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"Where's the donor information kept?" asked Abby.
"It would be in the transplant coordinator's office downstairs. The
nursing supervisor has the key."
"Could you ask her to get the file for me?"
Abby reopened Nina Voss's chart. She turned to the New England Organ Bank donor
form --- the sheet that had accompanied the heart from Vermont. Recorded there
was the ABO blood type, HIV status, syphilis antibody titers, and a long list of other lab
screens for various viral infections. The donor was not identified.
Fifteen minutes later, the phone rang. It was the nursing supervisor, calling
for Abby.
"I can't find the donor file," she said.
"Isn't it under Nina Voss's name?"
"They're filed under the recipient's medical record number. There's
nothing here under Mrs. Voss's number."
"Could it be misfiled?"
"I've looked in all the kidney and liver transplant files too. And I
double-checked that record number. Are you sure it isn't somewhere up in the
SICU?"
"I'll ask them to look. Thanks." Abby hung up and
sighed. Missing paperwork. It was the last thing she felt like
dealing with at this time of the morning. She looked at the SICU records shelf,
where files from current patients' previous hospitalizations were kept. If the
missing file was buried somewhere in that, she could be searching for an hour.
Or she could call the donor hospital directly. They could pull the record, tell
her the donor's medical history and lab tests.
Directory assistance gave her the number for Wilcox Memorial. She dialed the
number and asked for the nursing supervisor.
A moment later a woman answered: "Gail DeLeon speaking."
"This is Dr. DiMatteo calling from Bayside Hospital in Boston," said
Abby. "We have a heart transplant recipient here who's running a postop
fever. We know the donor's heart came from your OR. I need a little
more information on the donor's medical history. I wonder if you might know the
patient's name."
"The organ harvest was done here?"
"Yes. Three days ago. The donor was a boy. An
adolescent."
"Let me check the OR log. I'll call you back."
Ten minutes later, she did --- not with an answer but with a question: "Are you sure
you have the right hospital, doctor?"
Abby glanced down at Nina's chart. "It says right here. Donor
hospital was Wilcox Memorial. Burlington, Vermont."
"Well, that's us. But I don't see a harvest on the log."
"Can you check your OR schedule? The date would have been ---
" Abby looked down at the form. "September twenty-fourth.
The harvest would've been done sometime around midnight."
"Hold on."
Over the receiver, Abby heard the sound of turning pages and the nurse's intermittent
throat clearing. The voice came back. "Hello?"
"I'm here," said Abby.
"I've checked the schedule for September twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and
twenty-fifth. There are a couple of appendectomies, a cholecystecomy, and two
cesareans. But there's no organ harvest anywhere."
"There has to be. We got the heart."
"We're not the ones who sent it."
Excerpted from HARVEST.© Copyright 1996 by Tess Gerritsen. Reprinted with permission by Pocket Books. All rights reserved.
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