Trauma by Daniel Palmer

Author:Daniel Palmer [Palmer, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250030870
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 32

“That just doesn’t make any sense,” Carrie said. She studied the papers clutched in her hand, head shaking slightly, incredulous.

Dr. Finley’s deeply troubled expression mirrored Carrie’s growing dismay. He bit the tip of his reading glasses, and rotated his chair to face Carrie.

She looked up from the medical discharge forms to see his puzzled expression. “Goodwin signed off on this?” she asked.

“She did,” Dr. Finley answered.

Carrie lowered her gaze and rested her chin on her knuckles, striking a pose reminiscent of Rodin’s The Thinker. She recalled a lecture from medical school that included the fact that 1 to 2 percent of all hospitalizations resulted in the patient leaving AMA—against medical advice. The percentage was skewed to those with alcohol and substance abuse problems, which applied to both Abington and Fasciani. It was not an entirely surprising statistic, given how powerfully some patients needed to get back to whatever substance they abused. But her two DBS patients had exhibited no notable withdrawal symptoms. Something else was going on with them—confusion and agitation for sure, but she did not believe they left AMA to go get high.

Carrie leaned across Dr. Finley’s desk and pointed to the box on the AMA form indicating the date for a follow-up visit. “Do you think they’ll show?”

Dr. Finley looked sad. “This is a large program,” he said. “Cal Trent has a number of different specialists involved. I do my part, but that’s certainly not the whole. We’re a part of a much larger effort involving VR technicians, accident reconstruction specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and even biochemists. Each patient knows they’re going to receive monitoring and study over the course of many months. But not everybody is diligent about coming to the VA or DARPA’s other facilities for the follow-up appointments. In this case, I’m afraid we might have lost two of our participants. And it’s not going to reflect well on us. Cal will be most displeased, I’m sure of it.”

Carrie thought back to the presentation Dr. Finley had given in the grand rounds during her first week on the job. She remembered the bald man with close-set eyes and a round face who’d sat next to Trent. At the time she’d found it interesting Dr. Finley did not introduce him, but it made more sense to her now. The scope of this effort extended far beyond the confines of the VA, and Dr. Finley probably did not even know Trent’s companion. The insight did nothing to assuage her concern for these missing patients.

“Why would they leave? Where would they even go?”

“I’m as troubled as you are. We’ve got two guys out there with wires stuck in their heads who are technically our responsibility. I want to find them as much as you do. Goodwin had no choice but to let them walk. This isn’t a prison. But the behavior is highly anomalous. We’ve treated dozens of vets in the DBS program, and these are the first two who have done anything like this. Sure we

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