“At Memorial. He’s in a treatment program, but as luck would have it, they had to put it on hold once he developed an anti-mouse antibody. After he finished his chemo, his treatment has been based on a mouse monoclonal antibody. Unfortunately, he is not being treated at the moment. As you might expect, Laurie and I are having trouble dealing with the delay.”

“Well,” Bingham said after another short, uncomfortable silence. “This does put a different spin on the current situation. Perhaps you need a leave of absence, but a paid leave of absence. Perhaps you need to be home with your wife and child.”

“No!” Jack said forcefully. “I need to work! Seriously, the last thing I need is a leave of absence. You cannot believe how frustrating it is to watch your child suffer and not be able to do anything about it. Threatening me with a leave of absence is what pushed me to tell you about this in the first place.”

“Okay,” Bingham said. “No leave, but in return you must promise me you will refrain from making site visits, particularly to chiropractors.”

“I’ll promise that,” Jack said. From his perspective, that was hardly a concession.

“I still don’t quite understand your behavior at the chiropractor’s office,” Bingham said. “Was it something specific or just your general dislike for the field? It’s pretty obvious from what you said when you first came in here that you do not have a high regard for chiropractic therapy. Have you had a bad experience with a chiropractor yourself?”

“Absolutely not,” Jack said. “I’ve never been to one, nor did I really know much about them, but because of my VAD patient yesterday, I decided to look into chiropractic and alternative medicine in general to occupy my mind. Obviously, I’ve been obsessed about JJ, particularly with him off treatment. Before this VAD case, I hadn’t really thought about people dying from alternative medicine. When I began to look into it, one of the first articles I read described a case of a three-month-old infant having died from chiropractic cervical neck manipulation. I was appalled, especially since JJ is nearly the same age.

“I didn’t dwell on it, at least not until I started talking with Ronald Newhouse. As he was describing the insane rationale for chiropractic treatment for things like childhood allergies, sinusitis, or even something as benign as fussiness, and killing the kid in the process, I saw red. It’s one thing for an adult to be stupid enough to put themselves in jeopardy with a snake-oil salesman, but not a child. With a child it is criminal.”

Jack’s voice trailed off. Once again a heavy silence settled over the room.