Doctored

by K'Anne Meinel

  They picked at their food. It wasn’t great looking, but it was food. They had eggs and some sort of meat that looked like bacon but wasn’t, as well as plenty of coffee and tea.

  As they went to sit down at an empty bench, Leida was the one to bring up the elephant in the room. “You don’t look old enough to have been a doctor that long,” she hid her blush behind a napkin, realizing she had been impertinent.

  But Deanna smiled. She knew others would be listening because the tent was full. They were speaking English, but the rumors—despite other languages being spoken here—would abound. “I was a child prodigy. I finished college at fourteen. I was a doctor by the time I was twenty-one, a surgeon actually,” she clarified. “I’ve been working at this, infectious diseases and tropical diseases, for five years now.” That put her at twenty-six, old enough to practice, but with a face of a sixteen-year-old.

  “Where did you do your residency?” Magda spoke up from a neighboring table proving that she, and others, had been listening in avidly.

  “I was at Boston and then I went to Switzerland for infectious diseases so I could specialize,” she explained, switching to French for the woman’s benefit, but repeating it in English for the others who were listening.

  “You’ve done a lot in your young life,” Maddie commented, realizing they were letting their breakfasts get cold by all their questions, and finally digging in.

  “Yeah, and I’m going to do a lot more,” she commented wryly, digging in herself.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Doctor Cooper indeed proved to be valuable. They found that she spoke German, French, a smattering of Italian and Spanish and Portuguese, as well as English. Using an interpreter to work with the patients, supervised at first by Doctor Burton and then later by Magda, she was soon learning the use of certain native words. It created humor between her and the patients they were treating. Some patients had a local virus that the staff had nicknamed the creeping crud. It was very similar to a modern day plague. Transmitted by the rats, it was also found in the local waters…another very important reason to drink only filtered water. One of the biggest reasons for the clinic was AIDS—Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It was at epidemic proportions in Africa at this point, attacking indiscriminately, poor and rich alike. It was rampant in the community and ignorance of the ways to prevent it allowed it to spread easily. Mothers transmitted it to their children through breastfeeding. Fathers, who frequently had several wives or even concubines if they could afford it, spread it between them. Sheer ignorance was what was killing these people.

  Doctor Cooper, working with several of the local people, began a series of classes. Helped by Lenny, they soon devised a program of educating the young and the women. Using the balloons from her mysterious boxes that she kept in her tent, she got their attention; however, she knew explaining about condoms to the women was useless. The men governed this land and if their women didn’t do as they were told, they were frequently beaten or traded. If the young ones were captured and raped they were useless to their families as a commodity and commonly abandoned. It was an uphill battle to educate.

  Some of the locals understood what the clinic was trying to do. As a woman herself, they held Doctor Cooper in awe. Befriending Hamishish proved to be a bonus. As the local magician, she was held in high esteem. She delighted in the balloons and condoms alike, noting their similarity and used the humor to help Deanna educate. Deanna handed the balloons out to the children for deeds well done. Deanna frequently thought Hamishish must do the same with condoms with the many men she slept with. The doctor was amazed that Hamishish didn’t have the diseases that were so rampant in this area. Later, Hamishish confided and showed a crude version of the condoms that they now gave out. It was more like a French Letter of old; reusable and washed thoroughly after use. Crude, but effective…mostly. The danger of catching AIDS was still there and the condoms brought an added measure of safety to this woman’s world. Teaching the others might prevent more.

  Maddie found Deanna a delight to work with. She was never arrogant or condescending like Doctor Burton, who still looked at the young woman with suspicion. Deanna taught not only the locals, but anyone who wanted to learn what she was doing and why. She even showed a couple of the helpers how to administer a shot, something that some of the locals had avoided since it not only hurt, but was mysterious to them.

  “Education is the key,” she kept repeating in her arguments to help the others.

  Doctor Burton agreed with her, but hid behind his aura of mystery to keep his fragile grip on control of the clinic. It was hard enough to get supplies and keep their head above water with the many refugees who came through, but to let them understand what they were truly doing too, he didn’t think that was a good idea. He felt helping them on many levels was to their benefit and, as a result, he befriended Harlan.

  “Well, if we dig it all up, it’s gonna be a helluva mess,” Harlan was saying one night at dinner.

  “Wouldn’t it benefit the locals to learn to use the machinery?” Doctor Cooper asked as she pointed at him with her fork.

  “Of course, but they don’t have any idea of the value of it and think it’s just for fun,” he said disparagingly.

  “What happens when you leave and they don’t know how to use the tractor or the plow? They go back to their ancient methods that have worked for thousands of years?”

  “Well, we have to get the crops in before the rainy season and I’ll teach them later,” he began.

  “Aren’t you only here for four months?”

  “Yes, but that’s plenty of time….”

  “Then you should teach them at the same time so you know your work won’t be going to waste after you leave,” she looked back down at her food, missing the angry look that Harlan sent her.

  Doctor Cooper seemed to know a lot about a wide range of subjects, and she didn’t hesitate to offer suggestions. She wasn’t hurt when they argued or didn’t take her well-meaning advice. In the first few days there, she had asked Harlan questions, drawing him out, almost friendly, but after Harlan realized that Doctor Burton wasn’t trusting of her, her suggestions fell on deaf ears.

