Rebecca and Anna had been friends since they were very young. They first met when they were just starting school and became friends almost immediately.

The friendship continued throughout the time they were being educated in the different levels of learning and they both passed exams to enable them to attend the same university.

When they had completed their scholarships and through hard work had obtained their respective diplomas, they each set off on different career paths, Anna as a doctor and Rebecca as a lawyer.

Although they kept in constant contact over the years, they did not have many opportunities to meet each other, but that was all to change when an unexpected turn of fate brought them back together again.

William had been working as a doctor in his father’s practise for nearly eight years and decided it was about time for him to spread his wings and to set up his own practise.

He had a different approach to his patients than his father did, wanting to get more involved in what sort of lives they lived and exactly why it was that they had the various medical problems.

Because of this approach, William thought it would be best to be in a partnership with a female doctor, so that she could get more personally involved with the women patients.

That’s how Anna’s and William’s paths managed to cross and after three years working together, love blossomed and they decided to get married in the following spring.

Meanwhile, Rebecca was pursuing a successful career in law, being sort after because of her ability to defend her clients, when the evidence was stacked up against them, but she still had faith in their innocence.

Anna had administered a routine penicillin injection to a woman patient, who immediately had an allergic reaction and after violent convulsions, the poor woman died in Anna’s arms.

The woman’s husband and family decided to sue Anna and William for neglect and wanted them both struck off the register and not allowed to practise as doctors again.

It was under these circumstances that Rebecca and Anna were to meet and spend time together. Rebecca read of the case in the newspapers and immediately contacted Anna, asking to be appointed as her lawyer.

Anna accepted gladly and the two met in a coffee bar, not far away from Rebecca’s office, to discuss the case and to finally see each other again, it had been nearly four years since they last were together.

They both wanted to have a conversation about all the things that had happened since they last met, but they both knew that the priority was to discuss the circumstances of the case first.

Rebecca looked directly into Anna’s eyes and asked her if she knew that the woman was allergic to penicillin. Without blinking, Anna replied that she had checked all of the medical notes and there was no mention of it.

Then how can you be accused of neglect, asked Rebecca, if you had no knowledge of any previous allergy. Anna looked at Rebecca thoughtfully and slowly gave her answer.

Remember when we were at school, she said, there was an incident with one of the other children in the school. It was a young girl and they had to call her mother at home, to come and collect her because she was ill.

We found out afterwards from the girl, when she returned to school, that she had reacted to a substance during a chemistry lesson and that her doctor had diagnosed that she was allergic to it.

Rebecca said that she vaguely remembered the incident, but could not fully recall all the details. But what on earth does this have to do with the case we are discussing, asked Rebecca.

Anna frowned and said, you may not remember it, but with my interest in medicine and my desire to be a doctor, I paid full attention to all of the details that occurred.

Then she continued by saying, the substance that caused the problem in the chemistry lesson was penicillin and the young girl that reacted to it was the same person as the woman that had died, she said.

Rebecca’s face was now completely white, because she knew this was one case that she was going to lose. Even though she wanted it to be different, because of the friendship that she had with Anna, she knew that her closest friend would insist on paying the penalty for neglect.