Case:Black - 25. Chapter 25

Southaven General Hospital

Screening Area

2010 CST

Dr. Ralph Wiggins was a GP working in one of the local minor medical care clinics. On most days he saw flu, chicken pox, skinned knees and twisted ankles. He had volunteered with a number of the clinics staff members to take up the desperate call of volunteers. In his opinion, Southaven General had done an excellent job of getting things organized.

The National Guard had put together a Mobile Army Hospital Unit in one of the hospitals parking lots. It was composed of a mix of mobile buildings and tents. The Guard unit associated with it had arrived earlier in the afternoon and the whole thing was erected in a little more than an hour. Their intention was to use it as a screening facility for the hospital proper. People who were showing symptoms would have blood work done and if they were indeed infected with Pandora.

There were four queues of breath-mask clad patients leading to the screening exams and four groups of doctors and nurses to perform them. So far they had only seen a trickle of patients and none of them were very happy to be there.

A bio-warfare alert drove hypochondriacs absolutely crazy. So far he had seen people complaining of Ebola, anthrax and plague symptoms. Needless to say, none of them were seriously ill unless you counted being scared out of their wits. Several people had been admitted and the staff expected that number to begin to rise sharply in the next few hours.

Wiggins immediately recognized the next patient. Bobby Hill was one of his regulars at the clinic. Bobby was an impossibly tall, thin and awkward middle school kid that Wiggins saw on a far too regular basis. He was a polite, good looking kid but accident prone as he often seemed to trip over his own size 12 feet. The kid was obviously frightened and seemed to be taken aback by the sight of a bunch of masked and gloved strangers.

Wiggins said, “Hi Bobby. How are you feeling?”

The kid recognized his doctor’s voice and seemed to relax a little. “I’m not feeling so good doc. I’ve got a fever, sore throat and all I want to do is sleep.”

The attending nurse put a thermometer in the boy’s mouth and Doctor Wiggins examined the glands in his neck. They were quite tender and the boy winced as the doctor examined them.

Wiggins asked, “You play soccer with Chad Renfro and Sammy Lowe?”

The boy said, “Well yeah, how did you know?”

The doctor said, “Lucky guess. I’ve recently treated them both for Mono. It has been going around your team.”

The boy looked dumbfounded and asked, “Mono?”

“Mononucleosis. Oh you’ll feel like crap for a while but you’ll get over it. It’s common in kids your age.”

Bobby stuttered, “You mean…”

Doctor Wiggins said, “You’re OK. Look up Mono on the net. It will tell you what to do which is pretty much sleep it off. Take Tylenol for the discomfort and you’ll be just fine. Call my office if you have any stomach pain.”

Tears bubbled up in the boys eyes and Wiggins gave him a one armed hug.

He said, “Thanks Doc” and was ushered out the exit for people who were going home.

His nurse said, “That’s a relief.”

Wiggins said, “Ever seen anybody that glad to get a diagnosis of Mono?”