Read Online Heart of a Killer by David Rosenfelt - Free Book Online

comes to cancer there is no such thing as good news.
    Having thought that, it came as a relief to him that the oncologist that he saw told him he would not need chemotherapy. The thyroid would be removed surgically, and its loss of function would easily be compensated for by taking pills, which he could do for the rest of what should be a very long life.
    Starting three weeks after the surgery, Ryan would get three radiation treatments, spaced a week apart. He was lucky in that his local hospital had just gotten a state-of-the-art radiation machine. It was renowned for its ability to target massive dosages of radiation with incredible precision, eliminating the possibility of damage to any surrounding, totally healthy organs.
    Upon receiving the diagnosis, and prior to the surgery, Ryan did the responsible thing and got his affairs in order, as best he could. His wife, Alice, and twelve-year-old twins, Jeremy and Andrew, would be reasonably well taken care of. Ryan had invested well, and also had a $750,000 life insurance policy, with Alice as the beneficiary.
    But by the day of the surgery, no one was thinking negative thoughts, not even Ryan. And that optimism proved warranted, as he came through the procedure with flying colors. The surgeon expressed confidence that the entire malignancy was removed, and the biopsy tended to confirm that. The radiation would make extra sure.
    Ryan spent three days in the hospital, and was then released. He would rest up for the three weeks, have the radiation, and thus put all of it behind him. He lobbied the radiologist, Dr. Stephen Robbins, to start the treatments early, but Dr. Robbins refused. The original plan was the safest way to proceed.
    Alice took Ryan in for his first treatment, just as she had done for the surgery. Dr. Robbins explained that he would be put under a light general anesthesia, and the treatment itself would only take about twenty minutes. Once he awoke and was completely coherent, Alice could take him home.
    Because he was sleeping, Ryan didn’t get a chance to see the large piece of machinery that would dispense the radiation. It was just as well; it could be rather intimidating. And it would certainly have been hard to believe that even with the most advanced computers ever made controlling it, it could be so precise.
    Everything went as planned, and Ryan was home five hours after arriving at the hospital. Dr. Robbins had told him to expect to be tired for a couple of days, but Ryan didn’t feel that way at all. He wished that he could go back the next two days for treatments two and three, but he knew better than to waste his time trying to convince Dr. Robbins to speed up the schedule.
    One week later, Alice took Ryan to the hospital for the second treatment. This time, once he was taken back to the room to be prepped, she left to run some errands, planning to be back well before the time she was supposed to.
    Ryan was put under anesthesia, and brought into the radiology room. He was positioned under the machine, in the same manner as the first time. The technician directed the computers to correctly position it, and then monitored them as the radiation was delivered. Dr. Robbins, though he really had no role to play at this point, watched over the technician’s shoulder.
    The computer display indicated that the radiation was being effectively delivered to the target area, and it took almost four minutes for them to come to the horrific realization that it was not.
    In fact, the radiation was being directed more than six inches from the correct spot, to an area near the bottom of Ryan’s brain. It wouldn’t be until much later that day, long after Ryan’s body was taken away for an autopsy, that they also learned that the radiation had been delivered at more than seven times the directed strength. It had charcoal-broiled his brain.
    Within weeks, the grief-stricken Alice had hired a lawyer, and the hospital, as well as Dr. Robbins and the company that