He nodded slowly. He stood. He retrieved his mop cart from the doorway. And then just before the door closed behind him, he stopped. He didn't turn around.
I'll help you walk again. Helena looked at him for a long moment. Then she laughed, a short, humorless sound. The best neurologist in the country have already told me what's possible, she said. A janitor doesn't get to tell me something different.
He nodded once more. The door clicked shut. She didn't sleep well that night. It wasn't the fall that kept her up or the embarrassment of it. It was the certainty in his voice.
Not bravado. She knew what bravado sounded like. This had been something else. He had spoken the way people spoke when they already knew the answer to a question and were simply waiting for the other person to catch up. In the morning, she asked her assistant, Renee Sloan, to find out who he was.
Rene's report landed in her inbox by noon. Helena read it twice. Quinton Row, 32, final year physical therapy student, ranked in the top 3% of his cohort. Clinical rotation at the Hartwell Neuro Rehabilitation Center under direct supervision of a licensed specialist. His professor's notes described his observational instincts as exceptional.
He had been offered a full-time academic fellowship 2 years ago and turned it down. He couldn't afford to give up his overnight work schedule. He had been supporting himself and a dependent child on his janitor's wages while paying tuition out of pocket. Helena put the report down and looked out the window for a while. He came back that evening.
He knocked first, which she hadn't expected. When she told him to come in, he entered carrying a folder plain manila no cover sheet and set it on the edge of her desk without sitting down. These are 12 case studies, he said. Patients with T11 to L1 incomplete injuries. All of them were given low probability recovery assessments.
Seven of them recovered partial or significant motor function through highintensity neurostimulation combined with weightbearing therapy and motor imagery training. He paused. I'm not promising you'll be one of them. I'm telling you the reflex I felt last night means your nervous system hasn't lost the connection. It means nobody's looked for it properly yet.
Helena didn't touch the folder. You saw what you wanted to see. Maybe he said one session. If I find nothing worth pursuing, I won't mention it again. She looked at him across the desk.