A young female athlete girl breaks her leg playing soccer. After treating the fracture the doctor sees the potential of a more serious condition and calls her back. While he is doing the tests she begins to study the diagnosis, treatment and outcome of the treatment and in doing so she encounters something disturbing. Are all the surgeries being done for this condition necessary?
Beth Vaughn’s Surgery
Beth Vaughn was up at five thirty and by six thirty she and her parents were on their way to the hospital. By eight she was prepped and taken to surgery. By early afternoon she was in her room. The surgery had gone as planned. She was missing all but seven inches of her right leg.
The contractor arrived in the evening and finished painting the wall as Terri watched. They had their temporary offices.
Sam was in his office at nine as usual. He had an appointment to revise a will for a young couple. His fee for the half hour would be seventy five dollars. As they were leaving the phone rang. It was Jack Markowitz, the lead attorney for Doctors Indemnity.
“Attorney Stitt? This is Jack Markowitz”
“Call me Sam. What can I do for you?”
“Well. We’re getting together a suit against several groups and we think we want you to head the team.”
“What groups?”
“Muslim groups.”
“Why?”
“They conspired to maim. They cost us a very expensive settlement.”
“I can’t take that. I represent people that may cause a conflict of interest. I wish I could. I took this case to stop what was happening and get some help for the victims. I never expected your company and others I sued to be a victim or they would have been on my side.”
“We didn’t know that either. You know we could subpoena you to give depositions.”
“And I would help you in any way to stop this but I can’t benefit.”
“I told them you wouldn’t do it. I knew.”
“Thanks. That is how I want people to see me. Best to you. Call me if you need anything I can ethically give you.”
Sam looked up at Melanie. “I have a difficult decision for you to make.”
“What?”
“The prosecutor has been calling me. She wants to drop the charges against you but there are several problems. She is looking for a way to get out of this.”
“Like what?”
“Well. First, you did it on camera, it is hard to refute your guilt.”
She lowered her head. “I guess that was stupid.”
“No. You were a human being that saw how bad something was and tried to right it. I am sorry I wasn’t there to help. If the prosecutor lets you off it looks bad. The problem is this. If she drops the charge they could come back any time someone wanted to push them. You will have that hanging over your head till the statue of limitation, about fifteen years.”
“That’s not good.”
“So she and I did some thinking. If you are tried and found innocent you can never be tried again for it.”
“Oh. Double Jeopardy.”
“Yes. We can either take you to trial and win it or you sit with the possibility of someone bringing it up for fifteen years. It is up to you.”
“Let’s go to trial.”
“We have the possibility of conviction and you could spend time on probation.”
“Let’s shoot it.”
Beth Vaughn was awake when Dr. Ali came in to see her. He checked her stump. She saw tears in his eyes as he worked. She opened the conversation. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m sorry. This is not your problem.”
“Is it my leg?”
“No. It is me.”
“What is it? Am I going to die?”
“Some day yes. But it will be when you are old. We got the cancer early. Your blood work today is already very good.”
“What is wrong? Do I have an infection?” He had told her infection was one of the risks of the surgery.
“No.”
“Then what?”
“I cannot say.”
“Can I help?”
“I am beyond help. I have renounced Allah.”
“Why?”
“I was told by my Mullah that I must help Dr. Abdul flee the infidel. I refused. It was wrong. Now I am no longer able to face Allah.”
“What did they ask you to do?”
“It is so terrible. I was to cut off his foot and reattach it so he could escape. They want to be able to show it as a miracle. He could escape without cutting the thing on his ankle. It was all a lie. How can I believe anything? I have seen my faith as a fraud. Now I have no hope. But I must not burden you with my problems. You have more than enough of your own.”
Beth took his hand. “Can I tell you about my God?”
Thirty minutes later he was leaving the room. Under his arm was a bible. For some reason she could not explain Beth had packed one she had marked up with the way to salvation. She gave it to him after they prayed.
An hour later Dr. Ali was in the hospital security station with the head of security. He told them the story and told them that if another doctor went to visit Dr. Abdul they should watch carefully. Somehow the story was so hard to believe that the security director only passed on that Dr. Abdul was a flight risk. The police thought the information was false.
Two detectives were stationed outside Dr. Abdul’s home when he was released. This was not needed to keep him from leaving. He was wearing the electronic surveillance unit. They didn’t expect him to try to run but the FBI wanted to know who visited him and provide for his protection. There were certainly people who wanted to see him dead.
Frank McMahon put his hands behind his neck and stretched for the seventh time since the start of the shift. He wondered if he could kill someone who tried to harm the doctor. He was a cop. To protect and serve. He pushed the thought out of his mind and looked over at his partner, Sandy Parson. She had not adjusted her position in an hour. Women could somehow sit for longer periods than men.
A car pulled into the driveway and two men got out. One got a wheelchair out of the trunk and pushed it to the front passenger door. A man in Arab garb got out and sat in the wheelchair. One of the men pushed it to the front door. The other man got a heavy trunk out of the back of the car and carried it to the door. They rang the bell and were admitted.
Sandy looked over at Frank. “Notice anything unusual?”
“No.”
“Well, we just saw a surgical resident I know go in that house. And the guy in the chair was very mobile getting from the car to the chair” She pulled out her date book, looked up a number and dialed her cell phone. A couple minutes later she hung up the phone. “He came in and canceled surgeries today, family emergency. The surgical nurse is my cousin. She said she saw him this morning.”
“So why?”
“Well if this was a normal person I would have no idea. But these guys, they could do anything.”
“Like what?”
“He has an ankle bracelet. What if he wanted it off bad?”
“Get a mechanic to cut it off.”
