Mitch and Sheldon headed up to the doctors’ lounge. Most of
the doctors were either asleep or handling middle-of-the
night emergencies. They got comfortable, free to talk in the
empty lounge.
“Sheldon, what is up, bro? Mrs. Young sneaking into your
office in the middle of the night? What’s that all about?”
“I have no idea how Sophie ended up in there.”
“Me neither. Is it possible she knew what you were doing?”
“No way.”
“Fill me in. Are you working with that insurance company?”
“Yeah, I accepted their offer.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Mitch, you’ve been so busy with your own stuff.”
“Okay, well, now you can tell me. All I know is that Mrs.
Young didn’t belong in there, so I got rid of her and hopefully
scared her quiet. But fill me in.”
“A couple of months ago, the president of HHI—you know,
Helping Hands Insurance?”
Mitch nodded.
“Well, he took me to lunch, wined and dined me to get on
board with this idea of how to cut costs for the company.”
Mitch smirked, eyeing his disheveled appearance. “Did you
at least iron your tie for the occasion?”
“Yeah.” Sheldon grinned. “With a little research, I learned HHI
is investigating new ways to curb the incidence of certain X-linked
81
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
diseases. They’re focusing on muscular dystrophy and hemophilia
A. They already know how to screen for kids that carry the genetic
mutation, but they have yet to identify which kids will actually get
sick with the disease. Since they’re X-linked diseases, the majority
of those who get sick with the diseases are boys.”
“Yeah, Sheldon, I went to med school too. Go on.”
“Sorry. Anyhow, I met with the president of the company,
and he asked for my help. They want to take the screening a step
further and know for certain which kids will develop the disease.
There’s a little more to it, but that’s basically it.”
“Huh.” Mitch paused. “And you’re involved in this? I don’t
believe it. You’re supposed to be the ethical one of us.”
“You’re right, I wasn’t sure I wanted to get involved. But as he
described what they were doing, I have to admit I was curious.”
Sheldon explained the details of the project to Mitch.
“And you’re able to get consent for this?”
“It’s included in the lengthy circumcision consent form that
parents have to sign if they want their son circumcised.”
“And what about those boys who don’t get circumcised?”
“We tell them that since their child is a carrier, we need to run
some more blood tests on them, and give them a consent form to
sign, again with the experimental consent within the document.”
“I still can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“Like I said, you’ve been busy, and these guys wanted help.
All I’m doing is running more tests on the babies, that’s it. What
you saw me doing is as far as I’ll go with this project.”
Mitch stroked his beard. “Maybe I should take over where
you leave off.”
“That’s up to you, but after the testing, I’m done.” Sheldon
pulled out the card with the HHI logo on one side and the WMI
insignia on the back and handed it to Mitch.
“Thanks, I think I’ll give him a call.
