March 2 8:40 a.m.
Television Broadcast, WNYC TV News
Sommers:
In other news, something unusual happened at St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital overnight. We’re still trying to piece together exactly what. WNYC’s Mark Jacobs is live on the scene. Mark, what can you tell us?
(Cut to Mark Jacobs – live feed)
Jacobs:
Leslie, there’s no official word from the Hospital and there’s nobody willing to speak off-the-record. The best I understand, someone unauthorized entered the hospital a little before midnight last night and talked with several patients in the Emergency Room waiting area before entering the rooms of patients. But this isn’t an “unauthorized entry” story. Soon after the visitor entered the hospital the staff here was being overwhelmed by calls from patients – patients who inexplicably felt completely well. We met one such patient, Rafael Gutierrez, as he was leaving the hospital.
(Roll taped interview)
Jacobs:
You were admitted to the hospital?
Gutierrez:
Yes. I had been involved in a incident at the club …
Jacobs:
What kind of incident?
Gutierrez:
I’d rather not say, man. But I wound up getting stabbed pretty bad, right here in the gut. They called a ambulance and it brought me here. I was waiting on a bed, you know, one of those rolling beds they use to take you into surgery. I was waiting on that bed and I was a little out of it, you know, from the drugs they was giving me. And I kind of saw this guy come up and I felt his hands on my head and he said some stuff. Then he went away.
Jacobs:
Do you know what he said?
Gutierrez:
Naw, man, I was pretty out of it from the drugs - the ones they gave me. But I don’t think he was talking to me, you know? It didn’t look like he asked me no question or nothing. He just said his stuff and walked away.
Jacobs:
Then what happened?
Gutierrez:
Well, I knew right away that something was up, because I stopped feeling all drugged - like someone turned on a light or something. Everything was clear. I could see and hear real clear. I was even thinking clear, and my first thought was, “How bad am I?” So I sat up to look, and I couldn’t feel no pain. So I pulled the bandage back, and I wasn’t stabbed.
Jacobs:
What do you mean you weren’t stabbed?
Gutierrez:
Just what I said, man. Look! (Pulls his shirt up to reveal his abdomen on his left side. Camera zooms in on smooth, unbroken skin.)
Jacobs:
It doesn’t appear you were hurt at all. Are you sure you were stabbed?
Gutierrez:
Look, man, I know I was stabbed. I know they brought me here in a ambulance, and the man in the ambulance sounded real worried. I know they told me something about surgery before they left me on that bed.
Jacobs:
But there is no wound.
Gutierrez:
No wound, no scar. Man, I don’t even have a scar from a accident I had when I was little. That scar was right here (points to unbroken skin) as long as I can remember, but it’s gone now. So I called for a nurse and told her I wanted to leave. She looked really scared and yelled to the doctor, “Here’s another one,” whatever that means. Then she ran off but no doctor came.
Jacobs:
So what did you do?
Gutierrez:
I waited a little while, but nothing happened. Everyone was running around yelling for security and stuff, but nobody came back to my table. I feel fine, so I left.
Jacobs:
Did the hospital discharge you?
Gutierrez:
Naw, man, but I ain’t hanging around. The hospital’s the last place I wanna be, especially when I’m fine.
Jacobs:
Are you going to come back to get checked out?
Gutierrez:
I don’t see why, man. Like you said, it’s like I was never stabbed. What’s the point?
(Cut to Mark Jacobs – live feed)
Jacobs:
Witnesses have told me that Mr. Gutierrez was clearly injured when he was brought in. They have no idea how he was able to simply walk out.
(Cut to split screen - live feed and studio)
Sommers:
Mark, do you have any idea what the nurse might have meant by “another one?”
Jacobs:
Leslie, I haven’t been able to get anyone else on camera, but it seems that everyone who was waiting for care was visited by the mystery man, and they’ve all walked out feeling perfectly fine. And while the hospital won’t confirm anything, several people who were in ICU and in the cancer ward are claiming to be perfectly fine as well.
Sommers:
OK. Thanks, Mark.
Jacobs:
Thanks, Leslie. Mark Jacobs, WNYC Live.
(Cut to studio)
Sommers:
The hospital has called a press conference for 10:00 this morning, after doctors have had a chance to evaluate the strange happenings from last night. We’ll bring you that press conference live as soon as it happens. And now for traffic…
Practicing medicine without a license?
I like it!