Hunting for Hippocrates. Warren J. Stucki

Hunting for Hippocrates

      Hunting

      for

      Hippocrates

      A Novel

      Warren Stucki

      © 2004 by Warren J. Stucki. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

      Sunstone books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. For information please write: Special Markets Department, Sunstone Press, P.O. Box 2321, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504-2321.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

      Stucki, Warren J., 1946-

      Hunting for Hippocrates: a novel / by Warren Stucki.

      p. cm.

      ISBN: 0-86534-381-0

      1. Trails (Murder)—Fiction. 2. Medical ethics—Fiction. 3. Physicians—Fiction. I. Title.

      PS3619.T84H86 2003

      813′.6—dc21 2003008008

      SUNSTONE PRESS

      POST OFFICE BOX 2321

      SANTA FE, NM 87504-2321 /USA

      [phone] / ORDERS ONLY [phone]

      FAX [phone]

       WWW.SUNSTONEPRESS.COM

      This book is dedicated to all the hard working men and women at Dixie Regional Medical Center. In no way does, or should, this book reflect on the competent, compassionate and professional health care they administer to the good people of Washington County.

      And Jeremy Christensen, my son-in-law. Like our protagonist, he also is battling diabetes and in his own way, no less a hero.

      CONTENTS

       Acknowledgments

       Prologue

       One

       Two

       Three

       Four

       Five

       Six

       Seven

       Eight

       Nine

       Ten

       Eleven

       Twelve

       Thirteen

       Fourteen

       Sixteen

       Seventeen

       Eighteen

       Nineteen

       Twenty

       Twenty-One

       Twenty-Two

       Twenty-Three

       Twenty-Four

       Twenty-Five

       Twenty- Six

       Epilogue

       About author

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

       I would like to express my sincere appreciation to:

      Alan Boyack, J.D. for guiding me through the confusing maze of courtroom procedure, jargon and nuances.

      Scott Moesinger, M,D. and Vicki Noble, M.D. for keen insights into the invisible world of histo-pathology and tendering intriguing nuggets that helped mold the plot.

      Judd Larowe, M.D. who assisted me in relearning the complexities of internal medicine, the ICU and critical care.

      John Graff for helping me understand prisoners, prisons and prison life.

      Mary Nieto and Jackie Murray, P.A., a special thanks. They were my tireless readers and gentle critics.

      Linda Stucki, my wife and life’s companion, who also moonlights as a sounding board and a reader. And when necessary, my not so gentle critic.

      Jim Smith, publisher and editor, for his patience, skill and friendship. With the hands of a surgeon, he slices through redundancy and mishmash to create a readable piece.

       PROLOGUE

      There was only one way to say it. Walter P. Maughn was an odd child. At birth he seemed fairly normal with dark straight hair, an unusually big head and a puffy, swollen face that bore more than a passing resemblance to a prize fighter on the losing end of ten rounds. The only thing that bordered on peculiar was his lack of the usual baby fat. Walter was definitely skinny, but otherwise a fairly nondescript baby with all the appropriate body parts.

      As he matured, it was obvious he was going to be tall, in contrast to his parents, who were both compact and downright short. People speculated, in jest of course, as to Walter’s true lineage and it did not go unnoticed that the postman and milkman at the time, were both taller.

      With his long gangly legs and arms, Walter seemed just slightly out of kilter. He wobbled and swayed when he walked, like the tires of an automobile with its front-end out of alignment. Like soaring birds, Walter’s arm span was enormous and appeared too long for his torso, eventually he developed a paunch, a beer belly, though Walter