Wednesday, April 9, 2014

DAY 97: In the Blood

At a cellular level, he was a violent man.  He was a tyro before his teeth finished coming in.  By the time his whiskers started, his aggresive tendencies were well-documented, and prophetic.  He celebrated his 30th birthday in state prison, awaiting to be removed from this earth as quickly as he removed three men from it.  "No kids of my own, and I prevented three stupid ones from procreating - I'd call that God's work," he sneered at the minister that attempted to tend to his spiritual needs.

There was an act of benevolence that could be attributed to his name.  He had provided regular donations of his blood, twice weekly.  (In fact, he was arrested, for the last time, while on the donation table.  He was allowed to finish.)  His motivations were the immediate compensations - the money and companionship - but the plasma center recognized how valuable and rate his contributions genuinely were.  Shortly before the penalty phase of his trial, representatives of the plasma center reached out to his attorney, to speak of his continued civic importance.  It was enough to forestall his execution, until his fateful escape attempt, which cost the lives of two guards, the attending phlebotomist, and his own.

His blood, scarce and sorely needed, was dispersed among several patients in the region.  The most notable donation was received by an elderly man of some financial significance.  Victimized by a stroke that rendered him comatose and rapidly deteriorating, his fate was fiercely debated among the executors of his estate.  Before the argument was resolved, the old man began to receive plasma infusions.  By the time doctors were instructed to remove his ventilator tube, the issue was moot.

His eldest son-in-law (perhaps 8 years younger) came to visit; he was aggressively curious about the lack of news, regarding the passing of the family patriarch.  He was directed to the old man's recovery room.  The son-in-law was found two minutes later and three floors down.




insipred by Discover Magazine article, "Cells Battle to the Death in the Developing Embryo"

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