Disappearing Sick

[Ethan Skinner]

I'll take Joe's suggestion and start a new thread about this thing. One of the biggest

problems is that we can't officially report it as an outbreak or an epidemic, because

nobody's "died." They just disappear. Vanish. One minute they're ill, running a fever,

shaking with the chills, vomiting and the like. They complain of being ill, and then they

sleep it off.

First, we just assumed it was a really bad case of the flu. We only took in the patients

who really needed to be hospitalized--the old, the immunosuppressed, and the young. At

first, it really started like the flu.

Before they fell into a coma.

So we started watching them like hawks. Unfortunately, hawks have to sleep, too. And 168 hour weeks will sure tell on a guy. I din't know how I was doing it. He--, I didn't know how I was doing it. I was running back and forth, and one of the nurses--sweet girl, but a few cc's shy of a syringe--thought she could take a break and cal her boyfreind.

That's all it took. The alarms started wailing, and when we rushed in--no patient. Gone.

That was the first. We thought it was weird, at first. We had to label it as a self checkout. But then the second happened. And the third. And fourth.

The first I could've seen checking out. Small kid, college student who wanted to go back to college. The second, a single mother on dialysis who thought she needed to look after her kids, even thou she was puking her guts inside out. Third, and old guy.

In a wheelchair. Most of the 22 others were like that. Some could have left, some couldn't have. I asked around, but nobody actually *checked* them out. That's just what it's been billed as.

And it kept geting worse, on both sides of the hospital. I tried looking into it on my off days last week, but I was railroaded off. Why the hospital's being so quiet about it is beyond me, but I tried looking deeper into it.

Which is why I'm currently on suspencion without pay.

I smell major coverup, but I still don't see how they could do it. All it takes is for one second of unattention, and they vanish. I was literally staring at patient 22, and when I blinked and rubbed my eyes, the alarms started shouting.

[Hannah]

Has anybody checked at their homes?

[skeptic]

This sounds a little bit like the same horsepucky I've heard some folks claim about Glen, my former patient.
Although I'm no longer officially on his case, when I get outta D.C. I'll have to get back to the case.
Might be some medical information useful to you in it.

[finder_fee]

Where is this happening?

Fi

[skeptic]

Ethan is west coast from what I recall.
Somewhere in California.

[finder_fee]

It's a little out of my stomping grounds, sorry.

Fi

[Ethan Skinner]

Has anybody checked at their homes?

Yea I did. A few lived alone, a few had families. The ones that lived alone, the neighbors sometimes do or don't miss 'em, depending on the person. The ones with family ties are the same: some are concerned, some couldn't care less. In short, it's still like they've disappeared. I heard there were some lawsuits bein' filed, but I was smoothly kicked out the door before I could hear the results. But why it's so quiet has me wondering--patients just don't disappear from major hospitals without a major uproar,

Skeptic, it'd sound like horse puke to me, to, but I was a firsthand witness of one of the disappearances. Well, I would have been if I hadn't shut my eyes a few seconds. Course, I admit that was during hour 149, but still, how does a body needing a wheel jump past me without my notice?

Still, any more information would be appreciated.

[skeptic]

Skeptic, it'd sound like horse puke to me, to, but I was a firsthand witness of one of the disappearances. Well, I would have been if I hadn't shut my eyes a few seconds. Course, I admit that was during hour 149, but still, how does a body needing a wheel jump past me without my notice?

You were well beyond any threshold of sleep dep I've ever seen.
That alone probably explains it.

Still, any more information would be appreciated.

Get in touch and we'll see if I have anything useful to you.
I'll pass my contact info to you.
Call any time although I'm with company presently.
Don't worry; she won't mind.

[Ethan Skinner]

Will do.

[RAVEN]

Do you have any updates, Ethan?

I am looking at a report about a patient who vanished from a hospital in Calgary. It doesn't sound exactly like your situation, but it might help. In this report, the patient was amitted for an injury. The wound wasn't healing, but the patient gained nearly a hundred pounds during the hospital stay. Then he vanished one night. Another patient claimed to see him get up and simply wander away, possibly sleepwalking. That was the only patient who vanished, but get this. Bodies began dissappearing from the morgue that same night.