Martin stood. “That was one of the unexpected side effects of the virus. It surprised us all. There were a number of other unexpected side effects, extremely positive side effects. Perhaps you would like to give him a brief examination. However, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to leave. There’s a crisis in our parent company that needs to be addressed, and I was volunteered.” Martin sheepishly smiled then left.
Roderick was brought out of his reverie, “Oh yes, I should introduce you to the senior scientists in the study who I think you’ve already met and spoke to about the study protocol, Janet and Sidney Ryan. The man who just left is a major stockholder of the company and is also a doctor.” Almost as an afterthought, “And this is the Ryan’s son, Joshua, at the desk.”
Brown shook Janet and Sidney’s hand. “May I examine you, Malcolm?”
Malcolm said in his soft voice, “Yes doctor.”
Dr. Brown took out his stethoscope and listened to his heart rate, then he took a blood pressure. He repeated the blood pressure. “That’s impossible, his heart rate is only 18 beats per second, and his blood pressure is 60 over 30. He should barely be conscious with that blood pressure. Could you put this thermometer in your mouth?”
While he was waiting for the temperature, he listened to his heartbeat and palpated Malcolm’s chest. “His heart sounds remarkably strong, with none of the noisy valves that he had before, and there’s no evidence of any edema in the lungs. His breathing is no longer labored.” He removed the thermometer. He examined the thermometer and stared at it at different angles. Brown put his hand on Malcolm’s forehead. “He’s burning up. His temperature is off the scale of my thermometer, and the maximum temperature is 110 degrees.”
Sidney nodded, “We actually have some veterinary thermometers and his baseline temperature is 114 degrees. That’s normal for him now. He has a better appetite now to compensate.”
Dr. Brown took out his blood pressure cuff, partially inflated it and handed it to Malcolm, “You remember the drill, Mal? Squeeze it as hard as you can.”
Janet looked at Sidney and said something, when Sidney shook his head no.
Malcolm said, “OK Dr. Brown.” Malcolm gripped the pad and squeezed. The bar of mercury went up, higher and higher. It reached the top of the scale, 250 mmHg. Dr. Brown said, “That’s impossible.”
There was some commotion outside the room. Doctor Brown heard the room number he was in announced outside on a loud speaker. All of a sudden, there was a very loud pop with breaking glass. The top of the blood pressure gauge popped off and there was mercury all over the floor. Two men in Hazmat suits entered. One said in a muffled voice, “We heard there was a chemical spill?”
Sidney nodded, “Mercury spill. I think we had better leave this room. We have another room where we can continue.”
Dr. Brown was almost in shock, “In all my years of practice that never happened. I’ve never seen one break. It’s impossible.”
As they walked, Sidney continued, “Actually we have a much more robust pressure gauge. Malcolm’s grip is fifteen times the upper normal human limit. His dexterity is poor, but we think it’s from lack of use and practice. His eye-hand coordination has greatly improved. His walking gate has also improved. You’ve already noticed that he doesn’t need his glasses anymore. His vision had been roughly 20:1400 before the treatment. What you could see fourteen hundred feet away he had to be twenty feet from for him to see it. It is now 20:10, twice as good as yours or mine. His near vision is even better. I think you previously observed numbness at various parts of his hand and feet. That is no longer present. His liver and spleen are now within normal dimensions, no longer of monstrous proportions. His face is also no longer swollen. We can supply you with the MRIs.”
They arrived at a different examination room. Roderick said, “Malcolm and I would like the study to resume, with some additional controls added. However, I think you’re going to have to revoke his death certificate.”
“Yes, yes, remarkable. If I didn’t see it, I would not have believed it. I’d like to do a full work up. And, no offense, I’d like to get a set of his fingerprints to compare with his hospital records to confirm his identity.”
“No problem doctor.”
“This is exciting. A complete reversal of his symptoms, complete and utter reversal. A first. Gene replacement. The neural re-growth alone would be a Nobel Prize. But he was dead and buried for twenty days. How did he survive?”
