An hour later, Jack had again reviewed most of the scientific articles he had accumulated on autoimmune diseases. He continued to be plagued by a vague recollection of one of the articles, but the more he prodded his memory to recall which one, the further he found himself from remembering. As he approached the end of his review, his confidence that he would find the article was waning.
It was at that moment, when he brought up the next article, that he knew he’d found what he was after. The article was written by a group from the University of Texas in Galveston discussing novel new therapies for patients with autoimmune diseases. The author mentioned a group at the Rockefeller University in New York that was conducting exciting new research on treating the neurologic symptoms of autoimmune diseases. The article then went on to mention the work was under the leadership of Dr. Jessica Tau.
Raising his eyes from the screen, Jack drummed the desktop. He brought up Rockefeller University’s website. Moving to the faculty tab, he was able to locate Dr. Jessica Tau. Her bio was impressive. Not only did she hold an M.D. and a Ph.D. in immunology, but she had also been awarded several NIH grants. It was still early, but he dialed her office number anyway, assuming he’d be prompted to her voice mail.
To his great surprise a woman answered on the second ring.
“This is Dr. Tau.”
Jack stood up. “Dr. Tau. My name is Jack Wyatt. I’m a neurologist at Southeastern State working on the GNS cases. I apologize for the early hour, but I was hoping you might have a few minutes to speak with me.”
“It seems everybody’s arriving at work early these days, Dr. Wyatt. I’d be delighted to speak with you. By the way, I’m quite familiar with your extensive work and contributions in the area of difficult neurologic diagnoses.”
“Thank you. I recently became aware of the innovative work you’re doing on the neurologic symptoms of some of the autoimmune diseases. I was wondering if you had published any of your findings as yet?”
“Actually, we received notification a few days ago from the New England Journal of Medicine that they intend to publish our first manuscript in the fall.”
“Congratulations.”
“I would be happy to e-mail you a copy of the manuscript if you’d like to review it.”
“I’d greatly appreciate that.”
“If you’ll give me your e-mail address, I’ll send it right now.”
Jack proceeded to ask Tau a number of questions regarding her work. She was more than cooperative, answering all of them in extreme detail.
“I look forward to reading your manuscript. In the event I have further questions, would you mind if I call you back after I have a look at it?”
“Of course not. I’ll give you my cell number.”
Jack provided Dr. Tau his e-mail address and entered her number into his electronic phone book.
“Thank you again, Dr. Tau. I look forward to speaking with you again.”
He walked over to his nightstand to grab his legal pad and pen. By the time he returned to his computer, Tau’s manuscript had arrived.
For the next hour Jack drank coffee, read and then reread every word of it. It was an incredible piece of scientific work, a true research marvel. Finally, he lifted his eyes from the screen. His mind was doing backflips. When he finally snapped back to the here and now, he reached for his phone and located Lisa’s number.
“Good morning. This is Dr. Wyatt. I apologize for the early hour, but I have something rather important to ask you.” He nodded a few times as Lisa assured him he had not awakened her. “You mentioned that Sherry had her tonsils out but you didn’t.”
“That’s right. I think we were about six at the time.”
“Have they ever given you any trouble?”
“I’ve had strep throat a few times over the years. It always got better right away with antibiotics. I asked my internist about having them taken out, but she said it wasn’t necessary.”
“Do you recall when you last had strep throat?”
“Let me think a moment,” she answered. “It was right before I got pregnant. I took antibiotics for a week and I was fine.” Before the words were out of her mouth, Jack felt his stomach drop.
“Thank you, Lisa. I apologize again for calling you so early.” He found Marc’s number and dialed it. The phone rang several times before kicking over to voice mail.
“C’mon, Marc,” Jack said out loud as he ended the call and then hit the Redial button. “Pick up your damn phone.” While the phone rang, Jack paced the carpet. He assumed he was one ring away from getting his voice mail again when Marc answered.
“Good morning, Dr. Wyatt.”
“I need some information from the National Data Record as soon as possible. It’s urgent.”
“Sure. Just tell me what you need.”
Jack paused to gather his thoughts. He then took the next few minutes to tell Marc in very specific terms the patient information he was interested in, and that he’d meet him in the ICU within the hour. Jack set his phone down on the nightstand and started getting dressed. His hands were shaking and he could feel drops of perspiration creeping down his brow. Although it was a rare experience for him, Jack Wyatt recognized an overwhelming adrenaline rush when he felt one.