While medical students suspect that every headache is a brain tumor and that every chest pain is a heart attack, experienced physicians know diseases along a spectrum of horror-the ones they dread the most. Among these are cancer, Alzheimer's, stroke, diabetes, and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). As the list continues, we come upon locked-in syndrome, a neurologic disease where a victim is awake and alert, but cannot move or communicate due to paralysis of all voluntary muscles in the body except for the eyes. In Trapped, a Brier Hospital Series novel by Lawrence W. Gold, M.D., the reader enters the neonatal and the adult intensive care units. Medical fiction works, not only due to its intrinsic drama, but because of the crucial ethical issues that arise, especially in intensive care. Lisa Cooke is the product of a passive mother and an abusive father. She finds her way into pediatric nursing, a world filled with men in control, especially the director of the Neonatal ICU, Mike Cooper. As Mike reminds Lisa of her father, it's no surprise that they don't get along. Ultimately, they fall in love and have a fulfilling marriage except that she's unable to have children. They try everything, but fail. When an automobile accident severely injures Mike, Lisa is devastated. Shortly afterward, she discovers that she's pregnant. Mike's injuries are life threatening, and he nearly dies on several occasions. Mike suffers from locked-in syndrome and his survival is constantly in jeopardy, as is Lisa's pregnancy. Will he/she/they survive? *

Even in the age of the genome and sophisticated biotechnology, medical progress still moves at a snail's pace. Seasoned investigators are matured by experience and they accept the virtue of the too-slow scientific process. The young, however have been brought up in a world of instant gratification, and they barrel ahead never looking back to see the havoc in their wake. So it is with Dr. Harmony Lane. In her single-minded obsession to cure her patients, she cuts corners and treats a desperately ill woman with an experimental viral vector provided by an unscrupulous research scientist. While he shares her impatience, he cares nothing for her humanistic sensibilities. She uses a similar vector on her patients with autoimmune diseases. While the vector has remarkable curative properties, it soon becomes clear that it has devastating and lethal side effects. The race is on to cure or at least control the vector before it kills again. The novel proves, once again, that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Death at Brier Hospital is routine and provides the perfect opportunity to murder and get away with it. Jacob Weizman, a physician, and his wife, Lola, a psychotherapist, are holocaust survivors and need no proof of evil in this world. Jacob and Lola are unique protagonists. They're octogenarians who take the fear out of getting old. Their intelligence, competence, humor, and sense of history make them appealing in a world that too often disdains the aged. After fifty-five years practicing medicine, Jacob is disappointed, but not surprised by several patients' deaths, even the unexpected ones. Soon, however, it becomes clear that a killer is stalking the halls of Brier Hospital targeting Jacob's patients. While Jacob has made enemies over the years, he finds it inconceivable that anyone would murder his patients for revenge. The killings mount even as the hospital and police increase security and pursue a vigorous investigation. Finally, unsatisfied with surrogates, the killer targets Jacob.

Brier Hospital Series: Arnie Roth, a family practitioner, develops viral encephalitis. He awakens from the near-death experience with a new appreciation for life and an unexpected talent, his sensitivity to smell has increased a thousandfold. The Sixth Sense is highly entertaining, thought provoking, and touching journey through a world that influences us every day, but one that we know too little about.

A Simple Cure engages the reader in the search for the cure of malignant melanoma. While an uncommon skin cancer, one American dies of melanoma almost every hour (every 61 minutes). The incidence rate has tripled in the last twenty years. When nature, in her ultimate act of irony, strikes Richard Powell, a cancer specialist, with malignant melanoma, a highly aggressive form of cancer, his wife, Terri devotes her life to curing the disease that ultimately kills her husband. While research laboratories are characterized as noble in search of cures, and proprietary drug companies are caricatured as ruthless and materialistic, too often, the distinctions aren't so clear. The murder of a drug courier to obtain an experimental and promising treatment for malignant melanoma, unleashes a chain of devastating consequences. People for Alternative Treatment, a company created to find cures for rare diseases, had fallen on hard times and become a subsidiary of Kendall Pharmaceuticals, a company with very different values. Experimentation with a vaccine against tuberculosis is showing surprising effects in controlling malignant melanoma at PAT and UC Medical Center. Kendall is enthralled with the economic potential of such a treatment, while researchers are leery and have many unanswered questions. Kendall's determination to push the vaccine into clinical trial at all costs is in conflict with Terri and her ethical associates. When clinical trials begin, the vaccine's effects are miraculous. Soon, however, once again, we see the rule of unintended consequences.

When normal people suddenly attack and murder, their defense attorney hires Dr. Michael Rose, a former cop turned forensic psychiatrist and his associate, Karen Scott to represent them in court. The inexplicable events mystify these experienced professionals, and together they seek a rational explanation. When psychiatric evaluation reveals a pattern among the subjects, Michael suspects that there is more to these incidents than spontaneous psychosis. Using his instincts and skills as a former police detective, Michael and Karen begin their own investigation. What they uncover is chilling. Who is behind it? Why is it happening, and most importantly can they do something before the killer strikes again? During the dramatic denouement, Michael must wrestle with his conscience and the true meaning of justice.

An incidental and shocking discovery of a cave with tiny unmarked graves shatters the peace of Exton, a small town in upstate N.Y. More horrifying is the forensic analysis that reveals that these young children died needlessly as the result of neglect and abuse at the hands of a religious fundamentalist cult that disavows medical care. Evangelicals and their political action groups come to the defense of the cult and the parents of the dead children setting the stage for the final courtroom clash to come. The sheriff, an investigative reporter, the local coroner and two forensic experts from Albany develop the case. When the county DA, a fundamentalist Christian, resists vigorous prosecution, the Governor of New York intervenes and appoints Rosemary and Calvin Brandt to represent the State and speak for the dead children. These controversial attorneys and former fundamentalists have devoted their lives to the protection of children. Evangelicals, through their political action groups, come to the defense of the Cult and the parents of the dead children, setting the stage for the final courtroom clash between freedom of religion and the State's responsibility to protect innocent children. Author's Note: If you believe that prayer for the sick to the exclusion of medical care is a thing of the past, think again. Each year children in the United States suffer horribly and die from injuries or medical conditions readily treated by physicians and hospitals. Do a literature search on faith healing or go to the website of "Children's Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc." (www.childrenshealthcare.org) and you'll see a litany of horrors as a small segment of mostly fundamentalists allow their minor children to die from diabetes, pneumonia, asthma, and many other conditions all readily responsive to standard medical care.