Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel by Kevin Hardman Read Free Book Online

and where my biological mother was present. We just need the hospital’s patient list and see who was receiving prenatal care then.”
    “On that front, there is good news, bad news, and worse news.”
    Well, I’m a big girl and can take adversity. “Give me the bad news,” I said.
    “Patient records are confidential. From what I can tell, they reside on some internal hospital system that can only be accessed on-site.”
    “Okay, what’s the worse news?”
    “The hospital’s document retention policy, which I cited as being horrible, is only five years with respect to most items – including patient logs.”
    “Five years?” I repeated, unable to hide my disappointment.
    “Yes. The time frame probably relates to the fact that the statute of limitations – that is, the time in which you must sue – is four years for personal injuries. Adopting a five-year policy is likely intended to give the impression that they don’t have anything to hide should a lawsuit arise for something like medical malpractice.”
    “But if that’s their policy, anything that we’re interested in would have been destroyed or tossed over ten years ago.”
    “Yes, but that brings us to my good news: the hospital actually
was
sued.”
    I found his statement confounding. “Huh?”
    “The Gross Meta recall gave rise to a tidal wave of litigation, including a massive class action lawsuit on behalf of patients. Gross Meta was sued, of course, along with doctors, pharmacies, and hospitals – including Sisters of Mercy.”
    “So how is that good news for us?”
    “For documents involved in a lawsuit, the retention policy of the hospital is ten years after the end of the litigation.”
    “So when did the legal wrangling end?”
    “The class action lawsuit ended with a settlement about twelve years ago. However, many patients opted out of that suit and pursued their claims individually after the class action was resolved. Moreover, the court overseeing the litigation has stated that additional claimants may still sue should they develop some symptom or aftereffect of Vitamin A toxicity later in life.”
    “In other words, the litigation may never end, which means that the hospital should still have the records we want.”
    Once again I was excited, but also couldn’t help noticing that this conversation with Li was a wild roller coaster ride, with a lot of ups and downs and even a few loops.
    “So,” I said, trying to keep my voice even, “now that we’re at the end of the road, where can we find the information we’re after – in the hospital basement?”
    In truth, it would have been base
ments
. Sisters of Mercy was actually a large hospital system, with several locations around town. However, it turned out that I wasn’t going to have to go crawling around any musty old understructures.
    “Most large organizations store aged documents offsite,” Li said. “In fact, many of them retain record management companies to handle storage for them, and that is what Sisters of Mercy has done. The documents we are looking for are stored with Locke Infinite.”
    My eyebrows went up in surprise, as this part of the Li roller coaster was more of a loop-de-loop. Locke Infinite was a well-known and well-regarded storage facility, with a reputation for keeping documents – anything of value, in fact – safe and secure for as long as required by their clients. They had high-tech storage locations all across the country, including one on the southern outskirts of the city.
    “So what do we do?” I asked. “Make some sort of formal request for the paperwork we want?”
    “You can,” Li stated, “but it is unlikely that your request will be granted. You simply do not have a right to access or custody of the documents.”
    “Fine,” I said defiantly. “Then let’s talk about how we can
get
custody of the documents.”
    I flipped open his laptop and told Li what I wanted him to do. He seemed reluctant, but an hour later we had the