The Big Hospital

"Assault"/huntemann                                                                                                                                             Page 343

Chapter Six
Of Compassion Lost
Scene [1]
The Big Hospital

Lawrence General
1998/11/05 Thursday 14:00-14:55 [Don]
         Most of the meeting attendees rode the elevator with us up to the fourth floor. I listened to Dr. Milles’ initial details of Renee’s delivery and Kimee’s birth in stunned silence.

         On, my poor little girl. The clumsiness, the uncertainty of what to do, and the knowledge the medicals had that they didn’t share with us. It made me angry.

         Trying to remain civil, I asked, “You mean to tell me that Kimee’s condition is the result of poor choices made by EMTs enroute from Town Manor to the ER here, a distance of less than a mile?”

         Dr. Milles paused for a moment, then said, “Don’t dwell on what might have been. Look after your daughter and granddaughter as they are now.”

         The others in the elevator stood silent trying to tune in to the right reactions for such a surreal story. Did this really happen? Or, is this some TV drama.

         The elevator stopped and the door opened but no one moved. It was as if they were waiting for more.

         I stepped out of the elevator with Dr. Milles, but she stopped and placed her hand on the door sensor to keep it open. The others filed out. Dr. Milles stepped back into the elevator and it left the floor.

         Dang. Who’s in charge now?

         The group followed me to Renee’s room. Not a sound except for the footfalls on the polished tile.

         When we arrived at Renee’s room, she was asleep. I tried to wake her... initially to no effect. The 24-hour nurse’s aide said she had been coughing a lot this morning, so she was probably very tired.

         After ten minutes, when she did rouse some, there were several conversations going on in the group simultaneously. With all the distractions, Renee did not appear to recognize me.

         Maura apparently took notice of that.

         Several others tried to communicate with Renee also. She just stared at their lips with her blank look and ignored them. When Maura tried to talk to her, Renee just closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

         Good girl.


         The others left after several minutes. I stayed to give Renee some PT and OT. I always like to start with her feet first so I can detect cramps in her toes.

         I talked to the aide while I worked. “Has she been crying today?”

         The aide said, “No, just coughing.”

         “She often gets toe cramps,” I said. “With her feet under the covers most of the time, you might miss it.”

         I showed the aide how I massage her toes to relieve the cramps.

         The aide said, “That's usually the PT department's job.”

         Ignoring the aide’s reluctance, I continued, “Works most of the time. She'll stop crying once her toes relax. Just a simple thing.”

         When I started OT, I noticed Renee's hand splints were different. Not the crappy ones they’d finally retrieved from Town Manor.

         Inspecting the splints closely, I asked, “These new?”

         The aide said, “Finally delivered today. Took them two days to get the fit right.”

         I removed the left splint and began flexing Renee's wrist.

         I said, “She seems a bit tighter today. Too bad she doesn't get regular OT.”

         “Oh, they come once a day.”

         “For how long?”

         “Ten minutes or so.”

         After her wrists, I worked her arms, hands and fingers. I spent maybe 20 minutes on each side, replacing each splint when I was done. They were snug and well made.

         Before I left, I told the aide, “First class job on the splints. Thank the prosthetics department for me.”


Courts
1998/11/05 Thursday Afternoon [Don]
         When I arrived home, attorney James Townsend had left a phone message following-up my urgent message on Saturday, a week and a half ago.

         Boy, what would have happened to us if I had waited for him?

         I had a flash back of my brief conversation with him in 1995. He wasn’t so interested in getting guardianship for Renee back then. He seemed more interested in suing somebody for her overdose.

         Well, this isn’t about a drug overdose anymore. This is about a rape while in the care of a multinational medical services corporation.

         I returned the call to Townsend's office and told the secretary, “I had to get someone on short notice, so I retained a different attorney. But, I may have a real estate sale soon.”

         She said, “He does not do real estate closings”... and gave me three local attorneys who do.

         Maybe he doesn’t do ‘high profile’ crime and corporate lawsuits either.

         I mused, Answering machines can cause missed opportunities. This case just might turn out to be a big deal. Too bad he didn’t get back to me sooner.


NEMC
1998/11/05 Thursday 22:45 [Don]
         I called New England Medical Center for a report on Kimee. I talked to the baby’s Charge Nurse at the NICU, Julie Magnano.

•          Her weight is about the same.

•          The feeding tube is down her esophagus, through her stomach, but not into her intestine yet. It takes time and they can’t see it clearly with ultra-sound. They have to let natural forces carry it to the intestine entrance.

•          She’s had no BMs yet, so it’s hard to determine if her bowels are functioning. Plus, all her nutrients have been given intravenously. There isn’t much to process. The delay is starting to be a concern though.

•          And they will do an EEG1 tomorrow.


