One drug had been approved only for adults in late-stage trials. Another was removed from the market in several countries following reports of organ suppression. A third wasn’t even licensed at all but was still experimental, its data incomplete, its risks “under evaluation.”
The phrase repeated again and again on medical forums and in buried reports: “It should only be used if other options are unavailable.”
Julia hung on the screen. As she read, more and more pieces clicked into place. Luna had always had other options. There had always been a way to help her. And the drugs—those drugs—explained it all. The emptiness she’d glimpsed in Luna, the way she looked remote, even hollow… it wasn’t the disease. It was the medication.
Julia didn’t sleep that night. She replayed every nurse’s movements in her mind, every hush-hush command, every strange glance. One followed orders without question, another ignored the labels, one avoided her eyes entirely. And each time, her thoughts went straight to Dr. Morrow whose name appeared everywhere. It was on the approvals, the dosage increases, in notes justifying the continuation of treatment despite Luna’s worsening condition.
When Richard finally got around to reading the files, what Julia had already suspected became undeniable. They had been declaring Luna terminal too soon. That label had closed doors and offered no other options. Once that door was shut, anything could be sanctioned as “the last hope.”
And the test results confirmed the nightmare. The doses weren’t intended to cure; they were intended to suppress. Luna hadn’t been failing on her own. Her body had been kept in a kind of synthetic decline long enough for everyone to assume that it was untreatable.
“So she was never… she was never beyond salvation?” Richard asked. The response was calm, matter-of-fact—but it hit harder than anything: “No. She was never dying the way you were told.”
Someone had treated Luna as data, as collateral, and nearly got away with it. The worst part? How easily everyone had been persuaded not to ask questions. That silence, that blind faith… it had almost cost a child her life.
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Bored Daddy
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