Fertility: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

family decided to file suit, it would be anything but frivolous.
    She had just a couple of minutes before her next interview. How a mistake of such magnitude could occur was still an open question. From the scene described by the nurse — the frantic parents, the concurrent infection in the mother, the extra five hours tacked onto her shift — Sarah could imagine how an error could be made. She had to wonder if the nurse had really seen 10 units on the vial of heparin. Had it been mislabeled? And if so, who was responsible — the hospital pharmacy or pharmaceutical company? If it wasn’t mislabeled, had Hilker checked the dosage as she said she had? Could she have misread it due to fatigue? And why didn’t the computer system work? Were glitches really being experienced? Joanne Marsh led Sarah to believe the system was foolproof. Did the staff agree? She made notes to herself on all of her queries and was finishing the last one just as a pert, slim woman in her early twenties knocked on the open door. She introduced herself as Tracy Petersen, the LPN summoned by Nancy Howland. Sarah welcomed her into the conference room, showed her to a seat and excused herself, telling the young woman and Doris that she’d be back in a minute.
    Sarah wanted to lay eyes on the heparin vial, and the sooner the better. She made a beeline for John Mess, who was in his office adjacent to the conference room.
    “Excuse me, John. Where is the heparin vial that was used for the baby?”
    “Actually, I have it.”
    “May I see it?”
    “Of course, Sarah.”
    He got up from behind his large, cherry desk and walked to a closet next to the built-in bookcases. He opened the door to reveal a waist-high safe. Kneeling down, he entered several digits on the keypad, and the door opened. On the top shelf was a plastic zip-top bag. He handed it to Sarah. In the bag was a vial with a handwritten label showing the Arkin baby’s name and ID number, her doctor’s name and ID number, the date of dispensing and dosage of heparin: 10 units/mL. The label looked clear enough. However, when the vial was turned a bit there was a blue label from the manufacturer that read: Heparin, 10,000 USP units/mL. Clearly, Hilker never noticed the discrepancy. She handed the plastic bag back to Mess.
    “Thanks. There appears to be some inconsistency in the labeling.”
    “Unfortunately for us, there does, indeed.”
    “I hope to get to the bottom of that by the time I finish up this afternoon. Having a picture in my mind of the medication is a big help. Thanks. I’d better get back; I have someone waiting for me now.”
    Sarah found Tracy Petersen and Doris chatting amiably about the weather and how they both hated it turning cold so early in the season. Doris was such a pro. She knew exactly how to put people at ease — not only in interviews such as this one, which were often fraught with tension, but at their frenetic, high-stress office as well. She was one of the few people at the firm who looked up from working to welcome Sarah when she arrived five years earlier. They hit it off from the start and Sarah always enjoyed teaming with her. Doris was the only one at work who could make Sarah’s dimples show, a point Doris was only too happy to tease her about.
    Sarah gave her standard introduction and then asked Petersen some questions to get a sense of her relationship with Joyce Hilker. Apparently, they had worked on the same floor for the last couple of years and were often paired together by the charge nurse, Jeannie Lopez. In Petersen’s estimation, Hilker was a great nurse, maybe the best she’d worked with. She was also a great teacher, a plus for an LPN studying to become a registered nurse.
    Clearly a fan of her partner and mentor, Petersen would likely hesitate to cite any faults or past errors. Sarah knew she would have to tread carefully when she went down that road in her questioning.
    “Yesterday Joyce Hilker was supposed to finish her shift at 4