Our hero wakes up in an ICU unit with some desirable mental powers and decides to try to help some people have better lives. He does relieve some loneliness. Obviously, it is all fiction (damn), and everyone is over 18. Votes and comments welcome. Signed comments, public or private will be acknowledged. Enjoy. Jb7
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Meg Reynolds was near despair. She watched her only son, Kirk, as he lay comatose in the ICU bed, his head wrapped in plastic tubing carrying cold water around his skull in an attempt to reduce the 105 degree fever which had been attacking his brain for the past week. Doctors were totally stymied, unable to account for the fever, and for the weird temperature pattern in Kirk's body.
Anal and axillary temperature readings were normal. Oral, aural, and infra red readings of the face and skull were all at or above 104. They had been unable to identify the agent causing the fevers; antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, had all been tried and failed. CAT, PET, and MRI scans had proved unremarkable in attempting to identify or locate the source of the infection, if that is what it was.
Ten days ago, the 25 year old Psychology doctoral candidate had been at work at his clinical internship site, the local state hospital for the mentally ill. One of the patients, on lunch duty washing dishes, had started throwing water around the kitchen. Kirk had gone in to intercede and slipped on the wet floor, hitting his head on the floor. Momentarily stunned, he laid on the floor until his head cleared. The patient, copying what he had seen in the movies, had thrown a basin of dirty dishwater in his face.
Two days later, Kirk had awoken with a raging headache, barely able to lift his head from his pillow. That afternoon, he had collapsed at work and the fever had started.
Meg saw the attending physician approaching in the reflection in the window. As she drew near, Meg turned to greet her. "Dr. Hsu, good morning. How is Kirk doing?"
"Good morning, Mrs Reynolds. All I can say is he's no worse, But, he's also no better. The cooling tubes don't seem to be helping the way we wanted. I can't say they're helping, but, since we applied them, the temperature climb has stopped. May I ask you to step into my office? We need to discuss his prognosis."
In the sparsely furnished office, Dr. Hsu had Meg sit and offered her a cup of coffee, then asked if there was anyone else she would like present. Meg shook her head, explaining she was a widow, and Kirk, an only child. The doctor started by expressing her personal, and her team's, frustration and puzzlement at Kirk's situation.
The danger of exposure to such a high temperature for such an extended period, usually, was death. They considered the fact he was still alive, and responding to pain stimuli, a miracle. If he continued with such a high fever, Meg had to be prepared for a severe decline in ability.
That being said, the doctor went on, the team had identified a possible treatment. One that was totally off protocol. A new, powerful radioisotope was being used with some success in treating cancerous tumors, lymphoma and bacterial encephalitis in lab animals.
It might, the doctor said, emphasizing might, offer some hope. Except for the unusual temperature distribution, Kirk's symptoms technically qualified as encephalitis. By inserting small amounts of the isotope into his skull, they might be able to kill whatever agent was causing the fever.
"How would you place the isotope; would it require surgery?" asked Meg.
"No, we would be able to insert it into the sinus cavity; we would place three minuscule amounts and use adhesive to secure them; one near each outer edge and one centrally placed.."
"Would there be any side effects, if it worked?"
"It's impossible to predict. We have no idea in what condition Kirk is going to come out of this. In the lab animals, side effects have tended to be species specific, i.e., the rats all had similar effects, rabbits, different side effects from the rats, but among the rabbits, they were similar. Same with the monkeys, different from the rats and rabbits, but among the monkeys, similar effects. I can say, they all appeared to be somatic, physical, and none seemed to be particularly debilitating or incapacitating."
"When?"
"If we have your permission, it can be done by lunchtime." Meg nodded. "I'll get things started," said Dr. Hsu, standing up.
The isotope had been placed without moving Kirk from his isolation cubicle. An hour later, unexpectedly, in spite of the cooling coils, his temperature began to rise precipitously, leveling off at 107.5, where it remained for 36 hours, then rapidly declined to normal. Kirk, however, remained comatose. In the absence of any fever, after 24 hours he was removed from isolation and placed in a 'normal' ICU bed.
Tiffany Williams, a 30 year old medical technician, was one of a dozen techs who regularly worked in the ICU. Although the patient load wasn't huge, it was considered hard duty. On a normal medical floor, vitals were taken once a shift, unless ordered more frequently.
In the ICU, in spite of the constant monitoring, they were taken by hand every hour. In addition, there were several other observations she had to make, such as level of alertness, depth of breathing, eyes open or closed, was patient skin hot, cold, dry, clammy, was there any kind of response when their name was called.
She was reviewing her shift orders for the evening when she saw them wheeling the white boy with the crazy fever out of isolation to room 15. She picked up his chart to see if anything special had been ordered for him. At the top of the list, highlighted, was a bath and lotion rub. She smiled; that was one of the favorite parts of her job. She was a firm believer in the healing power of simple human contact.
Tiffany finished her review and made sure her cart was stocked and powered up. Since the order for the bath for the white boy had been highlighted, it meant that it was important. She could understand, that high a fever for that long, his skin was probably peeling off in sheets. She gathered the supplies and paraphernalia she would need and entered his cubicle, pulling the curtain to maintain his privacy and modesty.
She folded down the blanket and sheet to his hips and proceeded to wash and dry his torso. Covering his chest, she then did the same for his legs, inadvertently brushing his genitals. To her, it was usually one of the casual contacts common between nurse and patient. This time, the result caused her to do a double take.
Kirk responded to the light brush with a significant surge in his member. It wasn't totally erect, but it had easily doubled in length, she thought. "Wow, I'll have to remember to report this," she was thinking when she became aware of a hand on the back of her thigh, sliding up toward her buttocks.
She tried to look down to see who was touching her. "Hold still," she heard someone say. The hand continued up her leg, to the apex of the vee her thighs formed. She felt it rub over her perianal area and continue to the area of prominence where it stopped, the fingers of the hand pushing into the crack, wriggling as if searching for something. "Nice ass," came the voice again. "What's your name?"
"Tiffany," she replied aloud.
