The resident looked at her leg, “We need an x-ray of this.”

They were careful to keep her leg extended with the traction while the technician took the picture with a portable machine. When the films were available the resident compared them to the films from that morning. He called Jason aside, “Your wife is in serious condition. She has a very serious infection in her leg. If I am right it is a bug is in her blood, I am almost sure of that, it will threaten her life. We’re going to take a culture, start some antibiotics and hope. In addition the circulation in her right foot is precarious at best, from her history it was weak, I believe something has compromised it, possibly the infection has caused clotting. That poses additional risks to her life. If the circulation doesn’t improve and the infection doesn’t start to clear we will need to do surgery.”

Fifteen minutes later the IV was running and they had taken two cultures from the leg and one from the bone.

By two in the morning the fever had gone up to 103.5 and Kathy was nearly totally unresponsive and irritable. The resident called in several specialists. They looked at the culture results that had just come back, the leg, the x-rays and the patient. Three more experts were called in, they looked at the situation and the doctors met outside the room with Jason.

“Your wife is one really sick patient. We believe there was an infection in the bone in her tibia that remained dormant till it was broken yesterday. We saw what looked like a capsule on the x-ray near at the break. Now that bug is out of its cage and from the appearance of her leg, it is a really nasty one. She probably picked it up when she had the open fracture years ago. It got encapsulated and lay dormant till now. It could have flared up at any time but the break probably damaged the capsule. If we don’t take action her fever will continue to rise and the infection will kill her.“

“Give her some medicine, some of the new antibiotics.”

“There isn’t any medicine that will combat that bug and the infection has already destroyed the vascular structure in her lower leg. Her right leg has no pulse below the knee so even if we could kill the infection the leg will develop gangrene. The only treatment is amputation of her leg above the knee and if we do not do that soon, it may soon be too late to save her life.”

“Are you sure there is nothing else you can do?” He buried his face in his hands.

“We have a consult set up via teleconference in ten minutes the doctor there already has the information and is looking at it. We are suggesting that if the expert on this condition agrees we will want to get your wife into surgery within the next hour. We have a room and team being scheduled, just in case. Time on this is critical.”

Fifteen minutes later the doctor entered the room and nodded. He explained the situation to Kathy. Initially she was adamant that there would be no surgery, she would take her chances with the infection. But Jason was adamant and finally she relented. She signed the paper and was whisked out of the room within minutes. She was in recovery by three thirty.

The First Family: Chapter 1 – Introduction

The First Family 43: Kathy and Jason Learn the Truth

The First Family 45: Jason and Kathy’s Meeting with the President is Delayed