"Little Black Book"

Little Black Book

Written by Charlotte Simon

A patient’s medical records came a crossed my desk for review.

As I read through the record, it appeared the doctor had written throughout the patient’ s record in bold letters “Little Black Book”. I, being curious wanted to know why the doctor wrote this, went on a search to find the doctor. I had called the doctor’s receptionist, who stated she could not give out any information about the doctor or his whereabouts. I asked the receptionist if she can call me as soon as she hears anything, I would greatly appreciate it.

It was more than several weeks before I had received a call back from the doctor, he stated he did not remember writing anything about a “Little Black Book”.

I asked him did he remember anything specific about the patient, he stated he sees so many patients and could not give me any direct answers. He abruptly cut me off while I was still talking and slammed the phone down into my ear. Immediately, I decided to print out a listing relating to all the patients which the doctor had seen within those weeks; I was automatically taken aback when I had noticed this doctor, had written throughout all his patent’s records “Little Black Book”.

Soon after, I had reported my findings, to my immediate supervisor who requested an investigation to be done against this doctor; he has seen over forty patients within those weeks and in all their records, it was written in bold letters “Little Black Book”. We have noticed that was his signature when completing an examination, no matter, what the specialty was or why the patients were being seen for.

The doctor was instantly suspended upon further investigation; his receptionists were called to informed her that the doctor was put on suspension and he will soon have to come in for review. She stated she could not give him the information because he had not been in the office for days and had been reported missing by his wife.

My supervisor and I were stunned by all of this and went to our superiors to inform them about our findings. To our surprise, they too knew what the doctor had written and we're looking for him as well. An all alert was finally issued to locate this doctor; he appeared to have disappeared without a trace.

A year had gone by and I was home watching the 6:00’clock news on channel 4, in New York City. Breaking News flashed a crossed the screen, “Doctor, Little Black Book, wanted in several states”. I said to myself this cannot be the same doctor who was reported missing a year ago. An emergency meeting was called which included police forces from other states, hospital officials, the doctor’s receptionists, and his wife. All included on the call were in a desperate search for this doctor who could not be found.

A month went by when there was a lead to the doctor’s whereabouts; he was camp somewhere in a wooded area in New York State, there was a tent, canned goods and a fire went was still burning. He was dressed in his doctor’s apparel with his back turned, sitting with his legs crossed on a blanket, books were spread out all around him. The police forced who found him asked him to stand with his hands up. As the doctor stood up books fell onto the other books, he was arrested. A police officer stood behind to bag up the evidence and as he was picking up the books, he has noticed the title of the book read “Little Black Book” with blood.