Judgment Day
A deadly disease is spreading through Trenton, New Jersey and the NIH team is called in to investigate. Miles/Eva romance. There is tragedy for the team both collectively and individually. My first Medical Investigation fic. Please review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Medical Investigation. There, I said it, let's move on. All of the medical information is from the official CDC website.
Chapter 1: The Trenton Flu
It was 9:00 am on a Monday morning. Stephen Connor sat at his desk, thumbing through a bunch of old case files. Miles McCabe sat in the boardroom, catching up on the latest medical journals. Eva Rossi and Natalie Durant sat, chatting animatedly over coffee. Frank Powell was re-stocking an investigation kit in his office. The start-of-the-week silence was broken by the shrill cry of the telephone. Stephen's head snapped up and he reached for the receiver.
"Connor," he stated.
"This is Dr. Madison Daniels from Caritas Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey. There's been an outbreak of an influenza-like virus. I wanted to fax you the details and get your opinion," she explained without preamble.
"Send the fax, I'll look over it and get back to you," Steven agreed.
"Thanks. Bye," Dr. Daniels replied.
They hung up and Connor turned around to the fax machine. He grabbed the printout just as it came out of the printer and scanned it over briefly. The symptoms were serious, the prognosis bleak. Connor stood up from his desk and marched through the halls of NIH, gathering his team for a quick board meeting. After everyone gathered, Connor closed the door and came to stand at the head of the table. He looked around at the crowd appraisingly before speaking.
"I just got a fax from a Dr. Madison Daniels in Trenton. There's been an outbreak of a disease with an almost flu-like presentation. Sudden high fever, weakness, headache, chills, dry cough, muscle and joint pain and diarrhea in all of the patients. Some have varying other symptoms that include chest pain, trouble breathing, skin irritation, swollen lymph nodes, eye irritation, sore throat and are coughing up blood. There are six reported cases so far, two of which have died from complications. The patients' ages vary from seven to sixty nine years old of both genders. What do you think?" Connor asked.
"Malaria?" Miles suggested.
"Unlikely. Six people, all from different families, different social circles. The symptoms are too diverse." Natalie reasoned.
"They could all be atypical presentations, but it's still unlikely." Connor agreed.
"What about anthrax?" Frank asked.
"No. Although it would explain the symptoms if it was the inhaled form, it wouldn't explain any of the more diverse ones. None of them can be associated with the more common cutaneous or gastrointestinal forms. It would likely be localized, too, not spread out as far as this seems to be." Natalie explained.
"How about asbestos?" Miles guessed. "Or a new virulent strain of pneumonia."
"Not likely. Why don't we save the guesswork until we've got a little more information. Pack your bags, we're going to Trenton." Connor stated.
They group dispersed from the boardroom and went about preparing for the trip to New Jersey. After packing all of the necessary equipment they headed up to the roof and boarded the chopper. The trip to Trenton was a long one, but the team was kept busy by thoughts of the various scenarios in store for them. When they reached Caritas Hospital the team stepped off the chopper and gathered their equipment.
"Alright, let's go." Connor ordered.
They walked down off of the roof and toward the intensive care unit. When they reached the ward, Stephen stopped at the admissions desk.
"I'm Dr. Stephen Connor with the NIH. We're looking for Dr. Madison Daniels." He explained.
A woman standing at the back of the counter stopped flipping through a chart and looked up.
"I'm Dr. Daniels. Please, call me Maddie. Thank God you're here." She said gratefully.
"I'm Dr. Connor, we spoke on the phone. This is my team, Dr. Natalie Durant, infectious disease specialist, Dr. Miles McCabe, Frank Powell,toxicologist and Eva Rossi, our publicity liaison." Connor inquired.
"Thank God you're here. Two new cases have just come in with all of the same symptoms as the others as well as some of the varying ones. We have a total of eight cases, two of which are deceased now. Five stable patients, one critical. Come this way, I'll show you to their rooms." Dr. Daniels said briskly.
Connor nodded and the team followed Dr. Daniels to a cordoned-off area of the ward. They looked through the glass at the infected patients. Connor sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair before turning to the rest of his team.
"Natalie, I need you to draw blood from each of our patients and run a wide range of both viral and bacterial panels. Get permission to perform autopsies on the deceased. Miles, I need you to talk to the patients' families and find out if there's been anything unusual happening as of late. Frank, I need you to go to each of our patients houses, deceased or otherwise and look for commonalities. Eva, try to hold off any bloodthirsty reporters and if necessary hold a press conference to stave off rumors that may be spreading. Let me know if you find anything. I'm going to go and examine our casualties," Connor instructed.
