THE ROMAN LEE SERIES
"CRIMSON ROWS"
Eighteen
8:30AM
Dr. Marlene Scott leaned against the door frame with
her shoulder and arms crossed staring into the room. The machinery had been removed several hours
ago along with the bedding. Riley Olk
was not coming out of the coma and was being sent to another facility. Two more cases had already been confirmed now
with the possibility of a few more since her admission.
She had been up most of the night on the Internet
reading every article she could find regarding Tambo. Having maintained her NEJM subscription
through medical school they along with the CDC & WHO had the best up to
date information about Tambo and others.
The Zika virus was similar in some ways like this strain of Tambo. Zika had virtually lied in obscurity for
seventy plus years before jumping continents.
A lone rhesus monkey left alone in the forest of Uganda was the first
documented case. Tambo had had lied
dormant for a very long time. The first
victim was actually a curator of a South American museum who handled the bits
of the broken vodka bottle from the diamond mine. The pathogen was thought to have entered his
bloodstream from a small cut on his hand.
But these findings bore entirely different traits compared to the strain
that they were seeing now. It was almost
as if nature had a personal vendetta against the species targeting young
children and expectant mothers. She
remembered a lecture specifically related to viruses back in school. At some point in time they should not be
surprised to be introduced to transmitted diseases showing up around parts of
the world where they were normally not expected. The explanation was entirely plausible given
climate change and the globalization of economies. It wasn’t uncommon to find a case now and
again of dengue fever in Denmark or other vector-transmitted viruses. Still something didn’t seem right. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She was being paged again down the hall for a
second time. Keeping mental notes of her observations as
well as a separate chart on her laptop Dr. Marlene Scott had planned on
emailing a contact at both the CDC and WHO later after her shift ended.
She walked to the end of the hallway stopping at the
last room on the right-hand side across from the nurse’s lounge. Someone was leaning back on the couch trying
to catch the light at the best angle for a selfie. It was a reminder to her of how little of a
social life some had while immersed in their work while others thought of it as
merely a paycheck. Her eighteen- year
old patient was standing beside the bed when she entered. A colorful artwork of tattoos traversed her
arms from the sleeveless blue hospital gown. Marlene had read the notes on her
chart early in the morning while sipping on a hot cup of green tea in the
cafeteria. She had only been in her
first trimester. The patient had
complained about abnormal pains at about a six on the pain scale. Describing them as almost menstrual like from
her front lower abdominal area ending behind her kidneys. A few short hours later brought severe hemorrhaging
and termination of the pregnancy. Her patient looked pale from the loss of iron
almost anemic.
“You may want to lay down. The amount of blood loss you suffered can
bring dizziness almost immediately.”
“I’m tired of lying down. “I’m sick of being poked and prodded like
some animal. Every fifteen minutes there
is someone else in the room. Honestly, I
just want to go home with my boyfriend.”
“I have to make sure that you are well enough. I’m not going to grant a discharge if I think
otherwise. But I understand your
situation. Trust everyone that comes
through those doors has your best interest in mind.”
“You think I would get more rest if that were the
case.”
“I know it is a difficult time right now but I wanted
to ask you just a few questions if you don’t mind.”
“Ok, if that will get me out of here any quicker.”
“If you would at least sit down I would feel much
better.”
Dr. Marlene Scott’s patient begrudgingly went and sat
in the chair next to a window with her arms folded. Pulling the cable from her cellphone content
that it was fully charged she began to text a message half listening.
“This your first time being pregnant?”
“Yes, it was a complete accident though. I missed a day taking a pill. I really didn’t think it would have
mattered.”
“Do you remember what you were doing just prior to
coming into the emergency room?”
“My boyfriend surprised me after work and took me to a
park for a picnic.”
“We barbecued and he brought some food from the deli
where he works. After that we went on a
walk looking at one of those play areas for kids. The bugs were kind of bad so we turned around
to go back to the car.”
“You were bit by mosquitoes?”
“Just a couple of times near my elbow and the back of
my arm. It itched something awful.”
“How long was it after being bit did you start to
notice any differences in the way you felt physically?”
“I dunno maybe the following night. It felt like I was having my period again but
I knew that couldn’t be it.”
“Did you have any other symptoms perhaps a fever or
the chills?”
“I felt warm but I feel like that right before my
cramping starts usually.”
Marlene was quickly writing notes in an attempt to
catch every detail. Was it possible that
the virus lowered the levels of estrogen in pregnant women that quickly to
affect an imbedded embryo in the uterine lining? The thought of it alone was frightening if it
were even possible. This was the first
pregnancy confirmed to have been compromised by the Tambo virus. It was not even probable to draw such a
conclusion. There would have to be other
pregnant women infected with the virus suffer the same symptoms. Dr. Marlene Scott did not want to think about
those prospects under any terms. With
any luck the CDC would have more definitive answers and the mosquito abatement
department would bring the population quickly under control. She had already heard the trucks out late at
night spraying in her neighborhood.
Regardless of the information that had been shared at
the first meeting her curiosity had been piqued now. Dr. Marlene Scott ordered additional blood work
going against protocol she was going to send the samples to a different
lab. One that she was familiar with
because it was owned by someone she knew.
As she exited the room making a left to walk back down the hallway she
quickly sent a text.
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