A Promise, A Cure

An Excerpt

Venice, Italy 1348

The bodies began piling up, day by day. The wretched stench of decaying corpses began to become suffocating within the first few days. After about a week, the odor became almost normal. In the beginning, the bodies had individual graves, now they dig mass graves. I promised them a cure, but how? I am no closer to a cure than I was a week ago.

Diary entry day 30

This morning, ten more patients arrived for treatment. These patients have just been infected with the deadly plague. All of our test subjects are low-class immigrants from parts of Africa and Asia. Otherwise, we would be in trouble with the law, for testing humans in such a way. Carver Fenton, my assistant, gets the patients settled in. I can tell he's a little nervous that this trial might turn out like the previous. The last patients passed away without success.

After finding out that the plague is caused by bacterium, I began creating an anti-bacteria solution. Sodium Bicarbonate is an anti-bacterium, so I began administering it intravenously into the patients. Once all the patients are settled in, I walk into each of their rooms and administer Sodium Bicarbonate. By administering Sodium Bicarbonate into the blood, I hope that it will fight the deadly bacteria that threaten to kill these people. The last test subjects died before I was able to determine how the drugs affected their bodies. Hopefully, this time around I will be able to save these people.

As I walk down the hall, I hear Fenton call me. He comes out of patient 0011's room. "Dr. Adken, patient 0011 is getting worse; I'm afraid his body is rejecting the treatment."

"We don't know that yet, Fenton. I have to find a cure for my daughter. Just help him the best you can."

"I am sorry Dr. Adken, but there seems to be nothing I can do to help the patient."

"Fenton, what am I supposed to do? All these people are relying you and I to save them. No matter what, you have to try. My daughter is getting worse and I can't let her die."

"I understand. I will try my best."

As the days past, more of the test subjects' bodies began rejecting treatment. I began to feel hopeless and desperate. I leave Dr. Fenton to tend to the patients and I go back home. Mary, my daughter, isn't only coughing now. Big, black boils have began forming under her arms; her face is pale, and she is severely weak. She can barely turn her head to look at me, when I enter her room. She's happy to see me and forces a smile; I know that takes tremendous effort. I promise her that everything will be okay.

When I return back, Fenton seems more hopeful. "Dr. Adken, patient 0013 is getting better", he smiles as he greets me.

"That's swell, Fenton! But, how are the other patients?" For once in a long time, I feel as if the heavy burden on my heart is slowly relieving itself.

"All the other patients except, 0013 are slowly dying. We should examine his blood and determine why. I decided to wait until you came before I did anything."

I walk quickly down the hall into 0013's room. Fenton explains, "His name is Inoma, and he's a Nigerian immigrant." As I enter the room, he greets me. I ask him how he's feeling.

"I am doing better thanks to you, Dr. Adken. The boils have began to subside", he replies in a thick Nigerian accent.

"That's marvelous! I need a sample of your blood, to try and determine the reason your body accepts the drugs", I answer with smile.

I grab needles, collections tubes, a tourniquet, cotton balls, and bandages out of the medicinal cabinet. I tie the tourniquet around the patient's right arm about 3 inches above the venipuncture site. Dr. Fenton grabs an alcoholic wipe and begins cleaning the patient's inner elbow with the sterile wipe. I instruct the patient to make a fist with his right hand. I tap the vein, in his inner elbow, to encourage dilation. I slowly insert the needle into the vein and draw the patient's blood. I fill up a tube and take it into the lab.

As I walk into the lab, an overwhelming sense of relief floods over me. It's startling, but welcoming. I grab another needle and two slides. I fill up the needle to about 1 mm and drop a small sample of blood onto one slide. Next, I draw the edge of another slide up against the drop of blood at a 30 to 40 degree angle and push the drop of blood down the length of the original slide to make a thin smear. After the blood smear dries, I continue preparing it for viewing. After I finish prepping, I place the slide on the stage of the microscope and secure it with stage clips.

I begin with the low-power oil objection of 40 and lower the low-power objective until it almost touches the blood smear. As I slowly zoom into focus using the fine adjustment knob, I immediately notice something is wrong. The red blood cells aren't bi-concave, they're shaped more like a sickle. The cells are closer together and have started sticking to each other. I've never seen anything like it. As I adjust the adjustment knob even more, I notice that these red blood cells aren't affected by the deadly bacterium. The drugs are adhering to the red blood cells because of their sickle shape. I suddenly form a theory, that in order for the red blood cells to be ineffective to the bacterium, I have to either make the drugs more adhesive or make all the patient's cells shaped like a sickle. The more plausible idea would be to readjust my drug formula. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make it work...

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