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    Menace in the Walls
    Menace in the Walls
    Menace in the Walls
    Ebook133 pages1 hour

    Menace in the Walls

    By N. L. Eskeland

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    About this ebook

    Menace in the Walls begins with 13- year- old Joshua helping his physician mother at Cleveland General Hospital during a winter flood. Later during the summer, while working in a research laboratory, Joshua stumbles on a menace that has claimed the life of his beloved horse, Mandy. He is determined to solve the mystery. During the course of the book, Joshua uncovers his sister Kelley’s inadvertent link to a sinister plot involving the mysterious deaths of infants. Readers are faced with the question of whether Joshua can solve the case without putting his life and Kelley’s in danger.

    The fictional story is based on real medical events that have occurred in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the early nineties. Today, these events are still shrouded in controversy.

    The ebook is a revised edition of the printed version. The revisions are minor.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherN. L. Eskeland
    Release dateApr 11, 2011
    ISBN9781450754255
    Menace in the Walls
    Author

    N. L. Eskeland

    Lucy Eskeland developed an interest in children’s writing at a young age. However, she did not pursue this dream until later in life, when she enrolled in several writing courses for children. Dr. Eskeland co-authored several children’s science books on genetics and biotechnology. She also published an article in Skipping Stones magazine. Dr. Eskeland earned a bachelors of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Florida, then earned her doctoral degree in biomedical sciences from the City University of New York / Mount Sinai Medical Center. She went on to do her post-graduate work at the University of California in San Diego. She published several papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and is a member of the international honor society of science and engineering, Sigma Xi, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). “Menace in The Walls”, published in 2004, is Dr. Eskeland’s first fiction book for children.

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      Book preview

      Menace in the Walls - N. L. Eskeland

      What Others are Saying about Menace in the Walls

      Memo to guys: Smart is cool. Also, be nice to your sister. Those are two important lessons, refreshingly not delivered with a cafeteria lady’s heavy hand, in N.L. Eskeland’s ‘Erin Brockovich meets Michael Crichton’ thriller for the preteen.

      Kristin Johnson- MyShelf.com

      The author is able to include science along with medical information in her stories that is also educational to the reader. This book gets 4 hearts.

      Jane Deskis, HeartlandReviews.com

      This is a book sure to tickle the fancy of both boys and girls in the classroom. A must have for the middle grade student. Happy to recommend.

      Molly Martin, 20+ years classroom teacher, ScribesWorld.com, Bookpleasures.com.

      N.L. Eskeland masterfully weaves the high tension energy of a mystery into the marvelous world of molds and molecules. This engaging tale creates a thirst for further scientific study in all who read it!

      Lynn Westphal, 5th Grade Teacher at SFC in Solana Beach, CA.

       Educational, factual, heart-wrenching, and a must read for students, parents, health professionals, employers, insurance companies, and educators.

      Dr. Gloria Gilbère, N.D., D.A.Hom., Ph.D. Author of I was Poisoned by my body, Invisible Illnesses and Nature’s Prescription Milk

      'Menace in the Walls' by Dr. N.L.Eskeland is a short novel dealing with the adventures of a 13-year old boy Joshua Keegan and his young sister Kelley. Based on a real-life incident but not sacrificing the thrills of a mystery novel, the book manages the double duty of entertaining and educating the young reader in Science and Scientific Investigation.

      Swamy Swarna-Bookpleasures.com

      Inspired by a real Stacybotrys mold episode, Menace in the Walls is an engrossing, well-crafted and informative little novel, even for adults.  I hope to see more of brave young Joshua and author N. L. Eskeland's writing.

      J R Lankford, Author & Electrical Engineer

      MENACE IN THE WALLS

      N. L. Eskeland

      Published by Science2Discover at Smashwords

      Copyright 2004 N. L. Eskeland

      Revised 2011

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Acknowledgments

      My sincere thanks to Dorr G. Dearborn, M.D., Margaret Pizzi, R.N., and Cathy Joseph, R.N. for their valuable information on the medical aspects of this story.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Chapter 1---EMERGENCY

      Chapter 2---THE MITLAND CASE

      Chapter 3---MANDY’S DEATH

      Chapter 4---FIRST TRIP TO MITLAND

      Chapter 5---THE PRINTOUT GONE!

      Chapter 6---THE MAN WITH THE LISP

      Chapter 7---MRS. MORROW’S FURY

      Chapter 8---A VISIT TO THE TOWER

      Chapter 9---MR. MYRTLE

      Chapter 10--SECOND VISIT TO MITLAND

      Chapter 11--A VISIT TO THE POLIC STATION

      Chapter 12--AN EMPTY ROOM

      Chapter 13--PRISONERS

      Chapter 14--SISTER AND BROTHER

      Chapter 1

      EMERGENCY

      Let us through! the medics pleaded with emergency room visitors at Cleveland General Hospital, as they wheeled in an unconscious child with a respirator mask covering her tiny face.

      Joshua Keegan jumped to the side, staring at the young flood victim as a wailing woman followed the gurney. Oh God! Save my little girl!