“We were told by the geneticist, who did the modeling, that his mitochondria were reprogrammed with a secondary energy cycle. It allowed him to convert CO2 back into carbon and oxygen. He didn’t need to breathe.”
Doctor Brown looked skeptical. I can believe the strength and neural re-growth. There are animal models that this could be based on, but a new energy cycle? Come on, be serious!”
Janet walked over to Malcolm, “Mal, would you mind getting your head wet? We want to see how long you can hold your breath.”
Malcolm nodded. He took off his shirt, slowly walked to a sink, and filled it up with water. “Ready to time me?”
Doctor Brown nodded, “It’s 10:32 in … 1-2-3.” Malcolm put his head under the water. Sidney wrote the time down on a piece of paper. He then wrote the date including the year. He was grinning.
Sidney started talking, although Brown was looking at his watch, “Actually, we don’t want too much of a fuss made. We’d like to protect the privacy of Malcolm and the other patients. Nevertheless, we want the DNA snipper project to continue. Hell, even if Malcolm had died, I’d love to see it work.”
Brown sighed. “I’m not sure if we can get it up. The FDA will balk after the first patient died.”
Sidney smiled, “But he’s feeling slightly better now. Better than before. We now know a bit more of what to expect. We’ll just have to be prepared to wait a number of weeks while the body heals itself.”
Dr. Brown looked at his watch – four minutes. He noticed that Malcolm was pointing at his pants, then his ears. Brown was puzzled. Was Malcolm stuck and had trouble getting up?
Roderick noticed it too. “I know what he wants.” Roderick went into his son’s pocket and pulled out an iPod, turned it on, then attached the ear pods. Malcolm made an OK sign. Five minutes.
Dr. Brown looked at Janet and Sidney Ryan, “What else have you noticed?”
Janet spoke, “His laboratory values are all off the charts. The blood sera itself is much less fluid, it has a viscosity like olive oil. His bones are much more solid. We even took a bone biopsy. And that was a story in itself. We bent three bone biopsy needles. We eventually went to a much thicker, veterinary needle, which also bent but did the job. The bone biopsy indicated that the bone is still made of the usual stuff, but it is arranged in a new way, much more crystalloid and regular in appearance than typical bone. It is composed of equilateral pyramids, supporting one another. The center of the bone is not as hollow as typical bone, although there were places where blood is produced. Remember when I said his grip strength is fifteen times the upper normal limit. Well, he won’t bend or crush his bones in any feat of strength. I think we have the world’s strongest man here. Oh, one other thing, we took an x-ray the next day to confirm the bone density. We couldn’t find any lesion from the bone biopsy. Nothing, not even on his skin. Remember, we stuck him four times, bending the needle. There were no signs of anything. Not even a black and blue mark. Nothing.”
Dr. Brown looked at his watch. Eight minutes had passed. “Has he had any discomfort?”
Roderick spoke up, “Only minor, like growing pains. Two months ago, before the experiment, we gave him Tylenol a few times a day, he hasn’t asked for any pain medication at all.”
“What about his mood, or cognitive functioning?”
The Ryans looked at one another. Janet spoke, “Sorry, we never thought of giving him an IQ test. He’s only been here for th
e past 11 days. Do you have access to any old testing?”
Dr. Brown shrugged, “No, I didn’t either. I was more concerned about keeping him alive.”
Roderick spoke, “If, when you said moods, did you mean ‘has his temperament changed?’ He seems happier. Hell, both his mother and I are happier. The happiest we’ve ever been. Mal, well he’s just a sweet kid; he always has been. That hasn’t changed. He hasn’t had any outburst. Just his being alive is the big thing. He would have been dead if it weren’t for the DNA snipper project.”
Sidney nodded in agreement, “That’s the way Janet and I look at it. If he were still crippled, barely functioning, but alive, then the project would have been a resounding success. Remember, he was expected to die a month ago.”
Dr. Brown looked at his watch then walked over to the sink. Malcolm’s face was completely immersed in the water. It hadn’t moved in the last twelve minutes. “How long can he stay like this?”
