly man with a full beard. “And to answer your question, the CDC people are down on the third floor in our isolation wing.”
“Well, perhaps you can help me,” said Marissa, purposely avoiding introducing herself. “I’ve been looking into the Ebola outbreaks from the beginning, but unfortunately I was delayed getting to New York. I understand that the first case, a Dr. Mehta, has already died. Did you do a post?”
“Just this morning.”
“Would you mind if I asked a few questions?”
“I didn’t do the autopsy,” said Dr. Stewart. Then, turning to the secretary, he asked, “Helen, see if you can round up Curt.”
He led Marissa to a small office furnished with a modern desk and white Formica lab bench, holding a spanking new double-headed Zeiss binocular microscope.
“Did you know Dr. Mehta?” asked Marissa.
“Quite well,” said Stewart, shaking his head. “He was our medical director, and his death will be a great loss.” Stewart went on to describe Dr. Mehta’s contributions in establishing the Rosenberg Clinic and his enormous popularity among staff and patients alike.
“Do you know where he did his training?” asked Marissa. “I’m not certain where he went to medical school,” said Stewart. “I think it was in Bombay. But I know he did his residency in London. Why do you ask?”
“I was just curious if he was a foreign medical school graduate,” said Marissa.
“Does that make a difference?” asked Stewart, frowning.
“It might,” said Marissa vaguely. “Are there a large percentage of foreign medical school graduates on staff here?”
“Of course,” said Stewart. “All HMOs started by hiring a large proportion of foreign medical graduates. American graduates wanted private practice. But that’s changed. These days we can recruit directly from the top residencies.”
The door opened and a young man came in.
“This is Curt Vandermay,” said Stewart.
Reluctantly, Marissa gave her own name.
“Dr. Blumenthal has some questions about the autopsy,” explained Dr. Stewart. He pulled a chair away from his microscope bench for Dr. Vandermay, who sat down and gracefully crossed his legs.
“We haven’t processed the sections yet,” explained Dr. Vandermay. “So I hope the gross results will do.”
“Actually, I’m interested in your external exam,” said Marissa. “Were there any abnormalities?”
“For sure,” said Dr. Vandermay. “The man had extensive hemorrhagic lesions in his skin.”
“What about trauma?” asked Marissa.
“How did you guess?” said Dr. Vandermay, surprised. “He had a broken nose. I’d forgotten about that.”
“How old?” asked Marissa.
“A week, ten days. Somewhere in that range.”
“Did the chart mention a cause?”
“To tell the truth, I didn’t look,” said Dr. Vandermay. “Knowing
the man died of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever took precedence. I didn’t give the broken nose a lot of thought.”
“I understand,” said Marissa. “What about the chart? I assume it’s here in pathology. Can I see it?”
“By all means,” said Vandermay. He stood up. “Why don’t you come down to the autopsy area. I have some Polaroids of the broken nose, if you’d like to see them.”
“Please,” said Marissa.
Stewart excused himself, saying he had a meeting to attend, and Marissa followed Vandermay as he explained that the body had been disinfected and then double-bagged in special receptacles to avoid contamination. The family had requested that the body be shipped home to India, but that permission had been refused. Marissa could understand why.
The chart wasn’t as complete as Marissa would have liked, but there was reference to the broken nose. It had been set by one of Dr. Mehta’s colleagues, an ENT surgeon. Marissa also learned that Dr. Mehta was an ENT surgeon himself, a terrifying fact given the way the epidemic had spread in the previous outbreaks. As far as the cause of the broken nose was concerned, there was nothing.
Vandermay suggested that they phone the man who set it. While he put through the call, Marissa went through the rest of the chart. Dr. Mehta had no history of recent travel, exposure to animals or connection to any of the other Ebola outbreaks.