Chapter 12
"I call Sharon White to the stand."
Abbey knew Sharon quite well. Sharon had been the primary hospice nurse and was with the family the night he died.
"Ms. White, tell the jury about the President's last days."
Abbey shuddered as realized that she had to relive one of the worst times of her life. She tried to withhold tears, but they pooled in her eyes and escaped anyway.
And she was terrified as to what Sharon had seen and would now tell the world.
"President Bartlet had been admitted to hospice approximately a week prior to his death. At that time he was conscious, and verbally stated that he was in great pain. As the week wore on, Mrs. Bartlet became extremely upset about the President's suffering and asked me to increase the rate of the Morphine drip. The President had asked her not to, as he wanted to stay aware as long as possible. But she kept asking, and after getting approval from the Medical Director of Hospice, I increased the rate. That increase pushed the President into an unconscious state.
"The last day he became extremely restless. Based on my experience, that meant at some state he was sensing a dramatic increase in pain. I decided to stay late to see if I could help. I had not been in the room for a few minutes when Mrs. Bartlet came to tell me that she had awakened her children to say goodbye. I checked on him and disagreed with her assessment that he was dying at that moment. I left the room and went to call the Hospice Medical Director to report the problem. When I returned to the bedroom, Mrs. Bartlet said the President had just died. I checked the body and verified the time of death. I then left the room to report the death to Hospice."
"How long were you out of the room before you came back to check on the President's condition?"
"I think it was approximately fifteen minutes."
"In your professional opinion, was the President dying on that day or could he have lived a few more days?
"In my professional opinion, he made a rapid and unexpected decline that evening."
"Thank you."
Pat stood up. "Ms. White, are you a licensed physician?"
"No."
"How can you then have a professional opinion on how much longer President Bartlet would have lived?"
"My professional opinion is based working with hospice patients for over twenty years."
"No further questions."