Sidney looked like he was listening to something, and then said, “We’re not sure, and we don’t want to do THAT experiment, but our best guess is 428 hours. However, with exertion it would be less, in a coma much longer.”
“Let’s get him out. I’m convinced. A totally new metabolic energy cycle. Amazing.”
Roderick removed the ear buds and tapped his son, “Time to get out.”
Malcolm raised his head and did not appear out of breath nor flushed.
Brown said, “Amazing. Can I get a blood and DNA sample?”
After removing a sample, Brown shook the blood vial. It looked much darker than normal blood and was noticeably thicker.
***
Dr. Brown got the Death Certificate revoked. He then called up his colleagues for another near-death patient with LPH deficiency. Dr. Brown and Sidney Ryan had a number of teleconferences with the FDA. The FDA was incredulous that the patient was alive after the hospital recorded death, complete with flat-line EKG and EEG records. The FDA remained openly skeptical, despite the testimonials by his parents and Brown, and the videotape of Malcolm. They finally agreed to proceed with other controls implemented to prevent fraud.
***
The second subject was a 21-year-old woman, a referral from Kitchener Ontario, a suburb of Toronto. Her life expectancy was given as two months. Her mother brought her to into Dr. Brown’s office.
“Thank you for coming all this way from Ontario, Mrs. Sarnofski. Dr. DuBey told me that your daughter Brenda had terminal stage LPH Deficiency. I’m a specialist in that field and lately we had an unusual reversal with one of my 23-year old patients.”
The woman showed a fearful hesitancy, but asked, “A reversal?”
Brown smiled, “A complete, and remarkable, reversal”.
“Oh doctor, I’ve totally given up all hope for my Brenda.”
“I’m going to need to examine her first.”
Brown initiated a complete examination of the young woman. She had all the outward appearances of the disease. She had the very large chest, due to her swollen liver and spleen, the misshapen head, her mother had strapped her down into the wheelchair to prevent her falling out. Dr. Brown did the full examination, according to the study protocol. He initially checked her lung capacity. He then touched her with an electrical probe. Her skin had sensitivity in only 10% of the area below her neck. Brown recorded his findings into the case report form. He took blood samples, which would eventually demonstrate the presence of the biochemical markers of the disease, confirming his colleague’s diagnosis. His personal estimate was that she had only a month and a half to live.
Brown wheeled Brenda back into his office, with her mother in tow. “The bad and good news is that Brenda is very, very sick. She is so sick that she will qualify to enter this new study. I need to stress that it is extremely experimental. She will be the second person, and the first female, ever to receive this treatment.”
“Will she be on drugs for the rest of her life?”
“Actually no. Let me explain. The treatment will inject her with a special virus, which will enter her bloodstream, infect her entire body, and then change all the cells from the inside. It will completely alter her DNA. Speaking of that, one of the side effects is that she will never be able to have normal children again.” Dr. Brown thought of the results from the DNA sample from Malcolm. How he had to force the laboratory to devise new methods for analyzing the sample. It turned out that, rather than 23 human chromosomes, there was now only one, and it was miniscule in comparison to a normal chromosome. No, Brenda would never be able to mate and have human children. Hell, she might look human, but she was certainly, no longer a Homo Sapien. He wasn’t sure if she even would be in the Phylum Chordata, the DNA would be so radically different, despite her human appearance.
Mrs. Sarnofski nodded, “None of us thought of having children again. All of us are carriers.” She said in a whisper, “My daughter is still a virgin.”
Dr. Brown nodded. “Like I said, she’ll be the very first female that this will be tried on. I don’t know if it will work.”
Mrs. Sarnofski said, “What happened to your first patient?”
