Fertility: A Novel by Denise Gelberg

out the kinks. When it wouldn’t scan for me, that’s what I assumed — it was a kink. And maybe Alejandro figured the same as me,” Cappelli responded, defending both himself and the young technician.
    Marsh had reached her limit. “Albert, the point of the system — when used as designed and as the staff was trained to do — is to prevent careless errors. If the tech had used the system — and if you had, for that matter — we wouldn’t have a critically ill baby in the peds wing right now. This was human error — the tech’s error, your error and for that matter, the error of the nurse who administered the heparin. None of you used the system as it was designed. And if you had, the error would have been avoided.”
    Cappelli was in no shape to argue. He accepted his culpability and surrendered. “You’re right, Joanne. We messed up. I messed up. I’m so very sorry.” He turned to leave, shaking his head. Then, as though he’d forgotten something, he turned back and took Sarah’s hand in both of his.
    “Good-bye, Ms. Abadhi,” he said before bowing his head to his supervisor and heading for the exit.

 
     
    CHAPTER NINE
     
     
    Alejandro Avila was scheduled to work that day from 3:30 to midnight. Sarah knew Joanne Marsh wanted to hit Avila with both barrels as soon as he walked through the door, but Sarah needed to talk to him before he realized he was in trouble. She told Marsh to hold her fire until the pharmacy tech had a chance to tell his side of the story. Marsh agreed, as long as she could be in the room when that story was told. Sarah acceded to her condition, provided that Marsh remain mum during the interview. They arranged for the pharmacy tech to be sent up to risk management when he arrived.
    Sarah answered the knock on the conference room door at 3:35 to find a skinny kid with curly black hair blinking furiously and biting his lip. He reminded her of the high school boy who mowed her parents’ lawn. It was hard to fathom that this young man was the pharmacy tech whose actions had caused so much harm. Sarah showed him in and directed him to a seat at the table. She introduced herself and Doris. In keeping with their negotiated deal, Marsh said nothing. As he sat down, the young technician said, “Hello, Mrs. Marsh,” without making eye contact.
    Before Sarah could give her standard introduction, Alejandro jumped the gun. “Am I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?” he asked anxiously.
    “Alejandro — is it okay if I call you Alejandro?” Sarah asked.
    “Sure, sure.”
    “Alejandro, we’re investigating a medication error. We would very much appreciate it if you could help us out.”
    “Sure, I’ll help any way I can.”
    “Good. Do you remember the scripts for baby Ariel Arkin that were filled yesterday?” Sarah asked.
    “No. I can’t say I do. Sorry.”
    “Maybe I can help jog your memory. You delivered them in person to the pediatric wing late yesterday afternoon.”
    “Oh, yeah. Now I remember. Albert — Mr. Cappelli, I mean — said they needed them in a hurry and to hightail it to the nurses’ station on Four.”
    “Do you remember anything else about those scripts?”
    “Just that Albert — Mr. Cappelli — said there was a glitch in the computer system, so he had to hand label one of them,” the boy explained. At that point Marsh let out an audible sigh, and Sarah gave her a warning look.
    “Yeah, I ran up the stairs two at a time. When I got to peds, I handed the meds off to a blond nurse at the nurses’ station. I told her one was hand labeled because the computer system wasn’t cooperating. She thanked me and I was back in the pharmacy in no time flat.”
    Sarah could see the boy start to relax as he told the story of how he’d followed his orders to the letter. She was reluctant to question the obviously well-intentioned tech about his method of stocking the shelves, but she knew that if she didn’t get to it quickly, Marsh’s fuse would likely