The Portable Veblen: Shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016

“I understand,” said Cloris.

“The pressure builds—”

“—and builds—”

“—cutting off circulation—”

“Oh, my.”

He bestowed a frank, open gaze upon her, and cleared his throat. “Anyway, the cells stop getting oxygen, which sets off a chain reaction called cell suicide, technically called apoptosis, but if a craniotomy—opening up the skull—can be performed immediately, releasing the pressure, to make room for the swelling”—Paul shifted in his seat—“then no more cell suicide, and under the right circumstances recovery is achievable, up to eighty, ninety percent.”

“So how could this be done?”

“Here’s the problem. Say you’re a medic in combat, and you need to get your injured troops to the closest field hospital, but for a thousand reasons, you can’t do it fast enough. This happens all the time. You’ve made your determination of brain injury—”

“How is that done?”

“Nonreactive pupils. Unconsciousness.”

“Sounds like me every morning.”

“Ah.” Paul felt a luxuriant warmth ripple down his thighs. “The point is, it’s not all that high-tech—craniotomies have been practiced for thousands of years. We see burr holes in the skulls of Egyptians, Sumerians, even the Neanderthals—”

“That was for a snack,” she said.

“The point being that long before there were hospital standards and antiseptics—”

“It could be done.”

“Right! And so in emergency situations, medics—”

“Could do just as good a job as the Neanderthals!”

Paul slapped his palms on the table. “Right. And here’s where my work comes in. I’ve devised an instrument that is safe, effective, essentially automatic, for the line medic to use right on the spot.”

“The Swiss Army knife of brain injury?”

“Yes.”

“Something every medic would carry?” she grasped, eagerly.

“That’s my hope.”

“Simple, easy to use?”

“Very.”

“How big is it?”

Paul held up his hands to indicate a tool of about eight inches.

Cloris raised her eyebrows, then entered text in her phone. “What’s it like? Tell me there’s something like it but not as good.”

He knew what she was getting at. The FDA would allow you to bypass a lot of time and red tape using the 510(k) exemption if a device was like something else already approved. “Between you and me, it’s unique. But you could easily say it’s like the Voltar pneumatic hole punch or Abata’s Cranio-locum.”

Her eyes sparkled and he felt wonderful. “Could it save the government money?”

“Oh my god, yes. And obviously, a lot of people’s lives would be much better.”

She leaned forward, to whisper. “What’s your contract situation?”

“I’m up for renewal at the end of the year,” whispered Paul, nervously rocking back in his chair.

“Has the Technology Transfer Office seen this yet?” she asked huskily.

“Funny you ask. I’m just finishing my report for them right now.”

“I see. Can I ask you something?”

“Ask away.”

“If I get back to you in a couple of days, will you let me take the first look?”

“Sure, but—”

“I think it’s a no-brainer.”

“Ouch.”

“What?”

“You said it’s a no-brainer.”

“I practiced that.”

They walked to the hospital lobby together, Paul carrying her tote bag to the door. She gave him a European-style kiss on his left cheek, and his catecholamines soared.

She called in two days, to inform him that Development at Hutmacher was very interested in his device. It seemed that Cloris Hutmacher was a scout for her family’s company, prowling med schools and biotech companies for the latest discoveries that exceeded her company’s resources to discover in their own labs. She could boast of finding a new drug for arthritis at UCLA, and another that blocked harmful proteins within cell walls at UC Santa Barbara, all on her own initiative. Of course, Paul’s device was a high risk Class III and would need to be tested in a clinical trial, but that was no obstacle at all. The VA center in Menlo Park was available as a testing site, and it was possible, in fact probable, that Paul could be the primary investigator in a trial there, making a niche for himself testing other patents relevant to the Department of Defense that were being licensed by Hutmacher. Hutmacher had numerous DOD contracts, she told him, and was dedicated to the men and women of the armed forces. He would be ideal.

Paul thought he would be too, but when he brought it up with his mentor, Lewis Chaudhry, Chaudhry was flatly lacking in enthusiasm.

“This project is nowhere near ready for that, Paul. You have yet to do your randomized study, you’ve had no peer reviews, nothing! Are they planning to piggyback it on a 510(k)?”

Paul admitted they were. “You know what an uphill battle it is to market anything. They’re saying it’s a major breakthrough and they can move it into practical application really fast. Isn’t that worth doing?”

Chaudhry stepped back with thinly disguised contempt. “So, Paul, how big was the gift basket?”

And Paul felt sorry for the stodgy old termagant and went directly to the Technology Transfer Office to work out the details. And when he met Cloris later that week, at the office of Hutmacher’s attorneys, Shrapnal and Boone, in Burlingame, and he was presented with a signing bonus in cash and stock options as well as a huge gift basket filled with bottles of champagne, fancy chocolates, aged wheels of French cheese, and even a sterling silver knife in a blue box from Tiffany & Co., Paul could see no reason not to own the moment.