“Yes, he was a 23 year old male with LPH Deficiency. He was slightly sicker than Brenda. He was given the drug and went into a very intense coma.” Brown paused. “Actually we all thought he died. His heart stopped beating, his EEG was flat, his breathing stopped. He was pronounced dead. He revived twenty days later. Now comes the strange part.” Dr. Brown smiled, ‘a patient dies, comes back to life after being buried alive for twenty days, and he said ‘now the strange part’ – oh my god.’ Brown closed his eyes, sighed, and then continued, “He had been completely immobile, with no sensations in his legs and many parts of his arm, like Brenda. After he awoke, he was able to stand and is now making remarkable progress in re-learning how to walk again. He’s also been able to regain remarkable strength. In short, he had a complete recovery from the syndrome.”
“Do you think that it will work for my Brenda?”
“Like I said before, the first patient was a success. I’m optimistic. However, it may be a fluke. I don’t know. What I do know, is that this procedure is the only hope that Brenda has. Without it, the disease will shortly progress and …”
Brown was going to say more, but just stopped.
“One of the stipulations the FDA made after the completely unexpected results from the first patient, is that Brenda be also examined by another expert in LPH deficiency, and that doctor also be allowed to monitor Brenda’s changes in the hospital.”
“Will this be very expensive? We haven’t much money and Canada won’t pay for experimental treatments without a lot of paperwork.”
“Don’t worry about that. The drug company will cover all medical treatment expenses. We anticipate that your daughter will go into a coma for three weeks. She won’t be conscious at all. As I said, medically she will appear to be dead. The only way we know she’ll be alive is that her temperature will remain abnormally high. That’s one of the permanent side effects of the treatment. The temperature is unusually high, fatal for a regular person,” Dr. Brown almost said ‘fatal for a human’, “but was completely safe, at least it was for the first person. There were no negative side effects. He’s been fine for the last three months. He hadn’t burnt himself out.”
The mother bent down so her face was level with Brenda’s, “Do you hear that baby? What do you say?”
The girl blinked once and said “Ugghss”.
The mother nodded, “she says yes. But may I speak to that young man who received the first treatment?”
Dr. Brown nodded, “I’ll have to get his permission first. However, I’ve known him for many years, I’m sure he’ll say yes. He’s always been an active role model for all the other LPH patients. He’s also a sweet, special person.” Brown almost hesitated calling Malcolm a person. Of course, he was a person.
The second patient wa
s enrolled.
The next week was involved in scheduling the hospital and arranging the consult with the other LPH specialist. Brenda was fingerprinted and photographs were taken of her eye’s iris and retina, and the shape of her ears. A chip, the size of a grain of rice, was inserted into her leg. It contained coded information to confirm her identity. In eight days, Brenda was treated. On day 11, she died. No oxygen or other attempts to revive her were made. She was moved into a small room. She was still wired up to measure her temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, EEG and other vital signs. Unlike the first time, they measured the amount of oxygen in her blood by a special instrument that read the color of her blood in her fingertips. Although she was not breathing and her heart was stopped, her temperature and blood indicated that metabolism was on high gear. Twenty three days from her treatment, she came back to life, no longer technically human. She tried to stand up and fell. It was the most movement she had in 3 years. Although slurred, she spoke intelligibly as well. The only unusual thing was that on the sixth day after the administration of the drug, the rice sized chip, which had the coded identification, stopped working. An X-ray indicated it was being absorbed by the body. On day 7, all X-ray traces of it were gone.
A month after her rebirth she was slowly walking in a park with Malcolm. She was leaning on him as he held onto her waist.
***
The next two months saw four new subjects. Their death and rebirth followed the pattern of Malcolm and Brenda. The phase IIb study was closed.
***
Per a new request by the FDA, the requirement that the ‘patient’s expected longevity of ten weeks or less’ was relaxed to ‘one year’ or less. The next ten patients were then enrolled into a new study. Here half the patients were given the DNA snipper and half a salt-water solution. All the DNA snipper patients ‘died’, were ‘reborn’, and showed a complete recovery. None of the five given the salt water had any changes. The only unusual observation was that these less seriously ill patients revived from the ‘dead’ on the average in fifteen days. The FDA approved the DNA snipper in the smallest trial of its kind, following an expedited review for an orphan drug. The five patients given placebo were allowed to receive the active treatment.