Standing before her was Chloe, a seven-year-old girl with two untidy braids and a missing front tooth, holding tightly to the edge of her white lab coat. ScientificEquipment

“What vitamins do you mean, sweetheart?” Rosalyn asked gently.

“The drops Brenda gives me every day,” Chloe whispered, glancing around anxiously. “She says they’re supposed to help make me strong again, but they taste really awful. Whenever she watches me, I have to swallow them, but when she looks away…” Chloe quietly pointed toward the window, “…I pour them straight into the soil.”

Rosalyn placed her pen carefully on the desk. Chloe skipped back toward her hospital bed while clutching a stuffed giraffe with a torn left ear.

The doctor crossed over to the windowsill to examine the plant more carefully. She had noticed that potted plant every day since Chloe was admitted to the community hospital in Columbus, Ohio, experiencing persistent abdominal pa!n, serious nausea, and an unusual weakness that no early test could explain. Hospitals& Treatment Centers

Yet Rosalyn had never actually paused to examine the planter itself.

It was an ordinary spider plant that the nursing staff normally watered twice each week.

The other four planters lining the hallway ledge were green, but this particular flowerpot had turned nearly black.

The leaves appeared badly damaged, the soil had hardened into a thick crust, and tiny pale crystals could be seen around the inside rim.

Rosalyn suddenly felt uneasy. “Chloe, how long have you been pouring those drops into the pot?”

The little girl counted slowly on her small fingers. “Four days, maybe five, ever since I stopped getting sick.”

Rosalyn turned around carefully to look at the child. “And were you taking those drops before you came into the hospital?” FamilyLaw