Free Critical by Robin Cook Page A

Fearmongering is not going to work.”
    â€œBut this coincidence has to give you pause,” Laurie said. She knew it would certainly give her more than pause if the situation were reversed and she was slated to have the surgery.
    â€œFrankly, it doesn’t,” Jack said. “First, I’m not superstitious, and second, I specifically asked Dr. Anderson what his postsurgical infection rate was. He told me that the only postoperative infections he’d had over his entire career involved compound-fracture repairs, which are a totally different situation. Besides, this case you’re showing me involved University Hospital.” Jack tried to return the file to Laurie, but she wouldn’t take it.
    â€œIf you’d read further, you’d see that’s not the case.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Jack asked. He felt himself getting irritated about the surgery issue all over again. Laurie could be like a dog with a bone, which he found frustrating at times, although he knew people often accused him of having the same trait.
    â€œThe patient had had his surgery eleven hours earlier at Angels Orthopedic Hospital, not University Hospital. The reason he ended up at the University Hospital was to treat his septic shock and fulminant staphylococcal pneumonia.”
    â€œReally?” Jack’s eyes went back to the PA’s note. Although he trusted that Laurie would never make such a thing up, he had to read it himself.
    â€œThis has to worry you,” Laurie said. “The fact that they had to transfer a critically ill patient at all doesn’t speak very highly for the Angels Orthopedic Hospital. What kind of hospital outsources its dirty laundry? The patient apparently died in the ambulance. That’s crazy!”
    â€œNew treatments for septic shock require specialized personnel,” Jack said. He was distracted by what he was reading. The rapidity with which the patient’s infection progressed was shocking. Jack, as the OCME’s putative infectious-disease guru, from having made several—what he called lucky—diagnoses on cases of infectious disease ten years ago, couldn’t help but be impressed. In fact, he started to wonder if Mr. Jeffries had had a more truly infectious disease like Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
    â€œWas the infectious agent unequivocally proved to be staph aureus?” Jack asked. He tried to remember what other known diseases caused such a rapidly fulminant course.
    â€œNot by culture but by a monoclonal-based automate diagnostic system. Both the incision site and the lungs tested positive for methicillin-resistant staph, and interestingly enough, it was a strain associated with what they call ‘community-acquired staph,’ not the kind of antibiotic-resistant staph that has been plaguing hospitals over the last ten or fifteen years.”
    â€œWhich means the patient probably brought the bug in with him rather than acquired it in the hospital.”
    â€œCould be,” Laurie agreed. “But there’s no way to know. Doesn’t this bother you at all? I mean, the victim was roughly your age, had suffered the same injury, and was going to have the same operation at the same hospital. It would sure make me think twice. That’s all I can say.”
    â€œTo be honest, a postoperative infection had been one of my concerns,” Jack said. “Maybe even the biggest, which is why I asked Dr. Anderson about his record and why I have been using antibacterial soap ever since the accident. I’m going to be damn sure I’ll not be bringing any bacterial hitchhikers into the hospital if I can help it.”
    Jack flicked the back of Vinnie’s newspaper hard enough to startle the man.
    â€œQuit it!” Vinnie groused when he’d recovered from his shock and saw who was the culprit. “Please, God, don’t let the self-proclaimed super forensic sleuth insist on breaking the rules by starting