Saving Meghan(32)

“Are you sure, Zach?” Nash asked, looking skeptical. “We have a duty to protect this child if she’s in danger.”

“I don’t believe she is. Are you suddenly a psychiatrist?” Zach asked. “I haven’t checked on your credentials lately.”

Zach knew Nash was too smart to take that bait.

“I feel strongly enough about this case that I’m going to get Meghan seen.”

Zach shook his head in dismay. Her teeth were sunk in. No letting go now.

“Is it a GI issue you’re worried about, Amanda? If so, fine, go get that second opinion. But if not, you and I both know you’re stepping way over the line here.”

“Am I? What line are you standing near, Zach? Because mine has everything to do with the patient, and yours, I’m concerned, has everything to do with your past.”

Zach felt his face heat up. “That’s unfair and uncalled for.”

“I’m not trying to steal your patient, if that’s your worry.”

“You could have fooled me,” he said, his brow furrowing as he forced himself to look at Nash.

“Then you do it. Call in a consult. Get that second opinion. For everyone’s sake, you have to be sure.”

Zach looked down at Meghan’s medical records, which took up a good portion of his available desk space. He wished more than anything that he had found something in those pages to refute Nash’s claims.

“How can you be so convinced it’s not what I said?” Nash asked, her voice gentle, almost coaxing. “The blood work was inconclusive, and the girl’s so deathly afraid of needles, I can’t imagine how you’d do a muscle biopsy or EMG.”

“I know the disease.”

“I don’t think that’s good enough.”

“Well, I do.” Zach could not believe how juvenile he sounded. If he was going to help Becky face down this dragon, he most certainly would need to come up with some better retorts.

“Well, I guess if you’ve diagnosed her with mito the biopsy results wouldn’t alter her treatment considerations one way or the other. So go without it if you think it best for your patient, but your case would be much stronger if a psychiatrist supported your diagnosis is all I’m saying.”

“I don’t need a psychiatrist to tell me anything.”

Nash’s expression suggested otherwise.

“I understand that you’re speaking at a mito conference in Cleveland this week,” Nash said.

Zack was surprised she knew his schedule. “I am. And how did you know?”

“I saw the bulletin in the hospital newsletter.”

Zack’s defenses stayed up. “And your point is?”

“You’re the mito guy here, Zach, everyone knows it. You know more about this disease than all of us combined.”

“Which is why I’m confident about Meghan’s diagnosis.”

“You better be, because it’s your job on the line,” Nash said. “If the mother is harming that girl, and you don’t take my advice and try to make the determination, Knox Singer will fire you without batting an eye. You know it, and I know it. We’ve both sworn an oath to protect the patient. You have to protect her. God, Zach, don’t be so devoted to the cause that you’d be willing to risk everything for your crusade.”

Nash was right, of course. Zach was already off Knox Singer’s Christmas list, thanks to the damage his mito crusade had done to White’s P&L from a scattering of denied insurance claims.

The file cabinet taking up most of one wall held files of other cases where Zach had suspected mito to be at the root of a patient’s diminishing health. Not all the cases were confirmed, but all were strongly suspect. Each file represented a child who counted on Zach to keep coming up with answers to make them better. If he made an enemy out of Nash and ended up on the unemployment line, there could be a lot of losers in the end—including Meghan.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Meghan’s your patient,” Nash said. “You have to do what you think is right. I’m just telling you as a colleague and a friend what I would do if she were my patient.”

“Well, she is your patient, too. You examined her. You have your own files on her now.”

“That I do,” Nash said, rising from her chair. “But I wanted to give you the professional courtesy of knowing what I thought.”

“And what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m going to do my job and safeguard the patient’s health. I strongly suggest you do the same.”

Nash did not bother with a handshake goodbye before she carefully made her way across the crowded floor. At the door, she turned back to Zach. “Have a good trip,” she said.

Zach swiveled in his chair to face her. “I really wish I hadn’t involved you, Amanda,” he said.

“And I’m really glad you did,” Nash said with a solemn expression and one foot out the door. “You’re trying to save her from a ghost, Zach—the one haunting you. I’m going to save her from her mother.”





CHAPTER 15





BECKY


The past two days had been emotionally draining. Becky had still gotten in her daily workouts, but even her high-intensity interval training could not keep her from thinking about Nash’s accusations.