Almost Death by Chocolate

My name is Laura and I am an animal physical rehabilitation veterinarian. I have baked for work every week for the last fourteen years and never had a problem. The staff at the veterinary emergency clinic where I rented space thoroughly enjoyed these special treats on Wednesdays. Baking is such a stress reliever for me on my Tuesday admin days. I often wake up early and mix the special ingredients together using recipes from my mom. Before I know it, the smells of cinnamon, bread and chocolate often grace my kitchen. Freshly baked oatmeal rolls with a side of homemade apple butter are the favorite, but my gluten free chocolate black bean cake comes in a close second. I would top the cake with a dark chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries.

We have two special long-term clients that we usually share the desserts with each week. One was Martha who came in with Lila the friendly Labradoodle and the other was Linda with Rochester the amazing Jack Russell Terrier. This week, though, I saved a piece for Maisie, the owner of two beautiful elderly German Shepherds, Maud and Koda. Maisie is a bass player in a local Santa Fe band and had given my daughter, Hannah, one of her amps to use with her new left-handed bass guitar. Not only that, she also gave me the name of an excellent instructor. As soon as my assistant Jacob had loaded Koda in the underwater treadmill, I proudly presented Maisie with her piece of cake. “This is so delicious,” Maisie uttered between bites. “I don’t indulge in desserts, but this one is so smooth,” she added. “I am so glad you are enjoying it and I just wanted to thank you again for helping Hannah out with your recommendation for bass guitar lessons. She has been practicing at home almost every day,” I exclaimed.

At the 12-minute mark, we drained the underwater treadmill and got Koda out to give him a quick dry before taking him on the exercise course with tunnels and ramps that we laid out in our room. As we were drying him with the towels, I noticed that Maisie started some coughing and put a cough drop in her mouth. I decided to go to the kitchen clinic and get her a cup of water. On my way back, I heard some echoes of yelling and footsteps in the hallway. “Help, I think that Maisie is choking,” Jacob shouted louder and louder. I quickly pushed my way past the emergency clinic staff and into the room. “She kept coughing after you left and then started to scratch her throat,” Jacob continued. I took one look at Maisie and knew that she didn’t choke on the cake itself. I saw the redness in her face and the swelling of her throat and thought it looked more like an allergic reaction to me. “Jacob, quick grab me the epi-pen that you keep in your car in case of a bee sting, and Vaughn, please call 911,” I exclaimed.

“Maisie, you’ve got to stay with me another minute or two. I can’t lose you and neither can Maud and Koda.” Jacob finally returned within a minute that seemed like an eternity. I grabbed the pen, unsheathed the needle and jabbed it into the largest part of her quadriceps on her skinny thigh. Within a few minutes, her breathing starting to normalize and Vaughn let me know that an ambulance was on the way. When the ambulance arrived they rushed in and took her vital signs. They started her on some IV fluids and an anti-histamine. I explained what happened to one of the EMTs and I was startled by his response. “Well ma’am, it looks like you shouldn’t be feeding your cake to your clients, I will need a list of ingredients in case of a food allergy. The emergency doc suggested I contact Sheriff David Garcia to come by and collect a sample to be sent off for analysis looking for drugs and to take your statement. Also send any other employees over to the hospital that ate the cake and aren’t feeling well. Being a veterinarian, I’m sure you have access to all sorts of drugs.” “Sir, I am a respected member of the veterinary community. Harming my clients or patients is not good for business. Accusing me of something I would never do to a client or anyone for that matter is just not fair,” I stated. “I am just trying to keep all bases covered to protect you,” he replied. “Dr. Hady, can you drive my Highlander and Koda home for me? Here is a key for the Highlander and one for my back door. Just leave them with my neighbor down the road in the grey stucco house and they should check in on them if I don’t get home by 5 pm.” “Sure Maisie, I think I remember how to get to your house,” I replied. “I just texted the address to you, and thank you for saving me,” she finished.

