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Meeting my ass.I would give him ten more minutes, and then I was going in there. If there was indeed a meeting going on, I would apologize for the interruption. If there wasn’t, well, that would only throw more embers into the fire.
When the ten minutes were up, I ran in before the secretary could object.
“Chief,” I said, looking around. No one was in the room with him, and he didn’t seem to be on a video conference call either.
“Dr. Ramirez?” He looked up from his computer, but he didn’t look surprised.
My stomach churned. “I’m sorry for interrupting, Chief, but it’s urgent.”
He motioned for me to sit in front of him, and I grabbed the chair across from his. “I don’t have much time right now, but I can give you a few minutes.”
“There has been a mistake with the article I submitted to the journal of medicine.”
“Oh?”
I nodded. “Yes. It was uploaded to the website this morning, listing Dr. Medina as the primary investigator.”
“I see.” Chief Stuart clasped his hands over his belly.
“I was only listed as a contributor, but I was the PI,notDr. Medina.”
“Dr. Ramirez, I’m failing to see a problem here.”
Was this man kidding me? This wasmytrial. Why would I let another person claim credit for it? I wouldn’t. I would never.
“Chief,” I said, disbelief etched in my tone, “the way the article published the paper gives Dr. Medinamycredit. I’m sure it’s a mistake. I couldn’t find Dr. Medina in his office. I wanted to ask him about it before coming to you.” I took a deep breath calming myself down. There had to be a rational explanation for this. “I’m sorry, Chief. I shouldn’t have bothered you with this. I guess I just panicked. I’ll write to the journal and request a correction—”
“Dr. Ramirez, I’m not sure how to tell you this, but Dr. Medina is gone.”
“What?” My glare slashed through the chief.
“His contract was only for the duration of the trial. Now that phase two is done, he’s gone back to the FIHR.”
I blinked and shook my head. I couldn’t have heard right. “Gone?”
He nodded.
As I stood to walk away in a daze, the chief stopped me. “And about that correction,” he said. “You won’t be submitting that.”
I sat back down firmly on the chair. “Excuse me?”
“The more I think about it, the more realize it’s better this way.”
“With all due respect, Chief, I’ve spent the last three years of my life on this. It’s the trial of a lifetime—”
“We have to think about what’s best for the hospital.”
“I’ve conducted research that will save so many lives. How is that not what’s best for the hospital?” I hissed, hysterics starting to set in.
“It is great for the hospital. I agree. But you are still unknown in the medical community. Dr. Medina is a household name. The news of a follow-up trial atourhospital byHector Medina, well, that would be great publicity for us.”
If I could have taken a step back and looked at the bigger picture, I would have seen that it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. What mattered was that after publication, treatment protocols across the world would start to change, and lives would be saved.
What didn’t square well with me was that something was being stolen from me, and it was something that would’ve had the potential to open many doors for my career.
It wasn’t ambition for money. My ambition was one for knowledge and growth. After this trial, I was thinking of world-renowned oncology centers, hoping to do research there. Those thoughts would now be down the toilet if I were to follow the chief’s orders.
“This isn’t right. It’smytrial.” I felt like a child whining.
