Doctors (2) » Dr. A

DOCTORS (2) » DR. A

“Next: Run Longer ” — I continue, to skip certain issues that might come up with the conversion variation.

“Right.” The room comes out of a bit of a daze: apparently they were pondering the morality question already. “We can run the vampires longer and for more patients if we can figure out how to ‘overclock’ their bodies: make them consume more unwanted elements in the blood stream per hour. Or if we can extend their effective dialysis period, so they consume more elements per session. Either of these would not be a problem if required more blood, because that requirement would be over more patients, as long as the two-to-three tablespoon per patient loss is the same.”

“And you know how to overclock or extend a vampire? Like hard physical exercise or weight lifting consumes more calories for a living human?”

“Uhm. No”

“Anyone?” All the heads in the room went down, up, left, right, and every variation other than looking at me. Sometimes I wish I was talking to Mark: he always looks straight at me during our conversations. A bit intensely at times, like he is trying to see my brain or soul through my eyes, but at least he is focused on me and what I am saying. Not on the chittering of a pretend fly on the ceiling. “Anyone?”

“OK. Next. — Sadly, even I know pig-organs aren’t real yet. And peritoneal dialysis has a large number of issues, mostly in that patients don’t like it, but also that it is much less effective than vampiric hemodialysis. So patients will be dying from it in larger numbers and our stats will show something is wrong.” I am pretty sure I know what the next one means, but continue… “Next: Prioritize?”

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“Yes. We know we will lose patients, so we prioritize patients based on some criteria. Probably by ability to pay the full cost of dialysis, because we will have less ability to cover those that need help.”

“You are proposing that full-pay patients are prioritized over the equally needy poorer patients?”

“Yes, we need to balance the books”

“This isn’t balancing… you are saying we need to continue to make the same level of profits that gave us millions per vampire vs. keeping poorer patients alive”

“Well… yes. I believe the people running the program will insist on this, whether we like it or not. At least we need to give up profits only as a final measure.”

“Are we actively trying to prove Mark and his vampires are right? Or are we just stupid, greedy bastards?”

“So it sounds like — we have to options of: (a) increase donors, (b) expand conversion, and (c) prioritize death… as viable alternatives. I will take this to higher pay grades, but my guess is they will prioritize it as ‘a’, ‘c’, and ‘b’ where we will do all three and use ‘b’ (and I am hoping profits) as a control nob. Trading one almostpast life for several longer future lives seems a very likely approach. Premature vampiric conversion of some for the benefit of the community.” I say all this with military stoicism. Inside I am losing breakfast and every other meal I have had recently. I can feel my left eye glistens from a single tear. Mark would have seen it, but these elite doctors are now studying a swarm of imagined butterflies.

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