Chapter 10 - The Critical Hour
Sarah Jenkins was in the Intensive Care Unit. She was hooked up to a dozen monitors, her breathing shallow and aided by a ventilator. The chief of medicine, Dr. Aris, stood outside her room, reviewing a chart with a grim expression.
Marcus and Leo approached rapidly. "Doctor, give me the news," Marcus demanded. "I don't care what it costs. Whatever treatment exists, she gets it."
Dr. Aris sighed. "Mr. Vance, money isn't the issue here. Her lungs are severely scarred from chemical exposure, and her heart has been working in overdrive for months. She has the same genetic heart defect as her late daughter. We need to perform a double transplant—lungs and heart. But she is too weak to survive the surgery right now. We have her on ECMO to oxygenate her blood, but it's a waiting game. She has maybe 48 hours."
Leo buried his face in Marcus’s coat, sobbing silently. Marcus placed a protective hand on the boy’s head.
"There has to be another way," Marcus insisted. "What about the experimental regenerative stem-cell treatment we’ve been funding in Geneva? Can we fly the team here?"
Dr. Aris looked skeptical. "It's entirely experimental, sir. It’s never been tested on a patient in this late of a stage."
"Sarah Jenkins is the reason that treatment even exists," Marcus said fiercely. "She laid the groundwork for it ten years ago. We are bringing the Geneva team here. Now. Charter the company jet. Get them in the air in twenty minutes or you're fired."
May you like
Dr. Aris nodded quickly and hurried away. Marcus looked down at Leo, who was staring through the glass at his mother.
"We are going to fight, Leo," Marcus promised. "We are going to fight with everything we have."
