The Spiral Deepens

An excerpt from A Step Beyond Evil

A new resident entered the picture and noted what should have triggered alarms: Rico’s hemoglobin had plummeted to 7.3 g/dl. His explanation? “Likely related to recent surgical procedures and HIV infection.” No rationale. No evidence. Just a phrase designed to stick. Never mind that Rico’s T-cell count was at the high end of normal. Predictably, Mower County never asked for clarification.

Five days after the G-tube insertion, Rico remained on Zosyn—an antibiotic originally ordered for just two days. By then, doctors had added trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, the antifungal Fluconazole, acetaminophen, the narcotics Fentanyl and Oxycodone, the anesthetic Propofol, and another antibiotic, Cefazolin.

This wasn’t treatment. It was bombardment. And none of that includes Rico’s twice-daily HIV cocktail.

All of it—every drip, every dose—was being pumped into a six-pound infant whose condition continued to deteriorate.

As his health spiraled, doctors ordered another transfusion, ramped up pain management, and resumed oxygen therapy. But here’s the catch: none of these interventions were documented in the records Lindsey was allowed to see. They only surfaced a decade later—through insurance billing codes.

The omissions didn’t stop there.

Doctors remained silent on AZT’s known toxicity. Yet the records now show what they never admitted: Rico’s neutropenia—dangerously low white blood cells—was almost certainly caused by zidovudine. AZT. That truth didn’t slip into the record until five months later.

By February 10, five days after surgery, Dr. Kaushik documented a tense and distended abdomen. The attending nurse noted that venting the G-tube produced frothy secretions—a telltale sign of severe gastric distress.

The explanation?
Doctors blamed it on Rico’s pacifier. They said he was “swallowing air” from sucking too hard, inflating his own stomach.

Absurd, if it weren’t so cruel.

It echoed the earlier lie: that Rico had “aspirated” meconium at birth—despite no evidence of it below the cords. Again and again, the story turned on blaming the baby.

And then came Dr. Lloyd.

Nearly three weeks post-op—armed with Rico’s full chart—he wrote:

“We will enlist our Gastroenterology colleagues to consider possibilities for the etiology of Rico’s abdominal distention, as there seems to be no evidence of a surgical process.”

No evidence of a surgical process?

Rico’s body was failing under the weight of interventions he never needed—interventions he only received after being taken from the one person trying to protect him.

This wasn’t medicine.
This was harm in plain sight.