Dr. Reynauld had been unable to diagnose his elderly patient, Mrs. Stewart, with anything other than generic dizziness following a car accident. The care team were practicing concussion protocols by default, so while he didn't believe Mrs. Stewart to be concussed, it is the only explanation he had come up with.
The fact that she was still experiencing dizzy spells under his care concerned him. But she was otherwise healing up well. The physical therapy team sent him progress reports and her ribs were healing. He would likely be transferring her to a rehab facility soon. He was reluctant to do so though until he was certain he had fully treated her. He sent her for every test he could think would help, including an MRI, a CT, even an ultrasound of her ribs and abdomen. None of them found anything abnormal.
Lydia, the lab tech, and his secretary Ms. Edginton had spent the last few days reviewing every patient file in the hospital for the last month. And neither of them had yet to come across "Patient 0," the patient whose blood panel results had been erroneously swapped in Mrs. Stewart's file. He did not appear to have ever been a patient in their hospital, which was unlikely.. Lydia was certain the mysterious report was legitimate. At least, it was within standard testing parameters and not erroneous in the methodology alone. If someone had prepared a fraudulent report, it was expertly done. On the other hand, if Patient 0 was a real hospital patient, no one had identified him yet.
Dr. Reynauld had considering enlisting the help of his friend, Dr. Shadow, but as the false report was discovered not to be Mrs. Stewart's, and Mrs. Stewart's treatment had not suffered any from the mistake, he didn't see why he should trouble anyone else. After all, a filing error was still the most likely case. Dr. Shadow had enough worries on her mind. And he trusted Ms. Edginton to sort out any filing mistakes. Her obsessive dedication to file management would win out in the end. And he knew she would discover any other erroneous reports.
Lydia, the lab tech, was also covertly reviewing all testing in her lab. She would let him know if any more suspicious reports were attached to improper files. He was confident his girls would discover any further issues.
Dr. Reynauld was overwhelmed with patients. As the season changed and cold weather set in, the hospital was seeing a near constant crowd of intakes. The triage nurses were working nonstop to make sure priority patients were seen as soon as possible. He was hearing rumblings of lengthy wait times in the emergency department. Staff and patients alike were short on patience. He himself had intervened when he overheard an irate gentleman screaming at a nurse that his broken toe had gone unexamined for hours. Dr. Reynauld gave the man a walking boot and an icepack and sent him to the urgent care downtown for X-rays.
It was approaching evening when Dr. Reynauld finished examining his last patient. He checked in on Mrs. Stewart and then headed back to his office to update a few case notes before heading home for the night. He had been at work for significantly longer than he was scheduled but there was so much to be done.
Just as he sat down behind his computer he was paged to radiology. He sighed. Perhaps he would just take a nap in an on-call room or his couch for a few hours before heading home or even before treating more patients. He was sure the help was needed in the ER at any time of day or night. And his own wing of patients could benefit from more of his time.
When he arrived in radiology he was puzzled to find the department empty. A few techs were usually scheduled to work at any given time. But the department was dark and silent. He checked his page again. He wasn't sure who had called for him but he was certain the call was to radiology.
He searched the office area and finding no one, he headed towards the scanner and control rooms where the MRI and CT machines were located. Perhaps his anonymous pager needed help with a scan. The lights were on ahead of him but the MRI sign was off so a scan was not in progress. He peered in but saw no one so he pushed into the room looking for whomever summoned him.
He didn't see anyone at first. Then his gaze fell upon the most welcome site. There was a woman on the MRI table. A woman who appeared to be naked except for a bow tied at the top of the thinnest red panties he had ever seen. The string material disappeared between the cleft of her beautiful round ass. She was on all fours and he could only see her back half. But he knew she was waiting for him.
