Doctor Noonan-Martin, Miracle Worker? - 6. Unexpected Publicity

Chapter 6 - Unexpected Publicity

The Good Book says it's better to give than to receive
I do my best to do my part
Nothin' in my pockets, I got nothin' up my sleeve
I keep my magic in my heart
Keep up your spirit, keep up your faith, baby
I am counting on you
You know what you've got to do

Fight the good fight every moment
Every minute, every day
Fight the good fight every moment
It's your only way

Triumph - 1981

16

Madeline drove up to the hospital the next day, wondering what the hell was going on. News vans, television cameras, even protesters, were everywhere. She parked in her assigned spot and got out of her car. She immediately discovered what was going on.

"There she is!"

"Doctor Martin!"

"Is it true?"

"Do you think you're God?"

And on and on. She battled her way into the building, not responding to anything. Walking into the Cancer Center, Dr. Brennan stopped her.

"What have you said?"

"Nothing. I did my best to get past them all without getting mauled."

"No. I meant about Daniel Rivera."

"Nothing. I called the Riveras yesterday to give them the good news. They must have called someone."

"Shit. And here I was expecting malpractice. I have the hospital's public relations director coming to my office at ten. I checked your appointment schedule and saw you were free. We have to fashion a statement. Unfortunately, Doctor Flynn, the hospital's CEO, insists on taking part. I can't believe that will be a good thing."

"I suppose I should have seen this coming. So much for patient confidentiality."

"Yeah. That goes out the window when the family decides to share things."

Ten o'clock came and Madeline was finishing up with her nine-thirty patient. She turned off her phone after the third 'Where are you?' text message in five minutes. She finally made it to Brennan's office at ten after.

Doctor Flynn was obviously angry, "Where were you?"

"With a patient. I'm sorry if I thought that was more important than being here."

Flynn seethed, but could not argue that fact, "Fine. Jesse tells us you treated a patient with, um, unconventional means. I wish that was cleared through my office first."

Madeline responded, "Well, I'm not sorry. I didn't believe the patient could wait four to six weeks for you to make a decision."

Flynn looked at Dr. Brennan, "Jesse, you need to have better control over your staff. I will not put up with this kind of insubordination."

"I'm sorry, Fabian. But I have to back Dr. Noonan-Martin on this. The patient in question was a Blast Phase Chronic Myeloid Leukemia case. He didn't have time to wait for bureaucratic red tape."

"I would not have taken long to make a decision had I known that."

Madeline was not appeased, "Can you honestly say you would have approved my actions if you had known?"

"You're skating on very thin ice, Doctor."

"I'll take that as a no. Policy will always take a back seat to my patient's care. If you don't like that, feel free to fire me. I have two other patients in the accelerated phase. I plan on helping as many children as I can. If you don't like curing people, you're in the wrong business."

Kenneth Richter, the PR director, tried to settle things down. "Okay. Let's just calm down here a bit. I think we can all agree that healing patients is the most important goal. We just need to make sure Dr. Noonan-Martin's actions are seen in a positive light for the hospital. Have you performed this miracle cure before?"

Madeline was not happy with Richter's use of terminology, "It's not a miracle cure, Mr. Richter. I have a specific psychic ability, using the term miracle will not be taken in the best light by the general public."

"Fine. Have you used this procedure before our patient?"

"Yes. Three times."

"And have all three been successful?"

"Yes, so far. The first occurred twenty-two years ago. The other two were more recent, both within the past year."

"Okay. We can use that. The focus, as Dr. N-M has pointed out, must be on the ability to heal the sick. There's no doubt she has been able to do this. It's something nobody has ever done before. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the history of modern medicine filled with just that happening?"

Nobody argued that point.

"If we handle this correctly, Wooster Cancer Care can become the preeminent site for childhood Leukemia care, and by extension, Wooster Community Hospital. Is that a bad thing?"

Flynn still wasn't completely sold on the methodology, "Of course not. But by using, my apologies, Dr. N-M, unbelievable methods, we also run the risk of becoming the laughing stock of the medical community."

Madeline heard that loud and clear, "I'm sorry you feel that way. You'll have my resignation within the hour."

Brennan was shocked, "Madeline, you can't be serious?"

"No? I won't be called the cause of making the hospital the laughing stock of the medical community. I'll be going into private practice where no one can tell me which methods I can or cannot use. I quit."

With that, Madeline stood up and walked out of Brennan's office. She went to her own office, wrote, printed, and signed her letter of resignation, placed it on Brennan's assistant's desk, and left the hospital.

17

After she left, the meeting continued.

Richter commented, "You can't let her quit, Dr. Flynn. If she really can cure Leukemia, or even just childhood Leukemia, you're throwing away a tremendous opportunity for the hospital."

"You actually believe that horseshit?"

Brennan responded first, "I know I do. I saw the results with her son last August.”

Richter countered, "And it doesn't really matter if I believe it or not. I only have to consider what's best for this hospital, as should you, Dr. Flynn."

"I thought I was. “

Richter continued, “You assumed her procedure was 'horseshit.' Obviously, the Riveras don't think that's the case. Your own lab provided the proof."

Flynn responded, "Damn it. Jesse, see if you can get her to change her mind."

************************************

Colin had been staying home with the children, taking a leave of absence from his job at the hospital. He was surprised to see Madeline home so early.

"I'm guessing you being home early is not necessarily a good thing."

"It is, and it isn't. I quit at the cancer center."

"Um, do you think that was wise?"

"Probably not. But I wasn't going to let Dr. shit-for-brains Flynn tell me I'd make the hospital a laughing stock in the medical community."

