Ava headed down to the bottom floor, looking for the Head of the Hospital. She needed help; she knew that even before the bloodwork came back. she couldn’t see any other way for these symptoms to have occurred other than infection.
“Doctor Mars,” Ava said as she knocked on the open door.
Doctor Josephine Mars looked up from her desk and waved Ava into the office. While it was the largest office in the building, it was nothing to marvel at. Josephine wasn’t a flashy woman. A reasonably sized desk sat in toward the far wall, and Dr. Mars sat behind it. Her lab coat hung on a rack just behind her. She was wearing an immaculate dark navy pantsuit and her graying sandy hair was pulled into a tight bun. Her face was lightly made up, the lines of time gracefully touching her cheeks and forehead. She smiled at Ava, though the expression was tight.
Ava returned the tight smile, tension was heavy, and though neither of them said it aloud, they worried that whatever was happening to the patients upstairs could possibly be contagious. Ava opened her mouth to speak, but Dr. Mars interrupted.
“I’ve already called Doctor Elizabeth Grant,” Dr. Mars said.
Ava’s mouth snapped shut. She shouldn’t be surprised. Doctor Mars had been in the medical field for almost forty years, and she never ceased to amaze Ava with her ability to anticipate. She had worked for several major hospitals in her lifetime and had returned to Phoenix Ridge in more recent years. The rumor was that this was her last stop before retirement, though Ava couldn’t imagine the woman ever retiring. She’d only known her for ashort time, but Josephine was an amazing doctor and leader.
Doctor Mars stood from her desk and walked around to stand in front of Ava. Josephine was petite in stature even in heels, but it didn’t dim her powerful aura in any way. “What do you think this is?” she asked Ava, her face lined with worry.
“I wish I could say,” Ava answered. “It’s obviously neurological, and based on the symptoms alone I would agree with the EMTs that it’s rabies, but it doesn’t add up.” Ava took a breath. “I know it’s a personal aside, but I don’t think Sandra would ever put one of her groups in that kind of danger; she would recognize a rabid animal from a mile away and get the group to safety.”
“Should we start prophylactic rabies treatment to be safe?” Dr. Mars asked and grabbed her lab coat.
Ava ran her fingers through her shoulder-length dark hair. The helicopter had mussed it quite a bit, but it was still manageable. “I think we should wait until the labs come back,” Ava said, hoping it was the right answer. Early and fast treatment was the only hope if it was rabies, and every minute they waited to start treatment could mean the difference between life and death for the patients, but if they were wrong who knows what problems they would run in to.
“What about broad-spectrum antibiotics?” Doctor Mars asked.
“Again, I think it would be best to wait until we know more,” Ava said. Doctor Mars’ jaw tightened. “The Baclofen seems to be working to loosen their muscles, and the labs are rushing the bloodwork, so if we don’t know anything else in thirty minutes, then we will start them on antibiotics, and we should probably order CT scans to see if they’re encephalopathic.”
Doctor Mars nodded, though she did not seem particularly pleased with the answer. She shrugged into her lab coat and they both turned toward the door.
“What did you learn from Doctor Grant?” Ava asked. She knew of Elizabeth Grant by reputation.
“She’s on her way,” Doctor Mars answered as they walked toward the elevator. “She’s one of the best infectious disease specialists in the nation and we need her. She’ll be flying in from New York; she said she’d let me know the times as soon as she has them.” As if on cue, Dr. Mars’ phone pinged. “Ah, there she is, she will be taking off in an hour, and will land at Phoenix Ridge after midnight.”
Ava nodded slowly. It looked like she would be spending the night at the hospital, though certainly not for the first time. “Well, let’s see what we can learn before she gets here then.”
Doctor Mars nodded and they stepped onto the elevator. Ava pushed the button for the second floor. When the doors opened, they were bombarded with shouts and machines screaming.
“Sandra’s coding!” Kellie shouted over the ruckus when she spotted them coming off the elevator. Both doctors sprinted toward Sandra’s bed where the nurses and another doctor were performing CPR. Ava grabbed the defibrillator from the crash cart and ordered the charge. Sandra’s body lifted from the bed as the shock coursed through her, but her heartbeat stabilized, and the atmosphere in the room visibly relaxed.
The nurses worked to reset Sandra’s room,and Ava looked over at Dr. Mars with wide eyes.
“Has the lab returned any results yet?” Doctor Mars asked the room, but no one answered. She nodded at Ava and turned on her heel heading again to the elevator. Ava was right behind her as the doors closed and Dr. Mars pushed the button for the third floor. Neither of them spoke on the ride up, nor the walk to the hospital’s lab. Doctor Mars pushed through the doors without preamble and met the worried face of the lab technician, who was looking at a blood smear beneath the microscope.
“What have you got, Williams?” Doctor Mars asked.
Lindsey Williams was young; she’d only been a lab tech for about eight months and Dr. Mars had hired her almost immediately after she completed her schooling. She was smart and driven, though at the moment she looked terrified. Her blond hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and her glasses were slightly crooked on her face.
“I, um…” she started and moved back from the microscope. She gestured for Dr. Mars to look at the specimen. “It’s definitely not rabies.” Doctor Mars looked through the microscope, and then moved aside so that Ava could glance through it. “But it’skind oflike rabies?” Lindsey ended the statement more like a question.
Ava looked at the small cells wiggling around under the microscope. They certainly had a similar shape to rabies, but the cilia was much longer and reaching around as though it was searching for something. It seemed to avoid the blood cells.
“What are we looking at Williams?” Doctor Mars asked.
“I don’t know,” Lindsey answered, her voice shaking. “I’ve been checking all the books; I’ve never seen anything like this.”
“We should start them on an antiviral,” Ava said while still looking into the microscope. “It could be some sort of mutation.”
Doctor Mars was already on the phone with the staff on the floor below ordering the medication. “Is it contagious?” Doctor Mars asked Ava.
“Yes, I think we need to assume it is,” Ava answered, “Likely just through direct contact though, like rabies.”
“I need you to do more than think, Doctor Jackson,” Doctor Mars snapped.