I watched closely as they roll Maisie out to the ambulance. I didn’t feel like I saved her. I felt like I hurt her with that piece of chocolate cake. I wondered if the cinnamon or cayenne pepper I put in the cake for a true Mexican flavor started her reaction. Jacob and I finished our day in Santa Fe at around 2 pm. My other clients noticed something was on my mind. The only answer I could give them was that I didn’t feel well. It was true as my stomach was churning with acid even though I had done nothing wrong.

I loaded Koda in Maisie’s Highlander with the chewed back seats. The plan was for Jacob to follow me in his car so he could drive me back to the clinic. When we arrived at the west entrance from the road, I told Jacob to wait for me as I unloaded Koda. I took him past all the sage and golden rod to unlatch the back gate. He bounded around the yard and then headed to the back door. I used Maisie’s key to unlock the door and heard Maud’s fierce bark. I rushed in, lifted her up by her body harness, and rushed her out to express her bladder. She had the advanced stages of degenerative myelopathy so her legs didn’t work normally, but Maisie had laid out a trail of carpet runners to the back door. As I brought her back in, I noticed a piece of paper on the dining table with two highlighted lines on it. I gently eased Maud back on her bed, gave her a quick massage and a piece or two of the turkey lunch meat I kept in my pocket as a reward for my patients. My curiosity got the best at me when I passed back by the pine table and took a quick peek of the sheet with Santa Fe Allergy & Dermatology on the letterhead. Non-reactive to wheat and eggs. Four plus reactivity to nuts. Adult onset of allergies to food is unusual, but not uncommon .

Instantly, I knew what had gone wrong. Even though I did not include any nuts in the cake, I had used coconut milk in the dark chocolate ganache covering the cake. I was proud of myself for not using any dairy products in the recipe, but had never realized the coconut milk would be an issue. I said my good-byes to the dogs and hurried back to the car to tell Jacob my news. “I tought that people could be allergic to an actual piece of coconut but not to the fluid contained within the coconut,” he mentioned to me after some thought. We drove about a quarter-mile back down the road, found the grey stucco house, and pulled into the driveway. I quickly jumped out of the car and ran up the steps to ring the doorbell, noticing a big black truck in the driveway. I waited a few minutes and tried the doorbell again. Still no answer, which was weird because I thought I heard voices shouting in a heated discussion. I sent a quick text to the number Maisie had given me for her neighbor, Stan Stuart. I carefully taped the keys to the inside of the screen door near the bottom and left a note on the door. While Maisie trusted Stan, I did not get a good vibe from him when she asked that I instruct him on how to perform the dogs daily rehab exercises when she went on a trip to Costa Rica. He kept complaining about how much of a mess the dogs made in his backyard when he watched them.

After we stopped by the hospital and I loaded my Honda CRV with my rehab supplies, I stopped and looked at the hospital. I wondered how many people had driven past this morning and saw the human ambulance in the front. Never good for business for business I thought again. Certainly, my business wasn’t very big, but in my heart, I would not do anything to jeopardize its’ reputation or that of the emergency clinic. I then headed to Java Joes to get a lift from caffeine for the hour and fifteen-minute drive back down to Rio Rancho. After I made it to the bottom of La Bajada hill, I called my husband, Pat, using the Bluetooth dialing system. I knew he could calm my inner fears. “Hey honey,” he greeted me. “You don’t usually call me at work. Is something wrong?” he continued. “I think I accidentally poisoned my good client, Maisie,” I replied. I went on to explain the details of my day and all that had happened. “Don’t worry,” he calmly responded. “Let it work itself out. Maisie could have underlying medical conditions that we don’t know about. I hope you left a piece of black bean cake for me at home,” he added jokingly.

