Free Of Flesh and Blood by Daniel Kalla Page B

while. He had an understanding of multiple sclerosis, but I did not trust his hypotheses, and I was very leery of his grand promises.” He shook his head angrily. “I should have never read his letters to Virginia, but they made her so happy. In her mind, Sibley became her savior. I could not refuse to bring her to see him.”
    “It did not go well?”
    “No, it did not.” The memory of it stoked Evan’s ire. “For a small fortune, the quack treated her with one of his patented panaceas, Sibley’s Elixir. His snake oil almost killed her. I had to threaten to beat the life out of him before he confessed that his ‘curative’ was nothing more than red wine with a small portion of sulfuric acid added.”
    Olivia wrinkled her nose in shock. “
Sulfuric acid?
”
    “Sibley and his ilk,” he growled. “They are the problem with my profession. Anyone can present himself as a doctor or a healer. These people offer nothing but lies and pseudoscience. Worse still, they break the first law of medicine.”
    “Which is?”
    “Hippocrates said, ‘Above all, do no harm’!” He gazed at her intently, his chest thumping with a blend of indignation and affection. “I have seen this maxim contradicted far too often, Miss Alfredson. Patented ‘cure-alls’ thrown together with whatever chemicals are lying about. Outdated and dangerous treatments like bleeding or even the drilling of holes into people’s skulls.People want so badly to find something to help that they will trust anyone. However, these unproven procedures and spurious medications kill patients. I have signed far too many death certificates as a result.”
    Olivia shook her head in distaste.
    “In San Francisco, at the Morgan Clinic, we practiced medicine supported by scientific principles and evidence,” Evan went on. “There is nothing comparable here or anywhere in the whole state.”
    Olivia leaned forward, her eyes suddenly wide with excitement. “You could establish such a facility, Dr. McGrath. Right here in Seattle!”
    “Could you imagine it, Miss Alfredson?” He reached forward and almost grabbed her hand in his exhilaration, but stopped himself. “A clinic where the best practitioners and researchers in medicine come together to care for patients, share their knowledge, and search for new and better remedies.”
    Evan looked away in embarrassment. He had never discussed the idea with anyone, but he longed to see such a clinic built, and not only for professional reasons. He was also thinking of his wife, imagining her in an environment that offered a glimmer of hope for the future.
    Cheeks flushed, Olivia stared at Evan in awe. “How wonderful!” she gasped.
    Evan experienced another surge of the elation, which was happening more often in her presence. He had not had an opportunity to teach students since he had left San Francisco. To have such a hungry pupil, who was so quick to understand, was a pleasure for him.
    Their eyes locked warmly. “Dr. McGrath, this clinic could really be something important.”
    “Yes.”
    A high-pitched moan from Virginia’s room broke the moment. Evan began to rise from his chair. “No!” Olivia jumped to her feet. “Allow me to help Mrs. McGrath up. Please. You look so very tired.”
    Evan nodded gratefully. He was exhausted, having stayed at the hospital until four A.M . with a gravely ill man who required amputation of his gangrenous leg. “Miss Alfredson, you have been such a help to Virginia and me,” he began awkwardly. “I do not know how to thank you.”
    Olivia showed him a big smile. “Dr. McGrath, I believe that a little help around the house is minor compensation in return for saving a person’s life.”
    Evan watched her disappear into his wife’s room. He heard voices. Thoughhe could not make out the conversation, he picked up snippets of his wife’s anxious jumbled words and Olivia’s reassuring answers. Impatient for their return, Evan tried to convince himself that he was just