“And that would set off the alarm. They can sense the band being cut. And if they do anything to the transmitter the alarm goes off at the station.”
“You don’t think they.” His voice tailed off. “Oh God, they would.”
“If it would further their cause, I agree.”
As they talked another car pulled into the driveway. Two women in burka’s got out and went in carrying satchels. The man who opened the door was the doctor that just went in.
“OK. That is very strange, two women in burkas without a male. Makes no sense.” The doctor answered the door. As she talked the two men came back out and carried in two more cases from their car then carried in two more from the women’s car. Apparently the one in the wheel chair was a ruse. Finally they came back for a box that was in the women’s car trunk that the two of them carried in together. “They are planning something big. Did anything look like guns or bombs?”
“Those boxes could have held anything.”
“Let’s get some help before they try to break out.”
Five minutes later a dozen police officers in body armor replaced them. As they started to leave they got a call to come directly to the station with their film.
Late in the afternoon the men came out, switched the cars and two of them left. One of them was the doctor. Without reason to believe that Dr. Abdul was trying to escape they had no cause to enter the house.
The information from the hospital police came in about eight P.M. The meeting with the local police and FBI resulted in a game plan. They would go to the door and ask to see Dr. Abdul. They hoped that he would refuse, that could possibly result in a search warrant. They went to the door and knocked. To their surprise Dr. Abdul opened the door.
“Can I help you?”
“Just checking if you were OK.”
“You are harassing me. My lawyer will call you within an hour.” He pushed the door shut.
Within ten minutes a radio call pulled back everyone but the surveillance team. Apparently the plan to free Dr. Abdul had been scrapped.
Dr. Abdul nearly fell as he closed the door. The nurse pushed the wheelchair behind him and the other two helped him slide into it.
“You should not have stood or put weight on that leg yet.”
“If I had not, they would have had suspicions. If I went to the door in a wheelchair or crutches they would have been suspicious. Help me. The pain is terrible. Can I have more medication?”
“Lie down. It will help. We will elevate your leg.”
Just after dark the surveillance team saw another car pull up at Dr. Abdul’s home and several men got out carrying satchels. They left about eight thirty AM. When they did the two women and man wheeled a second man to the car and helped him into it. They called the station, the anklet was still reporting the prisoner in his home. They called for backup. As the two cars left unmarked cars followed them.
The one car went to the hospital. The one with the women and the man in the wheelchair went to a Mosque. The four of them went in. The police waited outside. They could not enter the mosque without authorization. The man in the wheelchair with the Arab garb was unknown.
Sandra Parsons and Frank McMahon ran the video tape for the twenty fifth time. The chief had them watching it with the two other surveillance officers and two photo experts looking for something that would tell them what happened. Finally Sandy inserted the tape from the people arriving in one VCR and the one with them leaving in another.
She jogged the tapes till they were positioned with the one where the man was getting out of the car to get into the wheelchair. The other was positioned with the man getting back into the car. “There it is.” she said with a smile.
“What?”
“Look. The guy leaving is almost two inches shorter than the guy that came in. That’s a 2002 Ford Taurus. How high is the roof? And get Abdul’s height from the file.”
Ten minutes later it was obvious. The man who came was five eleven and the man who left was five nine, the height of Dr. Abdul. But the ankle bracelet was still in the house. After jogging the tape a couple times Sandy spotted something. “Oh my God. Oh my God. They are idiots. God, people who do that can do any evil.”
“What?” It was Frank.
“They cut his leg off.”
“No.”
“Look here.” She pointed to a spot on the screen below the cuff of his trousers. “That’s a crutch tip on a temporary prosthesis.”
Frank moved to the screen, looked at it, jogged the tape a couple times, then moved it back to the man in the chair and played it several times. “Those bastards. I don’t give a shit about his leg. In fact I could have cut it off for him and felt good about it. I had two dreams where I kneecapped him with a .44 Magnum with hollows. It felt really good. A girl down the street was one of his victims. She is a friend of my daughter. These people are first rate nuts.”
The technicians made stills of the sections of the tapes. They called in the Assistant DA and showed her the videos and the pictures. She asked for several other pictures and copies of the tapes.
By one P. M. the search and arrest warrants were issued. The police and FBI converged on the Mosque and Dr. Abdul’s home. The two sites were surrounded and the police went in with body armor. At Dr. Abdul’s home they entered to find the house appeared to be empty. They started a search of the premises. At the mosque one detective entered and handed the warrants to the Mullah who told him that infidels had no right to search the house of Allah. This was America. He reminded them this was guaranteed by the constitution. As they were discussing how the search would be handled without desecrating the mosque the detective’s radio came alive. “Jake. Get out of there now. The other site just blew up.”
As Jake started toward the door he heard a shot behind him and he felt a bullet hit his upper back. It did not penetrate the armor but threw him to the floor. He grabbed his weapon and took cover. He identified the shooter, the mullah who was now taking cover. A second shot from a different weapon missed Jake’s head by inches. There were several people shooting at Him. He pulled into a corner for cover. “Officer taking fire from several sites. I have cover.” He said over the radio.
There were more shots from the positions in front of him but they appeared to be aimed at someone else. Then there was return fire from the door. He saw two men in front of him go down, then the mullah started firing. Return fire caught him and threw him back. A group of men with rifles ran past him. There was more shooting throughout the building. Then it went silent. The bomb squad started a search. As Jake came out his brother Tom grabbed him and hugged him. “Thank God you are alive. I thought they got you. They blew up his house. I don’t know how many cops are dead or hurt. I thought they got you.”
It took an hour to clear the mosque of explosives and start the evacuation. It had been wired for demolition. Dr. Abdul was found in a bed in a back room with the women. He was evacuated to the hospital ER.
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