"He really said that?"

"Yes. My method is 'unbelievable' in his mind."

"So, what's next, then?"

"Private practice. I won't need to have anyone telling me what I can or can't do."

"Except the AMA. Just because you're in private practice, it doesn't mean you can get out from under their thumb."

"But..."

"But what? Did you think you'd have free reign just because you weren't with the hospital anymore? Where do you think you'll be able to send your patients without a hospital association, or even privileges?"

"I... Damn it. I didn't think of that."

"Call Brennan. Tell him you quitting was an attempt at a power play. Hopefully he'll understand."

Madeline made the call, "Hello Rose. Is Dr. Brennan available?"

"He is Dr. N-M. You sure caused a ruckus with your resignation threat. I still have your letter on my desk. I had a feeling you'd be calling back."

"Yeah, Colin showed me the error of my ways; thinking private practice would work."

"I'll put you through."

"Madeline. I was just about to call you. Flynn sees that it's a mistake not to let you continue on here at the hospital, and cancer center."

"Does he still think I'll make the hospital a laughing stock?"

"He might still believe that, but he asked me to try to get you to change your mind."

"Fine. I'll come back. I can still make it on time for my eleven-thirty."

18

Madeline went back to work, Flynn wasn't anywhere to be seen, which suited her just fine. Richter met her in her office with the press release. It was already approved by Flynn, but Richter wanted to make sure it was accurate with her before releasing it.

'Wooster Cancer Care has recently taken part in a successful trial of an alternative medical procedure to cure childhood Leukemia. Doctor Noonan-Martin has recently shown she is able to eliminate all traces of Leukemia in her fourth patient. I have approved her use of this new methodology on two additional patients who are in the accelerated phase of the disease to further prove its usefulness. Anson Flynn, CEO Wooster Community Hospital.'

"I guess it's alright, I have to allow him some CYA verbiage. He really said it was okay to continue doing it, and on my next two sickest patients?”

"He did."

"Okay. I have to get ready for my eleven-thirty appointment. I don't have any problems with you issuing this,"

Richter phoned the three closest news outlets and the AP, arranging for them to publish the release. The day did not improve for Madeline. Her eleven-thirty patient, Amy Delgado, and her parents had to walk through the chaos outside the hospital.

Amy's father was the most curious, "Are you going to cure our Amy like the other boy?"

"Not at this time, Mr. Delgado. Amy is still in the chronic phase, and her outlook with conventional treatments is still rather good. I have to prioritize my efforts on the most desperate cases first."

"Meanwhile, we have to sit around watching our daughter die?"

"No, sir. Like I said, her prospects are good with her current treatment plan. Her risk of death is fairly low at this time."

Madeline completed her examination. The diagnosis hadn't changed. After the Delgados left, Rose, the department's administrative assistant, had news for Madeline.

"We're starting to get calls for new patients that have apparently heard about your new method."

"After seeing the crowd out there this morning, I can easily believe that. But they need to be screened and prioritized. If they're not already our patients, they need to be in Blast Phase before we consider taking them on, although, in the end, that's Dr. Brennan's call. We may also want to transfer any of Dr. Brennan’s or Dr. Carroll's blast phase patients to me so I can hit them sooner as well."

"That makes sense, I'll talk to them."

Neither of the other two doctors at Wooster Cancer Care had a blast phase patient. The next day, Dr. Brennan had a staff meeting to discuss how they wanted to handle things going forward.

Brennan started the meeting by determining where everybody stood on Madeline's ability. Neither he nor Dr. Carroll had an issue with it. Rose Braun claimed she thought it was wonderful. The nursing supervisor agreed with Rose.

"Okay. Since she's already gotten Daniel Rivera healthy, or likely has, we don't have any blast phase patients. Madeline. How many patients do you think you can add and not provide lesser care to the rest? In addition, how long does it take you with each patient, to cure them?"

"It depends on the patient's pain threshold. I'd say six to eight hours, maybe more for larger children. Call it ten to be safe. I wouldn't be able to see any single one more often than every week or two, depending on their insurance."

"How did you handle Daniel so quickly?"

"After a couple hours here, I went to his house to finish."

"That can't be the norm going forward. The patients will need to be seen and treated here. How many could you handle at once?"

"Assuming insurance will probably limit the visits to once a week, at least until they see the benefit of not continuing to pay for conventional treatments, I'd say one per day, two-hour visits each. So, five. Maybe as many as eight if I work longer on Saturday and come in Sunday."

"Let's not risk burning you out. Up until now, it's only ever been one patient at a time, right?"

"Right."

"Would it be worthwhile using one-hour visits?"

"If we start with blast phase patients, that could push the interval for any one of them to eight or ten weeks. Some of them may not have that much time."

"Good point. And you're sure that two hours, five days a week, will be something you can handle?"

"I can only guess. It doesn't really take anything out of me, so I'll say probably."

"Let's start with three. We'll schedule one for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the first couple weeks. If that goes well, we'll bump it to four. And I'll consider six sometime after that."

"I'd love to go faster, but I understand your desire for caution."

"Rose, you said you're already getting new patient requests?"

"Yes. Six already this morning. Probably more in voice mail by now."

"Okay. I'll follow up on whatever you've already gotten. Going forward, please ask if they know what phase the prospective patient is. If it isn't blast, tell them you'll add them to our list, which will be based on severity of the disease, and someone will get back to them. As for the blast phase prospects, get their current doctor's name, and if they're not local, address and number. Doctor Carroll and I will discuss each one and build a prioritized list. Sound good to everyone?"

It did.