  “Does it ever bother you that they ignore you?” Lenny asked as four of them sat around drinking a locally brewed and bottled beer.

  Maddie sat forward to hear better. After their long day of treating people, the noise from the children was a bit loud.

  Leida was already on her second beer and feeling no pain. She claimed the beer was like water compared to Australian beers.

  Deanna shrugged it off. “I’ll get that for the next ten years or so,” she commented, taking a drink and wrinkling her nose at the taste. Other than water—boiled of course—or coffee and tea, there weren’t a lot of choices for beverages. “Then I’ll just have to deal with the misogynists,” she laughed.

  They all shared a laugh, having dealt with the male superiority complexes that many men had, especially the natives. Strangely, it bothered them the most that the highly educated Doctor Burton and others like him, who knew better, followed his lead.

  “Ah, all I have to do is my job and show them that I know what I’m doing,” she shrugged again philosophically. “Doctors Without Borders knows that I’m qualified, and if I don’t like this assignment I can leave any time I want. I really like these people though,” she said emphatically, gesturing with her beer and nearly sloshing it out of the narrow neck in her exuberance. “Whoops,” she said apologetically as she realized she had nearly doused Maddie. “They deserve so much more than they have or have gotten in the past,” she said in reference to the many wars that had devastated this part of the continent.

  “Some of their stories…” Magda shook her head sorrowfully.

  “You can’t think like that. It’s the past. Learn from it. Move on. Keep it from happening again,” Deanna preached. She was so exuberant in her need to teach, to educate, that it was no wonder she and Lenny got along so well. Teaching the children a
nd the women whose modern husbands would allow them to be taught, that was her passion.

  Conversations like this helped pass the time when they had a little downtime. Frequently they had full days at their little clinic. When emergencies came up, they sometimes spent eighteen hours on their feet, using what little resources they had to save these people, sometimes from themselves.

  One night Maddie found herself taking a walk with Deanna. It was amazing that someone so young had accomplished so much. “I’m hoping someday to open my own clinic,” she was telling the wide-eyed Maddie.

  “Maybe I’ll come and work for you,” Maddie said, almost shyly. It was a little overwhelming to hear the young doctor expound on this subject sometimes. She had such enthusiasm for life. It was a little exhilarating and her can-do attitude could be infectious.

  “You know, I’d like that,” Deanna said quietly. The night was full of sounds. The sun hadn’t quite set and it was light enough to walk toward the little stream that meandered through their camp. They had both been assured in the rainy season that it became a raging river, but right now it was small and simple. They could see signs of its violence in the high cuts in the banks beside it, as well as its distance from their camp. “What do you intend to do when you get back to the States?”

  “I’m not sure. My folks want me to get married, but finding a husband with these hours is going to be difficult,” she teased, their hours meant eighteen hour days.

  “Is that all you want, a husband?” Deanna asked in a strange tone.

  “It would be nice, and children. I want children someday. Don’t you?”

  “No, I don’t think I do,” she answered honestly. “I see so much here and elsewhere. These are my children,” she said as she indicated the ones running about the camp, getting in some playtime before night tucked them back into their homes, the grass huts that abounded around the camp.

  “That’s too bad, really. You would make a great mother,” Maddie said with conviction.

  “How do you know that?” Deanna asked with an odd little smile.

  “Because you are so good with them. You aren’t just a doctor to any of the patients; you actually care. I know how much it annoys Doctor Burton that you take the time to talk to them…really talk to them. They appreciate it too. They love working with you much more than working with him.”

  “That’s good to hear,” she answered, smiling slightly. “I often wondered over the years if my youth was held against me. Hell, I’d have been a doctor at seventeen if they didn’t require all those years as an intern, but specializing really helped me become the doctor I wanted to be. I’m still learning. It’s why they call it practicing,” she teased.

  Maddie laughed. It was a common joke among the medical community that a doctor was only practicing. She really enjoyed talking to Deanna. Her intelligence shone through in her bright blue eyes; she got so enthusiastic they snapped. Her hair had bleached a very pale blonde from its darker browns and reds. She was what was commonly referred to as a dishwater blonde, the highlights in her hair changed from one sun-filled day to the next.

  “Don’t you want more?” she challenged.

  Maddie thought about that question a lot in the coming days. Did she just want a husband and children? She was a nurse, a good one from what she was told by both Doctor Burton and Doctor Cooper. Being over here, helping out these poor, unfortunate people, that made her feel so good. But why was she here? Just to pad her resume? Sometimes that question ‘Did she want more?’ infuriated her. Doctor Cooper had a way of making people think.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Doctor Wilson returned from his trip across to Lefeyette. He came with a large truck and many supplies, filling their shelves to capacity. He had been gone when Doctor Cooper, Thomas, Harlan, and Maddie had arrived. By the time he returned, they were settled in. He also brought glowing reviews of Doctor Cooper and the deeds she had done at other camps such as this one. He was definitely a fan and thrilled that she was in Mamadu.

