Thank you for the kind reviews this week.
SPOILERS - this week - David is forced to operate, Griffin, Kendal and Jackson confront the yacht owner and Bianca has an unexpected visitor.
...
Erica opened her eyes and was surprised by the sunlight coming in through the window. It had been dark when she closed her eyes. She promised Bianca she would sleep, but she only intended to rest for a moment. If it was morning then she had slept for too long.
Erica rolled over and looked across to the other two beds crammed into the room. David was sleeping but Bianca's eyes were open, only she was curled up into a ball shivering.
"Honey, are you okay?" Erica asked concerned as she climbed out of bed. "Are you cold?"
Bianca didn't really respond.
"Bianca, can you hear me?"
Her cries woke David. He hurried to Bianca's side and felt her brow.
"You're burning up." he said. "I knew you weren't right last night."
After feeling her brow David then felt her hands.
"Fever and cold hands." he muttered. "Bianca, Bianca, can you speak? Can you show me that you can hear me?"
He shook her and Bianca groaned and looked up at him but she didn't speak.
"What's wrong with her." Erica asked. Wondering how she had missed that her daughter was ill.
"I don't know. It could be viral or it could be an infection. I need to examine her."
He stroked Bianca's cheek.
"Bianca can I examine you?"
Bianca didn't respond.
"I may need your help, Erica." said David as he pulled back the blankets. "I want to check under her dressings for any signs of infection. It may be septicaemia or something worse."
David started at Bianca's neck. He pulled aside the dressing. The incision made by Dr Norrell was healing well; there was a little redness around the stitches but nothing to cause concern.
"I need check her back now, can you help me roll her over." David asked looking to Erica.
David gently rolled Bianca onto her side while Erica helped rearrange her legs.
David pulled up the back of her shirt to where the she'd been injected numerous times.
"What are you looking for?" Erica asked.
"Spinal injections have been known to meningitis; an infection of spinal and brain fluid."
"Is that a possibility?"
"I hope not." said David as he gripped Bianca's shoulder. "Just your leg to check, Bianca. It's almost over." He then turned to Erica. "Can we swap? I'll take the legs while you support she shoulders?"
Erica quickly complied. She looked down at Bianca with concern. Her baby girl was still shivering although her body felt hot.
Bianca's right pant leg had already been cut away so the nurses could change the dressings every few days. David could see right away that something was wrong, her leg was red and swollen. He began to quickly unwrap the bandages
"I think we've found the infection." he said. He lifted her leg to see where Dr Norrell and carved a large rectangular flap in the back of her calf and then sewed it back up. David assumed it was clumsy way to get bone marrow samples.
The moment David pressed on the area to check on the swelling clear fluid seeped from a corner of the wound. More worrying he felt something move under the skin, there was foreign body in there, probably the real cause of the infection.
"What is it?" Erica asked.
"I don't know. Something in there has caused an abscess" said David. He was angry and marched up to the door and hammering loudly against it. "I need to talk to Dr Norrell right… NOW!"
…
Dr Norrell and Mr Campbell were now standing around Bianca's bed. Bianca's was burning up and Erica was bathing her brow with a cool damp cloth.
"What is in her leg?" David demanded.
"It's one of our medical innovations." said Dr Norrell. "It administers a mild electric shock to induce microscopic movement within her leg to encourage muscular regeneration. A sort of full time electronic physiotherapist. We wanted her to have better muscle development before the Lazarus treatment took hold. It should reduce her recovery time and what's the harm in using our human guinea pig to try out other experimental treatments. She was too perfect a candidate not to use."
"You implanted a foreign object in her leg without the proper anti-rejection drugs or any form of monitoring." David exclaimed angrily. He turned to Mr Campbell. "You see what an incompetent doctor you've hired?"
Mr Campbell shrugged.
"They hired me. I just make sure we get results." He looked to Bianca. "So can you fix it?"
David pulled his hand through his hair as he thought.
"She needs antibiotics and if I can remove the cause of the infection… I'll need to operate."
"Then we will get you scrubbed up." said Mr Campbell with a grin.
"You understand that this infection means we can't give her any Orpheus treatment, it will be too risky."
Mr Campbell patted David patronisingly on the shoulder.
"Of course you won't be giving her Orpheus treatment. We use the name Lazarus now!" He clapped his hands impatiently. "Let's get a move on then. We have a deadline to meet!"
…