Kim interrupted his patient’s breakfast long enough to check on the dressing and the amount of drainage. Everything was progressing on schedule.
“Are you sure I’ll be able to play golf?” Mr. Arnold asked.
“Absolutely,” Kim said. “You’ll be able to do whatever you want.”
After a few more minutes of banter, Kim took his leave. Unfortunately he ran into Gertrude Arnold on her way in.
“There you are, doctor,” Mrs. Arnold said. “I’m glad I caught you. I want a private-duty nurse in here around the clock, you hear?”
“What’s the problem?” Kim asked.
“The problem?” Mrs. Arnold echoed. “I’ll tell you what the problem is. The nurses on this floor are never available. Sometimes hours go by before we see one. And when Harvey rings his call button they take their sweet time.”
“I imagine that’s because they believe Mr. Arnold is doing well,” Kim explained. “And that they are devoting their time to patients who are not doing quite so well.”
“Now, don’t you start making excuses for them,” Mrs. Arnold said. “I want a nurse in here all the time.”
“I’ll have someone come to talk to you about it,” Kim said.
Momentarily mollified, Mrs. Arnold nodded. “Don’t make me wait too long.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Kim said.
Back at the nurses’ station Kim told the ward clerk to page the AmeriCare administrator and have him come up to talk to Mrs. Arnold. Kim couldn’t help smiling as he waited for the elevator. He would have loved to hear the conversation that would ensue. The idea of causing the AmeriCare administrators a little grief was enormously entertaining.
The elevator arrived and Kim squeezed on. It was remarkably crowded for a Sunday morning. Kim found himself pressed up against a tall, bony resident dressed in the typical “whites” and whose name tag read: JOHN MARKHAM, M.D., PEDIATRICS.
“Excuse me,” Kim said. “Are there any enteric viruses making the rounds these days in school-age kids?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” John said. “We’ve been seeing a pretty nasty strain of the flu, but it’s all respiratory. Why do you ask?”
“My daughter’s got a GI upset,” Kim said.
“What are the symptoms?” John asked.
“It started with cramps yesterday morning,” Kim said. “Then diarrhea. I’ve treated her with some over-the-counter antidiarrheal agents.”
“Has it helped?” John asked.
“I thought so at first,” Kim said. “But then last night the symptoms returned.”
“Any nausea and vomiting?”
“Some mild nausea but no vomiting. At least not yet, but she hasn’t had much appetite either.”
“Fever?”
“Nope, none at all,”
“Who’s her pediatrician?”
“It was George Turner. After the merger, he was forced to leave town.”
“I remember Dr. Turner,” John said. “I rotated over to the Samaritan. He was a good man.”
“For sure,” Kim said. “He’s now back in Boston at Children’s Hospital.”
“Our loss,” John said. “Anyway, about your daughter. It would be my guess she’s got a touch of food poisoning and not a virus.”
“Really?” Kim questioned. “I thought food poisoning generally came on like gangbusters. You know, like the proverbial staph in the picnic potato salad.”
“Not necessarily,” John said. “Food poisoning can be present in countless ways. But whatever the symptom complex, if your daughter has had acute onset diarrhea, chances are it’s food poisoning. Statistically it’s the most likely cause. To give you an idea of its prevalence, the CDC estimates there are two to three hundred million cases a year.
The elevator stopped and John disembarked.
“I hope your daughter feels better,” John said as the doors closed.
Kim shook his head. He turned to another resident. “Did you hear that? Two to three hundred million cases of food poisoning every year! That’s crazy!”
“That would mean that just about everyone in the entire country gets it each year,” the resident said.
“That can’t be true,” a nurse getting off duty said.
“I think it is,” another resident said. “Most people take the symptoms in stride and attribute it to the ‘stomach flu.’ Of course, there isn’t any such thing as the stomach flu.”
“It seems astounding,” Kim said. “It makes you think twice about eating out.”
“People get food poisoning in their own homes just as easily,” a woman from the back of the elevator said. “It comes from leftovers to a large degree, although inappropriate handling of raw chicken is another major source.”