Chapter 8 - One Last Hope

What is about to happen is an extraordinary situation. You will find out why in the story.

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The ride to the city seemed to take forever. Part of the reason was that it was rush hour and traffic on Interstate 75 was stop-and-go for most of the way. Of course, the ambulance had legal power to force its way through traffic, but it took a long time for everyone to move over. All the time, the paramedics were monitoring Amy's vital signs. Her pulse was weaker than normal but they made sure that she was receiving sufficient oxygen and hydration.

Finally, the ambulance pulled up to the hospital and Amy was wheeled in quickly to the Emergency Room.

"This is a 13-year-old female, leukemia patient, difficulty breathing, fever. Seems to be a case of pneumonia," yelled a paramedic as doctors rushed out to take control.

As four physicians rushed to join the group wheeling her in to a trauma room, Amy's father rounded a corner and found Otto. "Come on, we can't do anything right now. All we can do is hope. Let's go to the waiting area."

Time seemed to tortuously crawl. Minutes seemed like hours, and hours seemed like lifetimes. Otto could not eat a thing, despite only having eaten a bowl of cereal and a hot dog that day. All he could seem to take was three cans of Pepsi; he needed to keep awake somehow.

Finally, the trauma physician emerged from the ER. He walked up to Amy's dad and introduced himself. "It seems that your daughter has a case of pneumonia. Normally, we would be able to treat it easily with antibiotics. However, her immune system is depleted enough that she is sicker than most cases. We need to keep her here so we can treat her with stronger medications and protect her from further infection."

"Any word on her cancer?" her father asked.

"You'll have to wait for your oncologist. He's been notified and he'll be here in the morning."

"Any time we can see my daughter?"

"We're working on stabilizing her and then we'll move her up to the ICU."

After the doctor left, the two men went to the Information desk to see if there were any rooms for them to stay overnight. There was a room for them to stay in. Otto asked that he stay with Amy at her bedside, but the staff preferred that it probably wasn't the best thing to do at the time. Otto wasn't happy but he understood.

An hour later, they were taken upstairs to see Amy. Otto looked in disbelief at all the machines she was hooked up to. In addition to an IV, she had a breathing tube inserted as well as various monitors attached to monitor her vital signs. He couldn't bear to see her in this condition, but he knew he had to remain strong for her.

"Hey sweetheart," her father whispered as he squeezed her hand. She smiled faintly, but she really wasn't able to talk.

"You gave us quite a scare. I thought I'd lose you," Otto added as he took his turn squeezing her hand.

"Listen, we're going to stay here overnight in the parent room. Dr. Townsend will be in tomorrow to check up on you. If you need anything the nurse knows where we are. Now try to get some sleep." With that, Amy's father and Otto left and found their room. They had no other clothes with them so they slept as they were. Neither one did get much sleep, as one would imagine in this situation.

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The next day, the oncologist, Dr. Townsend, arrived to check on Amy. Besides doing a typical evaluation, he ordered several blood tests. She had had an analysis of her bone marrow the previous month, so the doctor decided that not much would have changed. Sure enough, she had very few white blood cells, definitely not enough to fight off this infection.

The doctor then took Amy's father and Otto out in to the hall where he could talk openly to them--he didn't want to scare Amy.

"I have to be honest, guys. We are running out of options and running out of time. If her immune system doesn't improve, she may not live through another infection. It's only a matter of time."

Otto couldn't believe what how pessimistic the doctor was. "Come on, doc. There has to be something we can do. Amy's been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember."

"Well, Otto, we've tried almost everything we could. The chemotherapy and radiation have taken a toll on Amy's body. The best option for her at this point is a bone marrow transplant but we haven't found anybody in the national database who would be a match."

"There's gotta be somebody out there who matches her?"

"We can only find matches when people get tested and register for the database."

At this point, Otto's bossy attitude took over, although he was speaking to an adult he had only met a few minutes ago. "Well then test me!"

"I'm not sure if we can do that. Usually you have to be 18 to get in to the registry, unless you're being tested for a family member."

At this point, Otto tried to cool down. After taking a deep breath he continued. "Well, she is like family to me! Besides, what else do you have for her? You said there's nothing else left for her. Are you going to just let her die? Look, I lost my mother to cancer when I was very young. That was extremely tough for me, losing someone you loved more than anything. I don't want to lose another. I wish more than anything that I was the one who was in that bed, dying. Please, doctor. If you don't test me and she dies, I will feel so guilty. Even if I'm not a match, I would be satisfied that I tried to save her life."

The doctor thought for a moment, then answered, "All right. We normally don't do this but we'll do the test within the hospital. This is between the three of us and Amy only. I do need your father's permission though. Is there anywhere I can reach him?"

"Sure is," Otto answered as he pulled out his cell phone.

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Meanwhile, back in California, Ray was restocking the freezer at the Shore Shack when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mr. Rocket, this is Dr. Townsend from Children's Hospital of Michigan."

"Doctor!? Is my son OK!? What happened to him!?"

"Relax, Mr. Rocket. Your son is fine. I'm actually his friend's oncologist. Look, your son wants to talk to you about something."

At that point Otto got on the line and explained everything that had happened to his father as well as his request to be tested. At first Ray was unsure if he wanted to authorize something when he was on the other end of the country, but the tone in his son's voice told him that he desperately wanted to do this. Besides, if he refused to consent, he would probably never live it down.

"OK Otto. I guess it doesn't hurt."

Dr. Townsend then asked Ray if he had a fax machine. Thankfully, Ray had one in his office for faxing supplier agreements and other documents. Five minutes later a consent form came through the machine. Ray signed it and quickly sent it back.

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After they received the consent form, Dr. Townsend directed Otto to the Outpatient Lab for his blood test. Otto, just like most humans, hated being pricked by needles. However, he knew he was doing this for a greater cause. The nurse cleaned the area around the inside of his elbow and prepared a needle and tube for the blood sample. Otto winced as the needle was inserted in to one of his veins, but the procedure wasn't nearly as bad as he imagined. Now he felt like he had done everything in his power to try to save his best friend.

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Up in the lab, a technician received Otto's blood sample as well as orders to compare the appropriate blood proteins (using DNA) with those of Amy's. The process took a few hours with the machinery doing various things to the blood in order for the necessary information to be extracted. This specific technician, who usually did this type of analysis, had seen her share of patients try in vain to find a donor, only to lose their battle before a donor could be found. She knew that when and if she ever did find a matching donor for a patient that her day would be so much brighter and she would feel like she had done something important in her life. Well, little did she know that that day had come. Suddenly the computer results came up. There was a 96% match with the proteins. The technician, thinking that this was an error, re-ran the test. Same results. Her eyes lit up and a big smile appeared on her face. She ran to the phone and dialed out.

"Hello? Dr. Townsend? You're not going to believe this. We have a match."

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Right before the lunch hour began, the phone rang again at the Shore Shack. Tito answered but quickly transferred the call to Ray.

"Hello. Dr. Townsend? What's happening now? My son? He what!?" Ray couldn't believe what he heard. Tito looked on curiously. "Yes, yes. I plan on being there. I'll get out there as soon as I can. Uh huh. OK. Bye."

"Tito, I have to go home and talk to Reggie and then get some stuff together. Can you watch the Shack for a few days?"

"Why, bruddah?"

"It's Otto. He's been identified as a donor for Amy. They want to do a bone marrow transplant ASAP."

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Surprise, surprise. What will happen now? Find out soon.