Courts
1998/11/06 Friday 11:45 [Don]
         Our guardianship attorney, Michelle, called. “Maura has informed me that Renee will be moved this afternoon to Mass General using her covert name ‘Bridget Williams.’ They will have an access list, so bring proper identification when you visit.”

         I asked, “Is this how it has to be done for everything? Maura calls you, and you call us?”

         “In the beginning, until the ‘feel’ of the case is better defined.”

         “Well, if it isn’t legal calisthenics, can’t she just tell us about our daughter?”

         “I have to be out of town for a few days. So, I’ll see if she will do that.”

         I then informed Michelle of the details of Kimee’s birth as relayed by Dr. Milles. “They were hiding behind the guardianship ambiguity... trying to cover their ass, and look where it lead.”

         Michelle said, “They’re still covering. That’s why they have a 24-hour Aide in her room.... Why is she going to Mass General?”

         “It’s Mara’s idea. She wants them to do some neurological tests. Doctor Milles said they could do it at LGH, but Mara wouldn’t have it. I’m glad for the tests. I asked Town Manor to do an evaluation last year. But, they never did.”


Courts
1998/11/06 Friday 16:22 [Don]
         Maura called me directly this time. “The transfer to Mass General went smoothly. They have her under very tight security.”

         “Can we still visit her?”

         “You’ll have to call their security for special visiting instructions.”

         She gave me the phone number. I called them right after she hung up and made arrangements to visit Renee immediately.

Whisked away covertly, to a rich man’s bed,
New faces to probe me, their sanity has fled?
More pictures, scans and needles, déjà vu,
My story’s the same, it’s just a new crew.
                                                 Renee’s Song

Mass General, Boston, MA
1998/11/06 Friday 20:30-21:22 [Ferne and Don]
         Ferne and I checked in at the security office. They informed us that we will be limited to 15 minute visits, with a guard in the room. We had to wait for a guard to become available, who then escorted us up to her room.

         When we stepped out of the elevator, the hall was more like a swanky hotel. Mahogany doors, heavy curtains on the windows, overstuffed Victorian chairs in the lounge. Not like any other hospital I’ve ever been in.

         We arrived at her bedside at nine o’clock. The guard stayed just inside her door... waiting.

         I flexed her hands and arms while Ferne brushed and fixed her hair. We talked to her and gave her many kisses. It felt strange to have a guard watching everything we did.

         At twenty after the hour, the guard said, “Time.” We had to go, he had other duties to tend to.


NEMC
1998/11/06 Friday 21:38-23:10 [Ferne and Don]
         After seeing Renee, Ferne and I went over to NEMC to visit Kimee. The feeding tube has made it into her intestine. They are starting to nourish her through it today, just a little bit at a time. They will slowly increase the doses over the next few days.

         And, she pooped. Hurray!

         We had a long talk with a new nurse at Kimee's Isolette. She had worked at Mass General several years ago. When I described Renee’s floor to her, she said, “Oh, that’s ‘Mahogany Row,’ reserved for VIPs and sick Potentates.”

         Hum. Maybe the only good result of Renee’s ‘high profile’ case.


Mass General
1998/11/08 Sunday 20:45-21:20 [Ferne and Don]
         Two days later, after threading another path through security, Ferne and I arrived at Renee's bed at 20:50. We talked to her as if she could hear us. Ferne showed her more pictures of Kimee. I flexed her arms and hands.

         Just before the guard insisted we had to leave at 21:10, I jotted down the number of the phone beside her bed.

         On the way out, we stopped at the nurses station and I inquired about Renee’s condition.

         “I’m sorry sir, that’s confidential information.”

         “But,” I said, “we’re her parents.”

         “You will have to contact the guardian.”


NEMC
1998/11/08 Sunday 21:37-22:50 [Ferne and Don]
         Ferne and I visited Kimee... she likes her feet rubbed. We were told to watch her heart rate monitor. If it drops below 120, she is really relaxed.

         I held her foot between my thumb and forefinger and gently squeezed and stroked it. In a few minutes she was at 115.

         The staff at NEMC are so friendly. They tell us everything we want to know about Kimee.... They appeared to really trust us.


Courts
1998/11/09 Monday Morning [Don]
         Maura called to report on Renee:
1. The Neurology team met for two hours on Friday.

2. An MRI2 was done at 4:00 am today.

3. They will be doing more tests today and tomorrow including an EEG and EKG3.

4. She will need to stay at Mass General for two or three more days.

         Maura then said, “Since I have been appointed temporary guardian, I need to assume all of Renee’s finances, including her SSA Personal Needs stipend. How is that handled now?”

         I said, “I opened a savings account in my name and ‘for Renee’ back in 1995. The checks have been deposited directly there by Social Security.”

         “Well, you’ll have to close that account. Have the bank make out a check to Renee and give it to me the next time we meet.”

