Roberta definitely felt something was wrong. Her head was pounding and her mouth was very dry. Her eyes itched, almost burning in intensity. She quickly showered and dressed. By the time she called Cam's Annie, she felt feverish.
"Good morning, Cam, this is Roberta. I'm sorry to be calling so early but I'm not feeling very well, I was wondering if you could come to my room?"
"I'll be there as soon as I can get dressed."
Roberta put the few things she had into her bags so that she would be prepared to leave. She then lay back down on the bed to wait for Cam. She was sure she had a fever. There was a knock at the door.
Roberta opened the door to let Cam in. "That was fast,” she said.
"So, you feel bad. Have you used your Annie to check your vitals?"
“No. Funny but I hadn't thought about it. It's in my bag there.”
A minute of silence passed as Cam used Roberta's Annie to check her vitals. "Temperature one hundred," said Cam. "You definitely have a fever. Heart rate elevated, blood pressure elevated. Are there any other symptoms you've noticed?"
"Yes," said Roberta. "I have a headache and my eyes are burning."
"But no nausea?"
"No, not yet anyway."
"Okay," said Cam putting the Annie back in Roberta's bag. "Let's get out of here and on our way to Ho Chi Minh, I want Dr. Dao to check you."
Cam called the driver explaining that Dr. Hughes wasn't feeling well and they needed to leave immediately.
"What is wrong with her?" asked the driver.
"I don't know. Could be just a little food poisoning but we need to get her back to Ho Chi Minh as soon as possible."
"Yes," said the driver. "Okay I'll be there in twenty minutes."
Roberta and Cam were waiting outside the hotel; the dawn was just breaking when the driver drove up. He quickly put the bags in the vehicle, all the time watching Roberta. As Cam started to help Roberta into the SUV, she suddenly became limp and collapsed to the sidewalk.
"Help me!" yelled Cam.
The driver looked around from the back of the vehicle and saw Roberta on the sidewalk. Instead of moving to assist Cam he turned and ran the other way. He was in the SUV and racing away before Cam knew what had happened.
A guest of the hotel came out and assisted Cam in getting Roberta back inside. By this time Roberta had recovered from her faint. A hotel staff member started assisting Roberta and this allowed Cam to call the Health Ministry back in Ho Chi Minh.
After finishing her call Cam came back to Roberta.
“How are you feeling Roberta?”
“I'm better though my head is still throbbing.”
“You probably missed it, but the driver took off. I think when he saw you faint it scared him into thinking you might have the Chau Doc virus. Anyway, I've called the ministry, and they've agreed to send a plane to pick us up at the local airport. They should be here in a little over an hour. Do you think you can make it?”
“I'll be okay. As long as I can sit down while waiting.”
The hotel arranged for one of their employees to drive Roberta and Cam to the local airport.
Sitting in the airport waiting on the plane Roberta started drifting in and out of consciousness and talking nonsense to Cam.
“Aunt Lucy will be here anytime Kimmy,” said Roberta. “We should just wait here; mom won't like it if we wander off.”
Cam was disturbed but played along. “Okay Roberta, we'll wait here.” This is moving fast, thought Cam. I have to get her to the hospital and soon.
Roberta had fallen into a fitful sleep by the time the plane arrived. A stretcher was brought into the airport waiting area and Roberta was carried onto the plane by a couple of orderlies. Dr. Dao was waiting and started an IV immediately. Cam was relieved to see the doctor.
“Oh, thank you Dr. Dao for coming. I was really getting worried, her fever is very high, and she started hallucinating and then became listless and unresponsive.”
“You've done well Dr. Nguyen. I'm hopeful that the IV will help her and we will be able to get her back to the hospital where we can further treat her. It certainly appears that she has caught the infection she was sent here to study. How ironic.”
Roberta spent a week in the hospital intensive care and then another week in a private room before recovering. After a week of staying with Cam at her apartment, she was scheduled to fly back to the States. She would meet someone from the CDC at the airport to assist her if needed.
The driver and SUV had still not turned up so Roberta had nothing to take with her to the airport. She only had the new clothes that Cam had bought for her that week. She had her papers replaced by the American Embassy in Ho Chi Minh with the Vietnamese government helping with the red tape. Cam promised to send new samples to her as soon as possible, but Roberta still felt dejected about losing the first batch.
As they were finishing at immigration Roberta saw someone she recognized in the crowd. It was Wesley Williams. Wesley ran up to Roberta and hugged her.
“You don't look sick at all,” said Wesley.
“I'm sure glad to see you, Wesley. Let me introduce you to Dr. Cam Nguyen, she's the reason I'm doing as well as I am.”
Wesley and Cam shared greetings. Then Wesley said they should get on board the plane.
Roberta and Cam hugged and Roberta said how grateful she was to Cam for all that she had done.
As they sat down in their seats on the plane Roberta turned to Wesley and said, “I lost everything Wesley, my samples, my Annie, everything."
She seemed about to cry when Wesley said, “Well the important thing is that we still have you.”
“That's kind Wesley, but I feel like such a failure.”
“No, you don't understand what I mean, and I thought you were supposed to be the smart one,” he smiled. “We have you and the antibodies in your blood. You see we have everything we need to ID this virus.”
“You're right Wesley. I've been so despondent I haven't been thinking straight. You're right,” she smiled.
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