Complications - 170

Bud went before the readiness board with testimony from C, H & T. (Unbelievably) Capt Masters asked if he could run or scramble up a ships ladder then said he shouldn't expect promotion with limited duty and that he would just be dead wood preventing another good officer from having a career. Until the board notified him by letter he was back at jag Line of Duty determinations, OP NAB instructions and updating case law- i.e. "grunt work." One claim for disability from Lt Fred Keefer caught Bs eye because it was for eye injury ostensibly from a North Korean Laser Gun. B went to the field to investigate, spoke to Dr Rayburn, ophthalmologist, who said his eyesight seemed to get better then got worse again after B starting delaying the proceedings. B did a stake out of Keefer's home and caught him looking into a laser in his garage. Buds letter finally came which accepted him to permanent limited duty.

M & H investigated the death of Krista Cuban, the 16 y/o daughter of Major General Chet Cubin, during surgery for thyroglossal duct cyst. It was declared an unexpected cardiac failure of unknown reasons but the General didn't believe it. He conducted his own "investigation" and believed the surgeon, Cdr John Bartel, to have acted negligently because he acted defensively trying to blame the anesthesiologist. Bartel had been telling his usual jokes disturbing Dr Cheryl Ashley at the time when Krista's blood pressure suddenly dropped and she went into ventricular fibrillation then died. A nurse recalled that Bartel had nicked the jugular vein and had spent time trying to blame Ashley instead of saving Krista. Then on the stand the nurse recanted her testimony saying that she had been intimidated by General Cubin and his threats. Ts motion for dismissal of charges was granted and General Cuban charged with undo command influence. Cuban testified that he had been trying to put the "fear of God" into them to find out what really had happened and Judge Helfman said she was going to send for court-martial. M asked for 24 hours to present "new evidence" (that she was hoping to find). M wondered if was really Bartel and went to hospital to check toxicology results. The duty pathologist said that the blood was normal except antibodies for hepatitis- which she had never had. M interrogated the original toxicologist, Dr Stodamyer, saying "would it surprise you that DNA test showed two persons blood in the sample" and asked what the Clindamycin level had been the first time he ran the sample. He finally admitted that he didn't want Ashley to suffer for being distracted by Bartel when she pushed the drug in fast instead of letting it drip in slowly. He diluted her blood sample with another persons blood and ran the test again with a lower result. With the new evidence the judge didn't want to rule and asked H and M to "work it out."

Singer was granted full maternity leave as she had decided not to have an abortion. H wanted to talk to her and grabbed her elbow when she started to walk away from him. Bud saw their talk. She finally relented to talk with H at Benzinger's and taunted H by ordering beer and saying she was going to take up smoking. She denied that the baby was Serge's but he didn't believe her. She said she was going to put it up for adoption upsetting H who told her to call Serge and talk to him. H said that he didn't want another Rabb to live life without knowing his father and asked her to give the baby to him. She said "no" H said "over my dead body" then "I'm not done with you yet" after she had walked out. Their discussion was overheard by a woman at another table and Coates.