         Hesitating, “Okay....” I wonder what else she is going to take? I wish Michelle was the one telling me to do this.


Courts
1998/11/09 Monday Evening [Don]
         Kathryn Phelan-Brown, DSS (on loan as an investigator to the Lawrence Juvenile Court), called and said she needs to meet with us. The meeting will be limited to a discussion of Kimee only. I said I will arrange to get a conference room at Moquin and Daley's Manchester office. The time was set for Wednesday at noon.


Courts
1998/11/10 Tuesday 09:50 [Don]
         I called Ed Daley, our lead attorney, and asked to use their conference room to meet with Brown tomorrow... OK, but he will not be in town.


Courts
1998/11/10 Tuesday 12:00 [Don]
         We received a letter from Michelle about a public notice for the guardianship of Kimee. Potential interested parties must be given notice of the proceedings.

         Who would be an interested party? Us, sure. But the father?

         “Ha! Step forward and be arrested.”


Courts
1998/11/10 Tuesday 20:25 [Don]
         Maura called and said she wants us to meet her tomorrow at four o’clock in Renee's room for a discussion with the doctors working on her. They want to see if she recognizes us. Bring photos, dolls, things she may remember.


Courts
1998/11/11 Wednesday 12:00-13:30 [Ferne and Don]
         We had the meeting with Phelan-Brown, at Moquin and Daley’s conference room. Ed and Benjamin were both unavailable at the time, but I thought the surroundings of the plush and successful lawyers’ abode might put the atmosphere a bit in our favor.

         Kathryn started the meeting with a disclosure of our Lamb Rights?... She started to read from a plastic laminated card.

         It sounded a lot like Miranda Rights read at criminal arrests.

         Oh, brother. Here we go again. Another legal flexing her authority. I can’t just refuse to speak without a lawyer. We need a good report returned to the court. I can’t appear to be uncooperative. This isn’t a criminal case... yet.

         So I paused her for a second and said, “Ed and Benjamin are not available right now, but I’m sure there’s a lawyer around here somewhere who would like to hear this.”

         “Ah... no, oh never mind. We can dispense with that,” and she dropped it.

         She asked the same questions the police did. And I said so. “Why don’t you just read their reports?”

         “We don't have access to their reports.”

         “Really? Why not?”

         “A different department, and their investigation is still in progress.”

         We answered her questions carefully, and hopefully the same way as we did for the cops. Bet on it. Someday, they will compare notes.

         I hope my deflection of her ‘Lamb Rights’ ploy didn’t poison the waters. So, I tried to be congenial, helpful, friendly... I asked her about her work, “Have to travel a lot?”

         “Not too often. I’m usually involved in just the Lawrence area. This is the first time I’ve been out of state this year.”

         I asked about the blood testing results.

         “It’ll take 6 weeks for the blood work. The labs are swamped with DNA requests.”

         I said, “Humm, new technology, great expectations, everybody wants to use it?”

         “Sort of like that.”

         After an hour or so, she seemed satisfied with our answers. When she was packing up her briefcase, she said she will recommend we get guardianship after the DNA results come back.


NEMC
1998/11/11 Wednesday 15:00-15:30 [Ferne and Don]
         The meeting with Maura, Dr. Struyk and Dr. Brown was scheduled for 16:00. We left Londonderry early to avoid traffic and just not our luck, there wasn’t any. Since we arrived in Boston so early, we stopped at NEMC first to visit Kimee for 30 minutes before going over to Mass General. The traffic miscalculation caught up to us going between hospitals and we were a little delayed getting to Mass General.


Mass General
1998/11/11 Wednesday 16:07-19:00 [Ferne and Don]
         Ferne and I bypassed security this time and arrived at the VIP nurses’ station, right across the hall from Renee’s room, a few minutes past four. We started to go into her room, but the nurse stopped us.

         “You’ll need permission from her guardian to go in there.”

         I could see Maura through the door sitting in a chair talking to someone in a white jacket. I’m sure she saw me, too. So I said, “She’s right there.”

         The nurse said, “Just wait.”

         So, that’s what Ferne and I did. Waited at the nurses’ station for ten minutes, just standing there. There were no chairs.

         Getting bored, I told the duty nurse we would be down the hall in the waiting room.

         While we sat there in the plush chairs I thought of calling the number I had written down for Renee’s room. Just to let her know we’re here.

         No, stupid. She just wants to be in charge. Call the shots. Make people wait for her!

         We sat there until 16:58 before Maura came to get us (total 51 minute wait)! If I had known it would be this long, we could have visited Kimee almost an hour longer.

         Steamed would have been an appropriate description of my mood. Calm down buddy. Obviously she takes the police’s label of me as a ‘person-of-interest’ a little too seriously. All I have to do is raise my voice and they’ll arrest me and I’d have to wait for the DNA results in a jail sell. Damn.