After a restless night of weird dreams about being chased up and down a hill, I drug myself out of bed to start the coffee and let out our four dogs. My attention went straight to the Harvest Moon setting in the western sky. I said a quick prayer that today would not be as stressful and that we would find another reason for Maisie’s anaphylactic reaction. However, I was not so sure about my prayer being answered when I got a phone call from Sheriff Garcia on the way to the hospital in Albuquerque. “Good morning Dr. Laura,” he started. “Thank you for letting the staff at St. Vincent’s hospital and my office know about the coconut milk used to prepare the cake. I just wanted to give you a quick update on the case. It looks like they reviewed her results and then reran some tests on Maisie’s blood to find out that, while she developed a recent allergy to nuts, an individual test for coconut was negative,” he finished. “Wow, that is great news, but it doesn’t tell us what she had the weird reaction to,” I responded. “Do you know of anyone would want to harm Maisie for any reason?” he countered. “For some reason I just don’t trust Stan Stuart her neighbor down the road,” I answered. I never wanted to falsely accuse anyone, but my mom always told me to use my gut instinct. “I’ll look into that when I go over to Maisie’s house for some follow up questions this morning,” he concluded.

The day went by so slow that I found myself wishing that I had only scheduled a half-day of work. We caught a break when the last appointment called to cancel. It was an hour-long initial exam and home plan. I had Jacob clean start cleaning up and told him he could do call-backs on inventory and file patient records to make up the hour for his timesheet. My thoughts drifted to Maisie and how she was doing after the day of her big scare. I decided right there and then that I would head up to her home in Santa Fe and check in on her. Since the drive was in the middle of the day, there was little traffic and I listened to the radio on my way up the interstate. I had brought my low level laser to give both the dogs a treatment for their arthritis and neurologic issues. When You Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog came on the oldies station, I started singing with Elvis at the top of my lungs. It sure beat worrying about what I was going to say to Maisie. Before I knew it, I was turning off the interstate at the St. Francis exit and heading into town. I made the necessary turns and found myself at her home in record time. The strange thing was that I saw the same black Ram 250 Power truck in the driveway that I had seen at Stan Stuart’s house yesterday. Well maybe I could get some answers or this was going to be a wasted trip.

“Maisie, I’ve told you over and over not to let those money managers fool you into diversifying your portfolio too much,” I heard Stan say as they walked out of the back door. “Stan, I have always trusted your opinion, but I am going to trust my gut instinct on this one,” Maisie countered. I heard Koda bark and turned my attention back to Stan as he pulled a revolver out of his jacket.

“Maisie I know that you inherited money from your rich Uncle Ford’s estate last year when he died. It was for adopting Koda all those years ago, and saving him from being put down,” he shouted. “I tried to do this the nice way with the huge dose of your blood pressure medicine that I put in your Blue Sky soda can when I stopped by yesterday morning. Unfortunately, that piece of chocolate cake saved your life and the epinephrine and IV fluids helped to raise your low blood pressure from the medicine. Since that didn’t do it, I am forcing you to sign this statement that gives me power of attorney over all your money.”

“Come on Stan, deep in your heart you know that I took on Koda because I love dogs and he needed more exercise. Now I can take your confession to the police right now or you can hand me the gun and we’ll pretend this didn’t happen,” Maisie tried to reason with him. “Not if I get you to sign this statement and then make it look like you accidentally shot yourself,” he argued. I stood there paralyzed in fear. I hated guns and I hated conflict, but I knew that I had to do something quickly. Fortunately, Maisie had told me that Koda had to quit guard-dog training because it had made him too fierce.

“Koda. Attack!” I shouted. As Koda started bounding towards the back door I saw Maisie move in a flash and Stan start to fall. It took an instant for her to whack Stan on the side of her head with one of her guitar stands. Koda quickly pounced on him and I kneeled down to tie his hands with a dog leash. We both looked over at Maud who had scooted herself over and out the back door and tripped Stan when he came after Maisie. Maisie was shaking, so I rushed over to help her into the nearest chair. I called Sheriff Garcia and he and his team of officers were there in five minutes.

“Well Maisie, you have had big scares too day in a row,” I exclaimed. “Maybe you should take a vacation from your retirement. I promise I’ll take care of the dogs for you if you need a few days off to forget this nightmare.” “All I want to do now is take a nap with my dogs to get ready for my gig at the Coyote Café tonight,” Maisie concluded. I headed back to my car and pointed it in the direction of home. Some could say that I had a boring life as a physical rehab veterinarian or they could say that I had a new adventure waiting for me each and every day.