      Joshua shivered and rubbed his thin arms. He then heard his mother calling, Joshua, don’t just stand there. Bring me some bandages. Hurry!

      Now where are those bandages?

      A nurse brushed Joshua’s arm as she ran by. He reached out to catch her attention, but she turned around and frowned at him.

      Where are the bandages? he asked.

      By the nurse’s station, she said, still scowling at him.

      Joshua's eyes caught a rolling cart filled with needles, pads, and gauze. He gathered the bandages, and as he was running toward his mother, a roll slipped from his hand and spun on the floor. He fell on his knees and fumbled with the gauze as several people scurrying by stepped on it. Joshua's heavy breathing fogged up his eyeglasses as perspiration brought them to the tip of his nose. He pushed his glasses back up, gathered the gauze, and threw it in the trash.  He then picked up a fresh roll of gauze, several packages of bandages, and hurried to his mother.

      Joshua’s heart pounded rapidly, and he knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime.  He’ll always remember that day in February, 1993, when his mother, Dr. Katherine Keegan, a pediatrics pulmonary (relating to the lungs) specialist, was called to help in the emergency room.  She took him with her.  A mighty flood was raging outside. The hospital was short-staffed and needed all the help it could get, even from a thirteen-year-old like Joshua.

      Tough working here isn't it? his mother remarked, glancing at him behind eye shields as he handed her the bandages. Like all of the rest of the emergency room staff, she had put on scrubs and protective gear.

      Yes. But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, he said, smiling.

      The emergency room looked like a clinic in a war zone. The smell of disinfectant permeated the air. The waiting area overflowed with the injured and their families. Joshua watched his mother as she introduced heated oxygen into the lungs of the unconscious child, through a breathing tube. Joshua gathered that the child was a near-drowning victim. A few years earlier, he had witnessed paramedics using a similar technique to raise the temperature of a victim who had almost drowned in a neighbor’s swimming pool.

      A monitor hooked up to the baby leaped to life as it registered normal vital signs. Dr. Keegan was finishing up with the procedure when Joshua yelled, pointing at the other side of the large room.

      Mom! Mom! Dr. Channing needs you over there!

      After giving instructions to a nurse, Dr. Keegan walked toward Dr. Channing’s patient. Joshua followed close behind.

      A baby, with a shriek that could send a deaf dog to the doghouse-in-the-sky, lay on a large stretcher. Blood oozed from its nose.

      Using her stethoscope, Dr. Keegan listened to the baby's heart and lungs. She looked up at the nurse beside her with concern, This is not good. I need a chest x-ray done immediately.

      Yes, doctor. I will inform his parents at once. The nurse gathered the baby in her arms and disappeared.

      Dr. Channing, a tall, large man, seemed anxious and glanced at Joshua's mother. What do you think? he asked.

      I’m not sure, yet. A couple of days ago, two infants with nosebleeds, coughing, and congestion were admitted, and x-rays showed damaged lungs. Dr. Keegan’ voice quivered slightly.

      Joshua heard the conversation and frowned. Does that happen often to babies?

      No. In fact, it is a very rare phenomenon, said his mother.  I’m mystified that within three days, three infants came in with the same symptoms. She glanced around the room and sighed. I hope and pray that this storm will end soon.

      Doesn’t seem that it wants to, Dr. Channing said, shaking his head. We’ve had a long, wet season and surely this beats them all. I don’t remember ever seeing a storm like this in the thirty years I’ve been on staff here. This is the storm of the century; even Lake Erie has overflowed its banks.

      A skinny, short nurse ran toward them. Dr. Channing, Dr. Keegan, we need you right away! She grabbed Dr. Channing's arm. A baby boy has just been admitted, and he's in bad shape.

      Do you know what happened to him? Dr. Channing asked the nurse as he and Joshua's mother followed her.

      The nurse’s voice was barely audible as they walked down the hall. Joshua shuddered at the possibility of seeing another child with a nosebleed. What could be causing all these kids to have the same symptoms? He wondered. The baby's shrieking stopped as soon as the nurse picked him up. His mouth quickly turned an odd blue, and his face was the color of fresh snow. His small body flopped like a rag doll, as blood oozed from his mouth.

      Tears stung Joshua's eyes as he watched the dying child.  Mom, please, don't let him die, he mumbled.

      The child and his caretakers disappeared through a door, followed by a couple of nurses wheeling in a machine. Joshua recognized the device as a defibrillator, which delivers a brief electric shock to the heart to enable it to regain a normal heart rhythm. 

      Joshua closed his eyes and prayed, Please, God, let the baby live.

      The day was turning into night and Joshua was exhausted. The head nurse assigned him the task of going to the nurses’ station and the storage room to replenish supplies that kept quickly disappearing. An unused cart, which he found in the hallway, served as a perfect vehicle for transport. He hauled it into the crowded storage room, loaded several large boxes of bandages and syringes on it, and made his way back to the nurses’ station where his mother was making notes in a patient's chart.

      Just then, Joshua saw his dad, Douglas Keegan, walking through the door. His heart sank.

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