Chapter 5 - THE PHANTOM PRESCRIPTION
"Are you out of your minds?" Graham stepped between the detectives and Lily's room, his chest heaving with indignation. "My daughter is fighting for her life in that room! I am the only one who understands the molecular kinetics of the compound in her system!"
"You're also the prime suspect in an illegal diversion case that just put a child into a coma," Detective Miller—not the man his mother described, but a hardened city veteran named Reynolds—said sternly. "Turn around, hands behind your back."
"Graham, don't resist," Marcus Vance advised softly, stepping forward. "Let the legal process work. Lily is under the best pediatric care in the state. Dr. Morrison is overseeing her ICU management."
"Morrison doesn't know that Compound AG-409 has an off-target affinity for renal tubular receptors!" Graham shouted as the cold steel cuffs clicked around his wrists. "If he pushes loop diuretics to manage her fluid overload, he will destroy her kidneys within six hours! Marcus, listen to me! No Lasix! You have to maintain perfusion with continuous renal replacement therapy and albumin!"
"We know how to treat cardiovascular collapse, Graham," Vance said, his face an impenetrable mask of bureaucratic detachment. "Take him down to Central."
As the detectives marched Graham toward the elevator, he twisted around, catching his mother's eyes. Evelyn stood frozen, clutching Lily’s shoes against her chest, her lips moving in silent, agonized prayer. Graham caught the eye of Sarah Lin, the charge nurse at the ICU station who had worked with him for seven years.
"Sarah!" Graham called out, his voice sharp and carrying over the murmurs of the staff. "The lab refrigerator in sub-basement three! The private research binder under the false shelf in my old locker! Find the antidote studies for AG-409! Look for the monoclonal peptide ligand! It's the only cure!"
The elevator doors slid shut, cutting off his shout.
Down in the holding cell at the municipal precinct, the walls were concrete and the smell of stale coffee and damp wool hung heavy in the air. Graham sat on the metal bench, his head buried in his hands. Every minute that ticked by on the cheap plastic wall clock was an eternity.
11:42 PM. Her blood pressure would be bottoming out as the drug finished its first-pass hepatic metabolism.
12:15 AM. Her core temperature would start dropping as metabolic collapse spread to her endocrine system.
Graham stood up and slammed his fists against the heavy metal bars. "I need my one phone call! Now!"
Twenty minutes later, he was ushered to a desk in the booking room. His hands were uncuffed from the front to allow him to dial. He didn't call a bail bondsman. He didn't call a criminal attorney. He dialed the direct extension to the PICU nurse’s station.
"Pediatric ICU, this is Nurse Henderson."
"Henderson, it’s Dr. Ashford. Listen to me very carefully."
"Dr. Ashford? You're not supposed to be calling here, the administration—"
"Shut up and listen!" Graham growled with an authority that brooked no argument. "Is Sarah Lin there?"
"She... she stepped off the unit twenty minutes ago. She said she had an urgent errand downstairs."
A faint spark of hope ignited in Graham's chest. Sarah had heard him. She was looking for the research binder.
"Tell me Lily's current vitals. Henderson, I swear to God, if you withhold my daughter's status, I will ensure your license is stripped before the sun rises! What are her numbers?"
A pause on the line, followed by the sound of rapid typing. "Her mean arterial pressure is fifty-two. We’ve maxed out norepinephrine. Dr. Morrison just ordered eighty milligrams of furosemide for pulmonary edema."
"No!" Graham screamed into the receiver. "Cancel that order! Tell Morrison that AG-409 binds irreversibly to the Henle loop when exposed to furosemide! It will induce complete renal shutdown! Tell him to use mannitol or start CRRT immediately!"
"I... I can't countermand an attending's order, Graham!"
"Then connect me to Morrison right now!"
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Before Henderson could transfer the call, a heavy hand slammed down on the receiver cradle, severing the connection. Graham looked up into the stone-cold eyes of Detective Reynolds.
"Time's up, Doctor. Your lawyer is here."
