A Love With Limits

Chapter 4: An Uphill Battle

The doctor leaned back on the bench, looking up from the poem, focused on the panther trapped in its tiny enclosure. Pacing back and forth, a desperate but fierce look in it's eyes. She finally understood why Leonard had wanted her to read the poem, while in this exact location - the poem depicted exactly how the patient felt, lonely and locked up behind a thousand bars. She sighed heavily, defeated, but somehow she was also more determined than ever; she had finally found a way to communicate with Leonard, and she knew that he was capable of emotions and complex thoughts, and this was a start. Now, all she had to do was convince Dr. Kaufmann that L-Dopa should be administered to the patients, but she knew that this would be one hell of an uphill battle. She knew that he would probably find it immoral to use the patients as guinea pigs, but what else did they have left to try? Caroline knew that she would rather try, and fail, than let the patients continue in their state of misery.

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Back at the hospital, the young doctor caught up with Dr. Kaufmann to make a possibly futile attempt at convincing him to use the drug on the patients at Bainbridge. She was hoping that he would understand the correlation between Parkinson's and the patients' conditions at the hospital, because to her, it made all the sense in the world. The symptoms were too similar to ignore.

"Dr. Kaufmann! Wait up!" She hurried up through the hallway to catch up with him, already out of breath. The lack of sleep and food was catching up to her; she wasn't really taking care of herself, only making time to research, all day, every day. Dr. Kaufmann didn't slow down for her, in fact it seemed like he was speeding up - he had perhaps already heard Caroline talk about the drug with some of her co-workers. Being as stubborn as she was, Caroline followed him into his office, hoping that she could keep him contained until she had said her piece.

"Dr. Kaufmann... Listen, you've heard about the new drug L-Dopa. The way it worked for patients with Parkinson's Disease was miraculous. Don't you think we should try it on our patients? I know they're alive inside. They're just trapped in their bodies." She tried to maintain the confidence in her voice, hoping that it might rub off on him, at least subconsciously. Much to Dr. Vìzkovà's dismay, he just looked at her briefly and rolled his eyes so far back into his head, that she thought they might roll out of his skull.

"I appreciate that you're just trying to do good for our patients," he sat back in his chair, sighing, "but this is too risky, and frankly, I don't think you've been thinking it through, darling. You're just a young girl, you might not be thinking about the consequences. How do you know for certain that they're alive inside? Because they can catch tennis balls? How many of the patients did you think I'd let you give the drug to?"

This statement made her blood boil, but she knew that she needed to remain professional, since this was such an important matter. No time for arguing with a self-righteous man who thinks he owns the ground he walks on. Keeping her confident posture, with her hands on her hips, she simply smiled.

"I understand your concern, I really do," Dr. Vìzkovà stated, "but hear me out. I just know they have a working mind. I know it. Just let me do it on one patient. And if it works, let me use it on them all." She sensed that she might be getting through to him, and she started breathing heavier. "Just one."

Dr. Kaufmann looked her straight in the eye, not giving any clues of what he's thinking about, making Caroline nervous. "Right," he said, brushing down his suit, "I'll let you give the drug to one patient. With the family's consent, signed." He maintained his serious demeanor, but Dr. Vìzkovà didn't care; she flashed him a big smile, and hurried out of the door, not looking back. Next step: Getting consent from Leonard's mother. She believed that this would be easy enough - Leonard's mother had stated how much she wanted him back to normal, and this could be the solution.