Waiting in a small room next to the lower floor of the lecture hall, Lia paces back and forth nervously while trying to listen to the presentation.
While some of it is really advanced, most of the talk is basically explaining how this whole situation got so out of hand. The researchers are hoping to escape with their careers not totally destroyed after keeping this under wraps for so long.
Her part is at the end, and she figures they're planning on having her come out there to hopefully earn some sympathy from the crowd.
She takes a seat in the corner of the small room, basically a closet to store extra chairs and A/V equipment.
Pulling out her phone and navigating through her text editor, she debates making any last minute changes in her speech and decides against it - by the time she gets through the text with her phone slowly reading through every word it will likely be time to head out there anyway.
She thinks to herself "I really should turn up the speed on this thing."
In the huge concrete bowl of a lecture hall, one of the senior researchers is at the podium, speaking into a microphone, although most of the crowd is in the front few rows.
"... Patient's paradoxical reaction to the treatment gave us pause, but the continued improvement of test scores created some doubts about the accuracy of our scan results....the test scores kept improving while all of our scans pointed to less neural activity taking place. We determined that the best course was to continue treatment and monitor for any delayed changes..."
John, attempting to blend in as much as possible while sitting in the audience of mostly older people in lab coats with notepads, hears the story for the second time but with the gaps filled in.
Most of it is way over his head, but the basic story is the same - the docs wanted to help someone and their whole plan went off the rails. Hopefully they'll be able to prepare the audience enough to make her debut a little less crazy, although who knows once the media gets a hold of it.
The researcher continues, "Here's the final MRI before we discovered the source of our confusion."
The slide changes to a cross section of what looks like a scan of Lia's head. "It's obvious at first glance that the course of neural degeneration has continued unabated, the loss of tissue and increased fluid volume is overwhelming - normally a patient with this level of damage would be on a ventilator, not walking around and passing high level writing and problem solving tests. Actually, her scores were steadily increasing..."
The audience seems to be split between concern, confusion, and disbelief as they go deeper into the lecture, and he's only just begun.
"After making sure the scan results were correctly coming over from the machine and the scan was set correctly...
The members of the audience who clearly know this stuff are leaning in closer to try to get a better look as the scan comes up, and they appear to be really shocked as the doctor continues.
"...scanned to verify metabolic activity levels. Next slide please."
"Obviously we were scarcely able to believe it when we saw this. By all appearances the patient we had down the hall was dead, or at least completely brain dead. One of our team members commandeered the scan room and ran a scan on our patient's whole body, and the next slide confirmed his suspicions."
A murmur moves through the crowd as the next slide comes up, the scan lit up with activity everywhere but the brain, and basically going off the scale with the amount of activity.
"It appears that the trial drug did produce a result over the course of treatment, but the neural regrowth was redirected somehow...
"...over time the new growth throughout the patient's body seemed to make up for the gradual loss in function and even caused an increase..."
One of the crowd raises a hand, and the organizer quickly says "Please hold your questions to the end, we will have a follow-on question and answer session after the presentation.
"...minimal effects on the patient's personality and functionality are likely due to the long timeframe of treatment and the ongoing physical and cognitive therapy."
John tries to blend in, being the only person who clearly doesn't belong, but his nervousness seems to be impossible to hide. Hopefully the audience is distracted enough.
"Loss of cranial and optic nerve connectivity caused the sensory deficits to progress.... "
"...Although compensating well with assistive technologies, some of which the patient developed herself, the consequences of the degeneration eventually caused the onset of a series of massive infections. That brings us to the next phase of treatment. The patient didn't report any issues until it progressed into advanced sepsis which was spreading rapidly...
Some members in the crowd start whispering to each other, and others are writing furiously. John thinks he sees a camera pop up from one of the back rows for a moment.
...started removing all affected tissue and were forced to a decision point. Next slide please."
