MIND FIELDS by Brad Aiken Page B

wound up at the ear of the White House Chief of Staff, Harold Bradley, at Camp David.
      When the President of the United States calls and says to give a patient top priority, hospital administrators do not stop to ask who is paying the bill, at least not right away.  Rocky was admitted to a private suite on the neurosurgery floor of Harborview Hospital.  An MRI showed the results of blunt trauma to the right side of the head — a skull fracture and a severe right frontal lobe contusion.
    Mr. Bradley knew that Rocky had no family, and made it a point to be by his side within hours.  A few calls were made, and he learned that the only real hope for a complete recovery from the injury was a new experimental treatment called two-phase neuronanobot therapy, or TPNT.  He conferred with the Surgeon General, and signed the papers the next morning.
    Rocky Stankowski was not the first patient treated with the TPNT for a brain injury under the Hopkins protocol, but he was the most prominent thus far.  Fortunately for Rocky, as well as for the nanobot researchers, he made a complete recovery, like each of the twenty-three patients treated before him, within fifteen days.  On the sixteenth day, he was back home.
    Rocky was itching to get back to work, but protocol demanded that the patient not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle for at least six months.  He was monitored regularly for any sign of seizures, and underwent a thorough battery of neurological and psychological tests during that period of time.  The results were astonishing, with no trace of injury detectable on any of the tests within three months’ time.  Anatomically, the signs of injury could be seen: the scar on the scalp, the subtle defect in the shape of the skull where it had been bashed in, and minor abnormalities discernable on the MRI.  From a practical standpoint, however, Rocky was as good as new.   His doctors promised him that if no complications occurred, he would be back to work in six months. Rocky didn’t like being idle; he would hold them to their word.

Chapter ten

      Much to the delight of Dr. Sandra Fletcher and the neurological team that worked with her on the neuronanobot trials, every single patient had shown the same remarkable results that Rocky Stankowski displayed.  By mid February, 2051, ten months after the human trials had started, thirty patients had been treated and thirty patients had been cured.  The FDA felt compelled to abort the trial, and set guidelines recommending TPNT as the treatment of choice for traumatic brain injury.
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      Sandi had been so wrapped up in the details and analysis of the TPNT trials that it never occurred to her that someone else could have independently devised the techniques for producing the nanobots.  The idea that someone outside of her lab would have the information necessary to apply for and receive patents for neuronanobot fabrication never crossed her mind, at least not until she attempted to file the applications herself, only to discover that they already belonged to BNI.
      “What!” she screeched into the phone. “What do you mean?  That’s impossible.  Nobody could possibly have the data needed to …”
      Sam Collier looked over his shoulder.  He had never seen Sandi so unrestrained at work.  Sandi was usually as demure as her five-foot tall, one hundred pound frame would suggest.  To those who knew her at all, her appearance was truly deceiving; she was one hundred pounds of boundless energy, always on the go, always striving to make herself and all those around her a little better.  Sam liked to joke that he usually needed a nap after watching her work, but he also admired her composure.  Somehow, she kept all that vim and vigor under control, and though she was never afraid to say what was on her mind, she always did so with restraint and respect for those around her.  It was a rare thing indeed to see Dr. Fletcher lose her temper.
      He cringed as she