Atlanta
Dr Ron McCutch had worked for the US Government in Military Hospitals since graduating medical school in 1981. He was a firm patriot, a trait which his son had embraced. As a manifestation of this, his son had enlisted in the US Military at the age of 18, intending to make it a career. It was in serving the military that his son was killed, fighting in a confused war overseas.
His son’s death only increased Dr. McCutch’s determination in aiding the casualties of war. Increased it to a point that some would argue insanity.
Sgt. Eric Abill lost both of his legs and an arm. He was on patrol when an insurgent bomb detonated 3 feet from where he stood. When he returned stateside, Dr. McCutch was assigned to him as primary physician. Sgt Abill was the nearly the same age as his son, and bore a passing resemblance. This may have been what drove Dr. McCutch to go beyond normal medical practice and seek a experimental cure for Sgt. Abill’s physical loss. Because of Sgt. Abill’s major amputations and other injuries suffered, he would be in the hospital for a very long time.
Dr. McCutch had not ceased his education once he graduated from medical school. He had continued and focused on cellular biology. He was very literate in stem cell research and gene therapy, two fields he intended to use to help heal Sgt Abill. His work and experiments could be described, frankly, as Mad.
Humans are frail and God didn’t gift them with the ability to regrow limbs. Dr. McCutch believed that he had an answer. He experimented using stem cells, his patients DNA, and DNA from other species. At first he attempted to grow new limbs that he would be able to transplant onto Sgt Abill. However, despite many weeks of research and experimentation, this was unsuccessful.
Then, Dr McCutch concluded that there may be another way. This time he would inject the altered stem cells into the flesh of the patients. His first experiment was with mice. After removing a limb and allowing it to heal, Dr McCutch inject his formula, using the mice DNA instead of the patients. It was a brilliant success. Within three weeks, the mouse had regrown it’s severed limb.
Dr. McCutch terminated the mouse and began experimenting was other combinations of DNA on other mice. He finally settled on using DNA from lizards. He had attempted using DNA from insects, but there seemed to be a significant change in mental capacity of the mouse. With lizard DNA, after succumbing to a small coma during which the limb regrew, the mouse returned to it’s normal capacity.
John Smith, Boise
John Smith worked as a private security guard in one of the State’s Administration buildings. With so many of the public passing by his desk every day, John had missed many days from the flu’s and colds he picked up at work. Taking liberties with the building ventilation one night while working late, John had re-routed the ducts and placed a fresh air blower of his station. He had also become an obsessive clean freak while at work. He had several bottles of anti-bacterial lotion and wipes in his desk at all times. With these changes, John rarely suffered from common illnesses.
John Smith was part of a small family of four. They lived in a modest home, the children attended public school, and the family attended church every Sunday. They spent most of their time at home, or out in the desert exploring and shooting. John’s modest income didn’t allow for many luxuries such as dining out or going to the video arcades.
Atlanta
With his research and experimentation on mice complete, Dr. McCutch began work the work of creating a gene therapy specifically for Sgt Abill. One of the benefits of using stem cell in his formulae, was that the host body would not reject the formula and it would be universally acceptable to all humans, unlike so many other vaccines derived from donor animals or bonded to metallic compounds. Dr. McCutch would administer the injection, Sgt Abill would pass into a healing coma, and when he awoke, he would have two healthy legs and an arm.
Nurse Sheila Jones had been with the hospital for nearly five years. After working for several years in an emergency room, her skills in trauma care had won her a position with the Government Hospital in treating war wounded. She had three children, one each in grade school, middle school and high school. Her husband worked as an associate store manager of a large national grocery store.
Nurse Jones had been caring for Sgt Abill every since he was transferred to her hospital and placed in her ward. She was concerned over Dr. McCutch’s single minded devotion to Sgt Abill, but also very glad that someone would go the extra mile for a patient. It was entirely normal for Dr’s within the government system to simply view patients as part of the daily grind, or worse, a stepping stone to promotion if they had a unique illness. She did not see this from Dr. McCutch, noticing that he very often snubbed requests from his superiors.
Posted by rubble27 