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Gus Kappler MD FACS
a book bubble about
ONE DEGREE
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Author Insight
#19) Declan and Matt Commit
Physicians, especially surgeons, must become expert compartmentalizers. Whatever the result in the first case, one must engage their full mental and physical attention to tackle the next issue. However, it is impossible to scrub the bad outcomes and complications from our minds. To seek closure, we must analyze every aspect of our patient care. Declan Burke is no exception. Two of his wounded patients have succumbed to this infectious grime reaper. He now intensives his involvement in pursue of an explanation. Matt now reflects on the common denominator in three gruesome deaths - the abnormal macrophage white blood cell. Both he and Specialist Ryan were ignored in their concern over that deformed white cell by their superiors. "Pangs of guilt" resurfaced. That same guilt victimized Matt when first discharged from the Army, initiating the deep depression of PTSD. His rehabilitation and reintegration into a peaceful society were progressing. But, being victimized again was a constant threat. Matt now understood that he did not control the stigmatization ethos utilized to generate control by the military machine. He abided by the military culture. They were guilty. I just read in the Cornell Chronicle, March 29, 2021, - "The results showed that white blood cells called macrophages are much more abundant in the lungs of severe COVI -19 patients…." It sounds like ONE DEGREE!
Book Excerpt
ONE DEGREE
Declan felt guilty for not following up on this potentially lethal threat. He pledged to Matt, “I will join you in pursuing the association between deformed white blood cells and the patient deaths from the overwhelming infection that we have witnessed.”
While flying home to Wisconsin, Matt remembered that in reviewing Church’s chart after his death, Dr. Burke had found abnormal white cells. These appeared to be identical to those he had described at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in deceased Private Richard Burrows’ August 1971 smear. His superiors did not consider his finding important. Specialist Larkin had also observed these same white cells in Private Jamison ‘s blood smear in mid-1971 at the 85th Evacuation Hospital in Vietnam. His findings, too, were not considered clinically significant.
Matt said in a quiet voice into his tape recorder, “Here are three patients, Burrows, Jameson, and Church, for whom I now have firsthand information.” All three had died of a gangrenous septic disease with these abnormal white blood cells documented in their circulation. He began to experience pangs of guilt, for he, through no fault of his own, had unwittingly been part of enabling this vile fatal disease. He continued, “As a young enlisted man, should I have argued more strongly in proposing the reality of this dismissed fatal finding to my superiors? Had I been subjugated by the military culture?”
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