The Hot Zone: Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Hospital staff runs to aid Charles Monet, and they are met in the ICU by Dr. Shem Musoke, a talented and personable young physician. Musoke arrives as Monet inhales his own blood and stops breathing entirely, immediately falling into a coma. Examining Monet’s eyes, Musoke notices that his pupils are dilated, which denotes brain damage. Although he does not even have gloves on, Musoke inserts a laryngoscope down Monet’s throat, his hands becoming covered by mucus, blood, and vomit. With his face only inches from Monet, he inserts the laryngoscope, at which point Monet vomits all over the doctor, covering his face and chest (as well as the gurney and floor) with blood. Musoke, still determined to help his patient, continues to insert the scope and watches as Monet begins to breathe again. As Musoke attempts to give his patient a blood transfusion, Monet’s veins fall apart at the touch of a needle, and blood runs down his arms. All the while, he continues to hemorrhage from his bowels. Within hours, still attended by Dr. Musoke, he dies.

The doctors of Nairobi Hospital autopsy Monet, and find that his kidneys and liver have essentially liquefied, as has his intestinal lining. It is impossible to say why he died because so many things have gone wrong: his blood has clotted, he has hemorrhaged, his liver has dissolved, and his intestines have come apart. His remains are placed in a waterproof bag and buried in an unmarked grave.

Nine days later, on January 24, 1980, Dr. Shem Musoke develops a severe backache, which he chalks up to exhaustion. When he looks in the mirror, however, he sees that his eyes have turned red. Noticing that he has a fever and that his backache has spread, he decides that he has malaria, and begins to take antimalarial pills and an injection. The shot, however, causes him terrible pain, and after he develops abdominal pain, he begins to wonder whether he may have typhoid fever. Although he takes antibiotics and continues working at the hospital, Musoke’s pain only grows, and he becomes jaundiced. He consults his colleague, Dr. Antonia Bagshawe, who speculates that he may have a gall-bladder attack or a liver infection. Very ill, he is placed in a private room, and his face becomes slack and dead-looking.

In an attempt to determine what is wrong with Musoke, a team of surgeons led by Dr. Imre Lofler performs exploratory surgery. They find that his liver is swollen and red. His blood refuses to coagulate, so he keeps bleeding during the surgery and blood is everywhere. After taking a sample of his liver, the team gives up.

After the surgery, Musoke’s kidneys begin to fail, and he seems close to death. Since Dr. Antonia Bagshawe is away, Dr. David Silverstein steps in to care for Musoke. With his colleagues deeply disturbed about Musoke’s illness, Silverstein begins to test his fellow doctor’s blood for viruses, distilling the liquid down to a gold-colored serum that he then freezes and sends to both a lab in South Africa and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia.