Springer hesitated, giving Pia a once-over look. He’d been trying to be nice to her, as she was obviously concerned about her mentor. When he resumed speaking his voice and syntax had changed. There was an edge. “I actually wasn’t requesting a consult by speaking with you. It’s purely as a courtesy that I’m filling you in on Dr. Rothman’s condition and course of treatment. But to answer your question, if it was a question, there is some sensitivity to ceftriaxone but significantly less than there is to chloramphenicol.”

“Chloramphenicol can cause aplastic anemia,” Pia said, missing Springer’s signal that she was pushing it.

“Yes, we’ve taken into account the side effects, of course. Excuse me.” Springer suddenly got to his feet. Abruptly he left Pia, talked briefly with one of the residents helping with Rothman’s and Yamamoto’s care, then left the floor.

Pia waited for a few minutes before wandering over to the same resident, who was reading a chart.

“What do you think of Dr. Springer? Do you think he’s qualified?”

“What do I think? He’s the best in the country. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Puzzled by the question, the resident walked away, leaving Pia standing by the nurses’ station, alone.

Chapter 27.

27.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
NEW YORK CITY
MARCH 23, 2011, 7:38 P.M.

News of the Rothman/Yamamoto event spread rapidly through the Columbia medical community. George Wilson, like everyone else, had heard about it, and he could only imagine the effect it was having on Pia. Concerned, he had looked for her. It took some searching but George finally managed to track her down. She didn’t answer her cell phone and neither Will nor Lesley had seen her, so he had had to physically find her. George struck gold in the library stacks, a place he knew she found comforting. After some cajoling, Pia agreed to go with him back to the dorm cafeteria.

Pia was as distraught as she could ever remember being. She was especially upset because her emotions were so conflicted. Usually in her tumultuous life, distress had a definitive cause, but now she didn’t know whether to be upset about Rothman’s dire condition or angry at his carelessness in getting infected with the bacteria he’d been working on. And there was an undercurrent: Pia was terrified about her own future, which she thought she’d been so careful about but now seemed to be in the balance. She was also furious with herself for allowing Rothman to penetrate her well-constructed protective shell. And now she had the added distraction of George, who was trying to be solicitous but making things worse with all his questions.

“I can’t sit here anymore,” Pia said suddenly, interrupting George, but she didn’t care.

“You haven’t eaten anything,” George said, looking down at her tray. “You’ve got to eat.”