Free Numb: A Dark Thriller by Lee Stevens Page A

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22 YEARS AGO
     
     
    The 7 th World Congress On Pain, held in France and sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Pain, had brought together over four thousand clinicians, scientists and healthcare providers from all over the world to learn and exchange knowledge regarding the understanding, treatment and prevention of this traumatic condition through workshops and lectures over a five day period.
    Now into its fourth day inside the luxurious conference room within the Paris Marriott Hotel, Dr Robert Carter stepped up to the podium and faced the five hundred strong audience, all of whom were eager to hear his speech, as six months earlier the relatively-unknown palliative care consultant had published an article in the IASP’s scientific journal ‘Pain’ , detailing a recent case of his that still continued to baffle the brightest minds within the medical community.
    Dr Carter, his hair thinning and greying in equal measure as he approached his half century, shuffled his notes and cleared his throat before looking out at the seated men and women in the humid and dark auditorium. Quite a few were medical students eager to hear tales from seasoned professionals. Most, however, were respected doctors and professors. Some were world famous within the medical community for their skills and knowledge. And here he was, a humble consultant from the equally humble Thirnbridge University Hospital, asked to be one of the guest speakers at such a prestigious event.
    “Hello, ladies and gentlemen,” he said into the small microphone fixed atop the stand. He almost jumped as his voice boomed back from the speakers in the four corners of the room. “It’s a lovely sunny day outside. I hope when I’ve finished you all don’t regret having been stuck indoors listening to me.”
    That brought a few laughs and Carter relaxed a little. He hated presentations and avoided them as often as he could, but today he was honoured to have been given the opportunity to elaborate on the two thousand word article he’d written.
    “So we have enough time for questions I’ll just re-cap the main points in my article.” He took a sip of water. His throat always dried up when giving presentations. His voice would probably start to go in the next few minutes. “The basis for ‘The Numb Mind’ occurred three years ago. On the fourteenth of March that year, a bright spring morning in England, a commuter train fell from a bridge just outside the city of Thirnbridge. There were over fifty fatalities and almost all of the survivors suffered some sort of injury. Of the survivors, one stood out. A young boy of ten, pulled from the wreckage of the first carriage – the most badly damaged – a full six hours after the incident. Amazingly he’d been saved from certain death due to some dislodged luggage that had cushioned his fall and also because of a small opening in the side of the crushed carriage in which he lay that allowed enough fresh air inside so that his lungs were not consumed by smoke. However, in those six hours between the accident and rescue, that poor boy was alone and awake, in a carriage filled with the dead and dying, which included his unfortunate mother and father.”
    Carter took another sip of water and turned to the next page of notes.
    “Now, as in my article, the child in question will be referred to as Boy D. Boy D is now in the care of his grandmother and only a handful of people and medical professionals are aware of his condition. For his own sake, we intend to keep it that way. After everything he’s been through, anonymity seems to be the easiest way towards a normal life for him. And what do I mean by a normal life? Well, I’ll explain...
    “When Boy D was freed from the wreckage, the emergency services were horrified by the extent of his injuries, which included – amongst several broken bones and abrasions - a severe injury to his spine. The skin had been flayed from most of his back so