         When we walked into Renee’s room, she didn't recognize us while Dr. Struyk was observing. However, she did later (of course the doctor missed that, though). We visited with Renee from 17:00 to 18:45 when Dr. Brown arrived.

         Dr. Brown, Ferne, Maura and I discussed Renee's prognosis, condition, and responses to us... her pupils, touch, reflexes, eye movement, etc. I told him about my theory of Renee’s fovea blindness... he showed no interest.

         He said, “Her EEG was disappointing... very little alpha waves, lower levels and slower than normal.”

         I said, “That sounds a lot like what they said at BCH in 1995.”

         “I would like to know who the doctors were at BCH, back then, who worked on her EEG, MRI, and ultrasounds.”

         I said, “I may have something in the copy of her chart I got when she left BCH.” I promised to send him the info.

         The doctors left.


Courts
1998/11/11 Wednesday 18:45 [Don]
         I asked Maura about the letter I received from Michelle. “Why do they have to put it in the newspaper?” I said. “The less in the press the better.”

         She said, “The release of information, via public notice in newspapers, is required by law for Kimee’s guardianship case. But, given Renee’s condition, Kimee’s condition, and the perpetrator still being at large, a ‘waiver’ may be granted. Have Michelle look into that.... Did you close Renee’s account?”

         I reluctantly gave Maura the bank check. It felt like I was giving away a piece of my daughter’s life. I hope you guard this faithfully and is not just part of your asserting authority.

         Maura didn’t express any thank you, but did say, “We need to have a place for Renee to go after she’s released from Mass General. I have connections at the Mary Immaculate Nursing Home in Lawrence as a possible home for her.”

         I’ve never had a ‘connection’ where I could get a favor or special treatment. It seems to be a badge of prestige in New England to have ‘connections.’ I didn’t ask what those connections might be...

         Maybe those ‘connections’ are what got her into this ‘Mahogany Row’ too.

         We also discussed the Boston Harold’s article today about Renee's background. It was an awful story of Renee’s previous troubles in Mass General and with the Boston police. It was completely unrelated to her assault and condition now.

         Maura felt that the medical/psychological information was too detailed to be obtained from public records. She promised to contact Mass General Security with a question about possible violation of patient information privacy.

         Well, they keep it private from some people... her parents.


Courts
1998/11/12 Thursday 10:00 [Don]
         I called Michelle's voice-mail and mentioned her letter and asked if an announcement ‘waiver’ could be obtained in Kimee’s case.


Mass General
1998/11/13 Friday 20:20 [Ferne and Don]
         On our next visit with Renee, Ferne and I were restricted to 20 minutes again, under the eyes of another guard. I flexed her hands, arms and legs. Some new temporary hand splints were on the wrong hands and backwards. They have discarded the good ones Lawrence General made for her. You know, the ones that had ‘left’ and ‘right’ written on them.

         So much for the competence level of the ‘VIP’ floor staff.


NEMC
1998/11/13 Friday 21:15 [Ferne and Don]
         Ferne and I visited Kimee. Barbara was the nurse on duty. With wires, tubes, paper gowns and face masks in the right places, we got to hold her for 30 min each. She felt so light, it was as if I was holding an empty rolled up towel. They took pictures.


Pages: 18
Words: 3,333

Footnotes
1  EEG – electroencephalogram:
A graphic record of brain waves representing electrical activity in the brain, used especially in the diagnosis of seizures and other neurological disorders. The instrument used to record an electroencephalogram is called an electroencephalograph. It generates a record of the electrical activity of the brain by measuring electric signals using a set of electrodes attached to the scalp that act as transducers. Differences of electric potential between different parts of the brain are measured by a portable set of galvanometers and printed as a wide paper strip with multiple simultaneous waveform tracings that have standard configurations in the normal brain.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/electroencephalogram

2  MRI - Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), is primarily a medical imaging technique most commonly used in radiology to visualize the internal structure and function of the body. MRI provides much greater contrast between the different soft tissues of the body than Computed Tomography (CT) does, making it especially useful in neurological (brain), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and ontological (cancer) imaging. Unlike CT, it uses no ionizing radiation, but uses a powerful magnetic field to align the nuclear magnetization of (usually) hydrogen atoms in water in the body. Radio frequency (RF) fields are used to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization, causing the hydrogen nuclei to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner. This signal can be manipulated by additional magnetic fields to build up enough information to construct an image of the body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_Resonance_Imaging

3  EKG – electrocardiogram:
(ECG or EKG abbreviated from the German name Elektrokardiogramm) is the recording of the electrical activity of the heart over time via skin electrodes. It is a noninvasive recording produced by an electrocardiograph.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocardiogram