April 10th, 2011

The clinic was so busy today. Every child known to man had developed a cold and came to see Dave and Drew. Dave walked into Drew's office slowly. He wasn't feeling too well.
"One of your patients is throwing up all over room five." Dave said. Drew grimaced.

"How do you know they're my patient?" Drew crossed his arms.
"Dr. Bishop. I need to see Dr. Bishop." Dave smiled, "I think that's what they said." Drew sighed and sat up.

"You know, you look like shit." He said walking over to his partner.

"I feel like shit." Dave said. In all honesty, he felt like he was going to keel over and die. Drew touched Dave's clammy cheek.

"Man, you should sit down." he said, "come to room one."

"I'm fine." Dave said. Drew narrowed his eyes.

"No you're not." Drew led Dave into Room one, "April, could you call my wife and ask her if she's free to help at the clinic?"

"Yes, Dr. Bishop." April went out front.

"I'm really am fine, Drew." Dave said as a wave of nausea came over him. He gritted his teeth. He wouldn't let Drew win. He was perfectly healthy and fine today. Drew stood in front of him staring into his eyes.

"Have you ever had jaundice before?" Drew asked. Dave nodded watching the doctor take his blood pressure.

"Twenty years ago." he chuckled. The chuckles turned into a fit of coughing. Dave couldn't control himself. he began to throw up. Drew stepped back.

"I have a lot of vomiting patients today." He said. Dave groaned.

"I'm sorry." He said. Drew shook his head.

"It's all right. Lizzie can clean it up." he winked.

"It's freezing in here." Dave mumbled. Drew took Dave's temperature.

"You're at 104." He sighed deeply, "Have you eaten anything strange?" Dave shook his head and groaned. Drew felt along his neck. "Any pain?"

"My muscles are really sore." he said.

"Lay down and let me examine you." Drew said. Dave groaned as he tried to lay down.

"My chest." He moaned. Drew lifted Dave's shirt and saw a large bulge. Drew's heart pounded as he touched the bulge. Dave cried out in pain.

"I'm sorry, Man. Just stay where you are." Drew stepped out of the office and flagged April down, "Get an ambulance here now. Dr. Malucci needs to be at county." He went to the phone and dialed the house's number.

"Hello?" Randi answered.

"It's Drew. You need to get to the clinic right now." He said.

"Why? What's wrong?" Randi frowned.

"Something is wrong with Dave." He said. Randi stood in the kitchen for a moment.

"What do you mean something is wrong with Dave?" She finally managed to say. Drew sighed.

"His fever is 104. he is vomiting, he is slightly jaundiced, and he has abnormal bulges on him, which tends to make me think something his wrong with his liver." He said.

"His liver?" Randi whispered.
"I can't be too sure. We've called for any ambulance okay?" Drew asked. Randi nodded slowly.

* * *

Within fifteen minutes, Dave was in the County ER barely conscious. Randi was near hysterics. He seemed so healthy when he woke up. he just complained of a small headache. Randi stood outside the trauma room watching. Dr Gallant work on her husband. Kerry stepped out of the room and looked at her.

"What's wrong with him, Kerry?" Randi asked.

"We're running a lot of tests on him. The ultrasound showed that his liver and spleen are enlarged. It could be for a number or reasons. They could just be giving out, he could have caught something like Malaria, or something could be growing on them." Kerry said, "We're going to an Abdominal CT in a few minutes." Randi looked at Kerry with wide eyes.

"He could have cancer?" She asked. Kerry sighed.
"It's a possibility, but I didn't see anything abnormal in the ultrasound." She said. "We're doing some liver function tests. It could just be a simple infection that his body is reacting to. The blood cultures haven't come back yet. We're going to do everything we can for him." Randi nodded.

"I know." She said. Randi took a deep breath in and looked at Kerry, "You said Malaria could be a cause."

"Yes, It's possible, but he hasn't traveled recently so I wouldn't worry about it." Kerry said.

"He had Malaria before." Randi said.

"Really?" Kerry frowned.

"When he was about the leave Desert Storm in the early 90's." Randi said, "He had it." Kerry bit her lip. She knew if this was Malaria again, Dave's chances weren't that good.

"Well, we'll see what the tests say before we just to any conclusions." Kerry said as she looked at Gallant working on Dave. "He's in the best of care."

"I know." Randi said softly. Abby handed Kerry a chart.
"They're back." She said. Kerry opened the chart and stared at the test results. Randi had been right.

"Let's start a Malaria Blood smear every six hrs for the next twenty-four hours to confirm diagnosis." Kerry said.

"Malaria?" Randi asked. Kerry nodded.

"It would appear so. We may have caught it soon enough before it does any real damage." Kerry said. Randi felt sick to her stomach. "We can take care of the malaria easy enough, but it's the damage to his liver I'm most worried about. You can see how jaundice he has gotten even in the past twenty minutes."

"Will he need a liver transplant?" Randi asked.
"Let's handle one thing at a time, Randi." Kerry said. As Dr. gallant yelled for her. Randi looked in and saw Dave having a seizure.

"OH god." Randi cried. Kerry ran into the room and helped Michael with Dave. Randi stared with wide eyes. She stepped into the room as Dave's body stopped moving.
"He's not responding." Gallant said.

"Dave?" Randi said softly.

"He's not responding at all!" Gallant cried.

To be continued....

* * *

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