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"So, theoretically, if Anna was fighting this decision, the case would most likely land on your desk?"
"Well--"
"Has Anna's case landed on your desk, Doctor?"
"No"
Campbell advances toward him "Can you tell us why?"
"Because she isn't a patient"
"Really?" He pulls a stack of papers out froe, and then to Dr Bergen "These are Anna Fitzgerald's hospital records at Providence Hospital for the past thirteen years Why would there be records for her, if she wasn't a patient?"
Dr Bergen flips through them "She's had several invasive procedures," he admits
Go, Cahts who ride in to rescue damsels in distress, but I bet it feels a little like this "Doesn't it strike you as odd that in thirteen years, given the thickness of this file and the fact it exists in the first place, the medical ethics co done to Anna?"
"We were under the impression that donation was her wish"
"Are you telling ive up ly kit in her backpack--the ethics committee would have acted differently?"
"I knohere you're going with this, Mr Alexander," the psychiatrist says coldly "The problem is that this kind of medical situation hasn't existed before There is no precedent We're trying to feel our way as best we can"
"Isn't your job as an ethics committee to look at situations that haven't existed before?"
"Well Yes"
"Dr Bergen, in your expert opinion, is it ethically right for Anna Fitzgerald to have been asked to donate parts of her own body repeatedly for thirteen years?"
"Objection!" my mother calls out
The judge strokes his chin "I want to hear this"
Dr Bergen glances at ain "Quite frankly, even before I knew that Anna didn't want to be a participant, I voted against her donating a kidney to her sister I don't believe Kate would live through the transplant, and therefore Anna would undergo a serious operation for no reason at all Up until this point, however, I think that the risk of the procedures was small, compared to the benefit the faeralds made for Anna"
Caen, what kind of car do you drive?"
"A Porsche"
"Bet you like it"
"I do," he says guardedly
"What if I told you that you have to give up your Porsche before you leave this courtrooe DeSalvo's life?"
"That's ridiculous You--"
Campbell leans in "What if you had no choice? What if, today, psychiatrists simply have to do whatever lawyers decide is in the best interests of others?"
He rolls his eyes "In spite of the high dra to, Mr Alexander, there are basic donor rights, safeguards put into place in ood doesn't steamroll the pioneers who help create it The United States has a long and nasty history of the abuse of infor to Hu used as experimental lab rats"
"Then tell us," Cah the cracks?"
When I was only seven hborhood It's just as bad as you're thinking: Jell-Oin the street toroom stereo I, of course, have no personal recollection of any of this--I was plopped down in one of those walkers theythe their heads open
At any rate, I was inthe other kids, so the story goes, when I sort of lost le, and suddenly the wheels werefaster than I could make them stop I whizzed past adults, under the barricade the cops had put up at the end of the road to shut it off to traffic, and I was heading right for afull of cars
But Kate carab ot hit by a passing Toyota
Every now and then, sos this up Me, I remember it as the time she saved me, instead of the other way around
My en," she says, "how long have you known of my family?"
"I've been at Providence Hospital for ten years now"
"In those ten years, when some aspect of Kate's treatment was presented to you, what did you do?"
"Come up with a plan of action that was recommended," he says "Or an alternate, if possible"
"When you did, at any point in your report did you mention that Anna shouldn't be a part of it?"
"No"
"Did you ever say this would hurt Anna considerably?"
"No"
"Or put her in grave er herself?"
"No"
Maybe it's not Caht Maybe it's my mother
"Dr Bergen," she asks, "do you have kids?"
The doctor looks up "I have a son He's thirteen"
"Have you ever looked at these cases that come to the medical ethics committee and put yourself in a patient's shoes? Or better yet, a parent's shoes?"
"I have," he admits
"If you were me," my mother says, "and the medical ethics coested course of action that would save your son's life, would you question them furtheror would you just jump at the chance?"
He doesn't answer He doesn't have to
Judge DeSalvo calls a second recess after that Cas So I start to follow hiht pastdown hetti-strap girls, the ones who co out as dancers in a Britney Spears video instead of going to math class I can almost hear her voice: Please tell me that shrank in the wash
She see that maybe she shouldn't have done this I stop, and Caht red "Sorry," she says
I put my hand over hers and tuck my shirt into the back of my jeans where it should be I look at Campbell "Meet you outside?"
He's giving me a look that has Bad Idea written all over it, but he nods and heads down the aisle Then my mother and I are nearly alone in the courtrooreat up there," I tell her, because I don't kno to say what I really want to: that the people you love can surprise you every day That maybe e are isn't so much about e do, but rather e're capable of e least expect it
SARA
2002
KATE MEETS TAYLOR AMBROSE when they are sitting side by side, hooked up to IVs "What are you here for?" she asks, and I immediately look up fromoutpatient treat a conversation
The boy she is talking to is not much older than she is, maybe sixteen to her fourteen He has brown eyes that dance, and is wearing a Bruins cap over his bald head "The free cocktails," he answers, and the dimples in his cheeks deepen
Kate grins "Happy hour," she says, and she looks up at the bag of platelets being infused into her
"I'm Taylor" He holds out his hand "AML"
"Kate APL"
He whistles, and raises his brows "Ooh," he says "A rarity"
Kate tosses her cropped hair "Aren't we all?"
I watch this, amazed Who is this flirt, and what has she done with irl?
"Platelets," he says, scrutinizing the label on her IV bag "You're in remission?"
"Today, anyway" Kate glances at his pole, the telltale black bag that covers the Cytoxan "Chemo?"
"Yeah Today, any