Bio-Strike (2000) by Clancy Tom - Power Plays 04

Author:Clancy, Tom - Power Plays 04 [04, Clancy, Tom - Power Plays]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-03-17T20:23:45+00:00

Chapter Fifteen.

VARIOUS LOCALES NOVEMBER 14, 2001

LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON, ROGER GORDIAN LAY asleep in his room at San Jose Mercy Hospital, having been given a series of physical examinations, blood tests, and chest X rays throughout the earlier part of the day. At four P.M. on Sunday, he had been transported to the hospital aboard an ambulance, accompanied by his daughter, Julia Gordian Ellis, after losing consciousness in the backyard of her Pescadero residence. When the emergency vehicle appeared in response to her frantic 911, Gordian had a fever of 102.7deg, was suffering from dehydration, and had lost several ounces of blood from a superficial wound to his left hand inflicted by the power tool he had been using at the time of his blackout.

The medical technicians aboard the ambulance were able to control the bleeding and dress his injury on scene, and they administered oxygen and an electrolyte IV, which revived him during his transport to the hospital. Gordian was fully awake and alert upon reaching the ER, where he was joined by his wife, who had been contacted via her mobile phone by Julia while en route to Pescadero from San Jose International Airport.

At that time, Gordian's temperature remained elevated, and he was experiencing respiratory difficulties, a painful sore throat, abdominal pains, nausea, muscle aches, and chills. An initial examination by interns on rotation led them to a preliminary diagnosis of influenza and stress due to overexertion. In spite of his repeated insistence that he was fit enough to be discharged and recover at home, the severity of his symptoms led doctors to suggest that he be admitted for routine monitoring and testing, a recommendation to which he eventually acquiesced at the strong urging of his family members.

Within an hour of his arrival at the ER, Gordian was moved to a private room on the hospital's fifth floor. As was standard procedure for high-profile individuals, hospital security offered him the option of registering under an alias to deflect attention by ambulance- and celebrity-chasing reporters. Though he was disinclined to accept this preferential treatment, his wife and daughter prevailed upon him to reconsider and finally got him to capitulate with reminders of his past unhappiness with the media, striking a particular nerve by mentioning the outrageous factual distortions of Reynold Armitage, the financial columnist and television commentator with an unknown ax to grind who had been unduly eager to pronounce UpLink International DOA in the middle of a shareholder's crisis the year before, and who might be expected to jump at the chance to write Roger Gordian's premature obituary if word of his illness leaked to the press.

On Ashley's recommendation, the door sign beside room 5C would read: Hardy, Frank.

By Monday morning, Gordian's fever had lowered to 101deg and he was feeling stronger, though his breathing continued to be strained and he showed little desire for food. His standardized physician's treatment sheet--known by the memory key ABC/DAVID to every fourth-year medical student, physician's aid, and registered nurse--listed his condition as stable on its third line, between the Admit to: and Diet information.

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