Then Morgan hit Mary Pickett. That one hed at least heard about through the hospital grapevine. He hadnt paid much attention at the time. It hadnt been anyone on his service or one of his patients. He remembered the whispers, though. The crazy thing was that it hadnt been a mistake or a misdiagnosis on the part of the medical team. This mix up had happened in the medical billing department.

Mary Pickett had been a white woman in her mid-fifties. Shed come in slightly jaundiced and with abdominal pain. Shed gone through a series of imaging tests at the hospital. She had gall bladder disease. Pretty common for a woman at her age and stage.

Medical coding was complicated. There were so many long strings of numbers, and changes and revisions happened all the time. All it would take was for someone to transpose a couple of numbers for things to go awry. Usually, it was just a matter of straightening out the codes so the insurance companies paid up. It definitely led to angry patients, but usually not so angry that theyd kill someone. Threaten to sue? Sure. Murder? Morgan didnt think so.

In this case, though, the incorrect coding caused Mary Pickett to be referred to hospice care for Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Her doctor had called her and informed her of the diagnosis and scheduled a follow-up appointment. Shed done some Internet research and decided that she didnt want to go through the pain and misery of waiting out a terminal diagnosis.

Shed made a big dinner for her family, cooking all of their favorite dishes, and the next morning shed shot herself in the head.

Her son had sued, but while everyone was saddened by what had happened to Mary, no one thought the hospitals mistake rose to the level of requiring any compensation to her family or any punishment for the doctor who hadnt looked closely enough at the test results or for the clerk who had transposed the numbers.

Mary Picketts family had gotten nothing. Not even an apology from the hospital.

Morgan shook his head. It was tragic and he didnt blame the family for being angry. He personally would be incandescent with rage. It still, however, made no sense for this case. Mary Pickett hadnt been one of his patients. Lexa wouldnt have worked on her case while she was working with Morgan. She hadnt come in through the Emergency Department where Lexa had been before her rotation with his department, either. He couldnt figure out where they would have ever crossed paths, much less to the point where her family would somehow blame her for what had happened.