  “I’m a great admirer,” he told her with a hand outstretched. He was a big, bluff man with a bushy beard. He reminded her of Mr. French from that childhood series she had watched, ‘A Family Affair.’

  “I’m thrilled to be working with you,” she told him. He smiled, but didn’t believe her. From the accolades she had gotten, he knew they were lucky to have her.

  He put his arm across her shoulders as they watched the helpers unpack his large truck of supplies. “How are you getting on here? Can we entice you to stay longer?”

  “Oh, I love it here. The work is very challenging,” she hedged. She wasn’t about to complain about anything, or anyone.

  “This new serum from Harvard is supposed to be good,” he commented, his arm falling from her shoulders. He changed the subject, sensing that something wasn’t quite right. They were soon talking the benefits of the various medicines he had brought back with them. The guards around the truck attested to the importance of their supplies. They would stay at the compound, their automatic rifles necessary to keep the drugs safe so they could use them in the clinic and not have them stolen to be sold on the black market.

  The two doctors talked as the goods were stowed and secured. Doctor Burton walked up, wiping his hands on a towel, obviously just come from washing up at the sinks. “Ah, you’ve met,” he said with forced joviality.

  Doctor Wilson immediately sensed the tension between the other two doctors. “Yes, I’ve heard her praises sung from Lefeyette to Mamadu,” he smiled, showing brilliant white teeth against the black of his full beard.

  “Ah, yes,” Burton agreed, sounding unconvinced and then immediately talking about the supplies that Wilson had managed to get through. Deanna wandered away.

  “You fool! Have you managed to insult her already?” Wilson asked, exasperated, as he waited for Cooper to get out of earshot.

  “What? She may be brilliant, but she’s young and inexperienced…” Burton blustered.

  “You have no idea how brilliant she is…or how connected. How do you think I got all these supplies, or the guards?” he was furious and let it show.

  “She arranged it?”

  “Doctors Without Borders arranged it, on her recommendation. I was sitting in Lefeyette, trying to arrange one quarter of this amount when someone from that organization approached me. Apparently, Cooper got a message out and placed an order. They listen to that young and inexperienced doctor!” He had asked about the new doctor that he knew would be in Mamadu when and if he got back. The guards had made sure they got back across this violent land.

  “So,” he shrugged, unimpressed. “She has connections….”

  “Yeah, and she used them despite your foolishness. Let her alone and let her do her job,” he recommended heatedly. “You don’t know who she knows or what she can do!” He had his suspicions, but he was going to keep them to himself unless he had them confirmed.

  Over the following days, Doctor Burton kept a wary distance, allowing the young woman to do her job. He had to begrudgingly admit she knew what she was doing, did it well, and with enthusiasm. He was surprised that she didn’t hesitate to operate when it was necessary. She knew techniques that he himself could learn from. One afternoon, he helped her perform a C-Section on a pregnant woman, only numbing her lower half. She explained that by not putting the woman completely out, they not only saved on anesthesia which could be hard to get, but the mother would be less anxious to hold her newborn.

  “Tell her we will have her baby out in five minutes,” she said to the interpreter in French. The interpreter then spoke in the local dialect to the woman, explaining what the ‘vroulike dokter’ was saying. It wasn’t the words that calmed the woman, it was Deanna’s self-assurance and the calmness she maintained. Her sunny disposition frequently had flocks of locals around her, wanting to touch her and her now nearly white-blonde hair. She was special and they sensed that. Having Hamishish as a friend spoke volumes to the natives.

  She lived up to what she
said too, having explained to the mother that a normal birth wasn’t possible since she had AIDS. By delivering this way, she could have more children and not infect this one with the dreaded disease. If they could only get her to feed the child formula instead of mother’s milk, it would greatly increase this child’s odds of never contracting the dreaded disease that was so prevalent in this part of Africa.

  The women who had been given the life-saving formula, frequently sold it instead of using it. Breastfeeding was free, but it also passed the mother’s bodily fluid to the child, who then could and would contract the deadly disease. Less and less babies survived to adulthood and these doctors were working against those odds. This village was increasing its odds, not at the hands of the doctors, but at the hands of their witch doctor. Hamishish, the magician, had told them that a great plague had come upon the land and that breastfeeding was no longer allowed, not for at least three generations. She explained that these white doctors had brought a powder that could save their babies. The women, superstitious to the core, believed her unfailingly. More than half of them used the formula that was given to them instead of selling it. Still, it took time.

  In no time, a beautiful baby boy was born to this struggling woman. Deanna placed it on her chest, lightly wrapped in a beautiful birthing blanket the young woman had prepared for the child. Quickly, she cut the cord and stitched up the woman, using plenty of antibiotics to prevent a secondary infection. She was grateful for the recent shipment that Doctor Wilson had brought in that contained plenty of what they needed to be effective. It might only last a short time: some of it had an expiration date, some inevitably would spoil, be stolen, or used up, but for now they could save this one woman and her baby. She smiled as she finished cleaning up the woman who was smiling down in wonderment at the perfect baby she had just delivered.

  She said something in her language and the interpreter laughed.

  “What?” Deanna asked in French.