Disclaimer: Don't own them.
No spoilers
Warning: Written under the influence of pain medication!
Summary: When does it become appropriate for a doctor to violate his patient's privacy?
Truth or Consequences
~by MsGrahamCracker~
He couldn't do it – could he? A patient's privacy was honored above all else in the medical profession. He had taken the vow, sworn with his hand raised, that he would not violate it – and he had never even considered doing it. Until now. Could he do it today – should he do it today?
During his twenty two years of practicing medicine, Dr. Philip Clifford had heard many things from patients who were under the influence of anesthesia – private thoughts many of them would be appalled, embarrassed and horrified to know they had revealed. He once had a man confess, in creepy detail, his fondness for the feel of women's underwear beneath his business suits. What he had heard today, however, went way beyond humiliation.
This morning, during a routine knee surgery, the patient had, with great detail, revealed plans for a terrorist attack in Los Angeles; details, such as the number and placement of several explosive devises, the expected response by LAPD, the inevitable FBI involvement and the horrifying number of expected casualties.
He couldn't be expected to just ignore this, could he? Hundreds – thousands of people may die! Wouldn't his obligation as a human being override the Hippocratic Oath he took as a doctor?
He had spent the afternoon wrestling with his conscious and struggling with the consequences if he reported this. But, the consequences of not reporting it won out, and he sat here now, in his office at the hospital with Special Agents Don Eppes and Colby Granger from the Los Angeles FBI field office.
"What can you tell me about your patient, Dr. Clifford?" Agent Eppes was stern, somber.
He shrugged, nervously. "Nice lady. I've known her and her husband, Mike, for several years now and they both seem like normal people."
"You've worked on her husband, also?"
Clifford nodded. "Replaced both knees."
"I take it he didn't reveal any mass bombings or anything while sedated." Granger said.
Clifford shook his head. "No. I've never had anyone do this before. Do you think it's real?"
"We don't take terrorist threats lightly, Dr. Clifford." Eppes replied. "We'll need to speak with her."
"Of course" He lead the agents down the hallway, past the nurses station, to room 379.
The patient was sitting up in the bed, her right leg elevated on a large pillow. Her husband sat beside the bed, their fingers intertwined and resting on the bed beside her.
"Mrs. Graham," Agent Eppes started, "we understand you talked in great detail about a terrorist attack in LA during your surgery this morning. What can you tell us about that?"
The woman looked sheepishly at her husband, who laughed out loud. "Oh dear," she said, "I was afraid of that."
She turned to the two agents. "Sorry. It's my new story. It's multi-chaptered with lots of action and yes, a terrorist attack. I guess it was on my mind when they sedated me."
"New story?"
"For fanfiction."
"You write about terrorists attacks?"
"We write about all kind of things - kidnapping, bank robberies, psychotic episodes, survival in the desert, mind games, pressure bombs, you name it – we write it."
"We?" Agent Granger asked. "You mean there's more like you?"
"Oh yes. Hundreds, maybe thousands. We post our little stories on the Internet and they're read by people all over the world. A friend of mine even has a reader in Bosnia-Herzegovina, wherever that is. Can you believe that?"
Agent Eppes pursed his lips. "Sounds like something we need to get Charlie on. Could have world-wide implications."
The agents left in a hurry, followed by Dr. Clifford.
The patient looked at her husband and they both laughed. "Can you imagine what doc thought when he heard you plotting to blow up LA?" he said.
Her eyes lit up. "Hey, that would make a great story; a doctor struggling with his conscience over violating a patients privacy. There's a lot of angst potential. Under sedation, the bad guy can reveal his diabolical plans to blow up LA, kidnap Charlie and throw Don off a high rise. Should the doctor tell someone what he heard? Or maybe, because of the privacy oath the doctor took, he would try to stop it, himself – after all, the bad guy is basically helpless there in the hospital bed and, Oh! Oh!, I know, the doctor is really an undercover agent who has been tracking this creep for years and he ... Hey, baby, think you could sneak my laptop in here? This one could be a winner at the awards next year."
The End
I actually did have knee surgery two days ago, and as we were waiting for the doctor to take me to the OR, I admitted to my husband that as I work around the house I spend so much time planning out strategies in my head on my Numb3rs stories, I was afraid, subconsciously, that I would blurt them out while under anesthesia. He laughed and suggested this story.
The title came from my anesthesiologist. He was telling us some of the medication they use for sedation is the same stuff they used to use as truth serum. I guess it doesn't pay to have secrets.