The team members nodded and headed of to get started on their respective tasks. Stephen stays behind with Dr. Daniels. They quickly down the hall as they talk.
"I'm going to need access to all of the patients and their files, as well as equipment and facilities. My team and I also need the cooperation of all of your support staff during this investigation. If everyone follows instructions then hopefully we can wrap this up before it gets any worse," Connor listed.
"No problem, I've already mentioned your coming to the staff and they know that their services will be needed. As for patients, you have the families' consent and full access to their files. If there's anything you need that you can't find, just ask someone on the staff. As for facilities, you and your team have priority so you can push other less severely ill patients out of the way if you need to use an O.R. or anything of that sort. If there's anything else don't hesitate to ask," Maddie explained.
"Thank you. I'll let you know if anything comes up," Connor said.
"As will I," Dr. Daniels replied.
He watched for a moment while she stalked off down the hallway before turning and heading back to the patient's rooms. He grabbed a pair of gloves, a gown and a mask from the cart in the hallway before entering the quarantined off room. The patients looked even more deathly up close than they had through the glass. Then again, it was always like that. Stephen checked each of them in turn and made the same basic observations as Dr. Daniels had mentioned. He would have to wait to see what Miles, Natalie and Frank came up with before he could make any judgment calls. He walked out of the cordoned off ward and headed out to the reception area where Miles was prying information from the patients' families. He was an excellent diagnostician, but Stephen would be damned if he ever told him that. Miles worked much better when he was seeking approval than when he was being fueled by it. Miles looked up from his current survey and stood. He and Stephen walked off to a secluded room and Stephen waited patiently while Miles spoke.
"I've surveyed two of the patients' families so far and there are no commonalities. They're both from different parts of town, different families, different social circles, different age, gender and racial groups. Nothing is linking them together as far as I can see," Miles explained.
"How long apart from each other did they get sick?" Stephen asked.
"One of the patients, Erin Singer, is from the original batch that were admitted two days ago and the other, Darren Lukasiewicz, is one of the patients admitted today," Miles listed.
"Alright, go back out there and survey the rest of the families. Get back to me once you know a little more," Connor instructed.
Miles nodded and swept out of the room. Connor ran a hand over his tired eyes and moved to leave the room when Eva opened the door and stepped in. Connor looked up and met her gaze.
"What have you got?" He inquired.
"The press hasn't gotten word of the outbreak yet so we don't have to worry about publicity. I heard rumors spreading among the staff, though. They're calling it the Trenton flu," Eva relayed.
"Good work. Go back out there and make sure the staff doesn't leak any information to the press," Connor ordered.
Eva nodded and left the room in a similar fashion to Miles'. Connor immediately stood and rushed off to find Natalie. She had just finished drawing blood samples from the patients when he had entered the ward previously. He headed up to the lab and found her sitting literally up to her elbows in blood samples, working frantically to ferret out information. He walked over to her and looked down at her work.
"What have you got?" He queried.
"Nothing yet. I've run a few tests so far but they've all turned out inconclusive. I'll keep running the bacterial and viral panels and let you know if anything changes," Natalie iterated.
"Have you gotten permission for the autopsies?" Connor asked.
"Yes. I've scheduled an empty autopsy suite for us this afternoon. As soon as I've got everything set up here we can head down to the morgue and get started," Natalie suggested.
"Great. Page me once you've finished. I'm going to speak with Frank," Connor said.
Natalie nodded and watched him leave the lab. Connor headed downstairs, again willing the growing fatigue to be expelled from his body. He reached the courtyard at the back of the hospital and breathed the fresh air. Quickly pulling out his cell phone he deftly punched in Frank's number. The other man picked up on the second ring.
"Powell," he said briskly.
"Frank, it's Connor. What can you tell me so far?" He asked.
"There's nothing obviously suspicious at the first site, the home of patient Bette Moreau. I'm on my way to the next house, patient named Erin Singer. I'll let you know as soon as I find something," Frank replied.
"Thanks," Connor said.
The two men hung up and Connor swiftly made his way back up to the ward. He decided to have Dr. Daniels run him through the story once again. There had to be something they missed the first time around. After all, eight patients from completely different walks of life don't suddenly come down with a deadly virus out of the blue. There had to be a commonality they overlooked. At least, Connor prayed there was…
A.N.: Okay, so it's a little shorter than I had expected it to be. Its just an introductory chapter, though. I'll write more for the next one. Tell me what you think. Please review! Thanks-Julia-