\"Writing.Com
*Magnify*
SPONSORED LINKS
Printed from https://writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2060088-The-Doctor-Does-No-Harm
Item Icon
Rated: 13+ · Short Story · Scientific · #2060088
A Cardiologist is convicted of foul play
This is a rough draft. Please, feel free to critique the grammar and spelling, but look mainly at the content. This is the first chapter of a much bigger story.

Dr. Robert Samson was considered by many to be the best cardiologist in the state, if not in the nation. This may have come as a surprise, considering many thought he would never amount to anything. His father was killed in Vietnam, and his mother had a hard time keeping a job, mainly due to chronic headaches she had as a result of hypertension. Many believed Robert's quest to find a cure for his mother's headaches persuaded him to become a cardiologist.
Dr. Samson's desire to return to his hometown of Paradise Crossroads, Alabama had finally come true. He had finally decided to start his own practice, and physicians from near and far had expressed their intentions of working at his new practice. Everything was going well for him until his life was completely turned upside down.
One morning, Dr. Samson started having horrible chest pains. He checked his blood pressure. "120/78; normal," he said. He went to work, but continued having terrible chest pains. He had never been diagnosed with heart disease, and was very athletic. He always ate healthy, and exercised six days a week, thirty minutes a day. He continued to have chest pains, but longed to go to work. When Dr. Samson got to the clinic, he decided to drink a cup of coffee, as he did every morning. He passed out shortly after his first sip.
Dr. Samson was quickly rushed to the emergency room located at the hospital directly beside his clinic. It was determined that he had suffered a stroke as a result of a blockage in his left ventricle. Surgery was set for the following Tuesday. Dr. Samson recovered almost two weeks later. Fellow cardiologists marveled at how quickly he had recovered. Yet, everyone knew about his work ethic and commitment to his patients. It was believed that, due to the stroke, Dr. Samson may have some lost his ability to make sound decisions. However, this was solely a matter of opinion.
Fellow physicians who were working at the clinic noticed how precise and delicate Dr. Samson was with his patients. He was just as flawless as he had been before his stroke. However, one thing had changed. Dr. Samson had gone from being a fun-loving, compassionate doctor, to being a rude, calloused physician. Many believed this change in behavior was a result of the stroke.
In his thirty years of medicine, Dr. Samson had never misdiagnosed a patient. He was lovingly known as 'The Miracle Man.' Many patients that other doctors had almost given up on were sent to Dr. Samson. Dr. Samson loved his patients, and treated them like family going so far as to pay co-payments patients could not afford to pay themselves.
New patients who had undergone open-heart surgery died shortly after their surgeries.Detectives were curious what may have happened to these patients. The coroner's reports were all the same: prescription drug overdose. "Has Dr. Samson purposely been overdosing his patients, or could this misdiagnosis be a result of the stroke?" they wondered. Dr. Samson was brought in for questioning, and detained for what seemed like an extended period of time. After much interrogation, detectives could not figure out whether or not he was delusional. The one thing that stood out was the fact that the deceased patients were organ donors. At a time when organ donations were rare and organ donors were hard to find, could Dr. Samson had been risking the lives of current patients in order to hopefully save the lives of future patients?
© Copyright 2015 John Glover (johnkoehler at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates have been granted non-exclusive rights to display this work.
Printed from https://writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/2060088-The-Doctor-Does-No-Harm