Pandora's Prisoner

In this David Dawson adventure, Dr. Robert Metzken, a world renowned physician, diagnoses Jack Miller, a young boy, with terminal cancer.  As a last effort to save Jack’s life, Jack’s parents, who have not lost hope, ask the hospital for permission for Dwight Adams, a reputed local Healer, to treat young Jack. For legal reasons, the hospital and Dr. Metzken deny the parent’s request. The boy dies. The boy’s parents sue the powerful hospital and the physician. Dawson is engaged by the Thomas Crawford law firm, counsel to the hospital, to investigate the reputation of Dwight Adams.

 In a series of taped interviews, Dawson learns that Adams talks to his dog, has cured his own son of cancer and visits regularly with an alien.  Adams tells Dawson that he is not a faith healer, but has discovered a secret healing technique.  Adams lives in a beautiful Arizona home, but has no visible means of financial support. He explains to Dawson that he has been taught investment techniques from an Alien, which allow him to finance his healing activities.

Adams spends his time treating people with terminal diseases for free and eventually shares with Dawson journals that record the experiences of people that Adams has cured. Dawson and his fiancée Jessica, a forensic psychologist, are unsuccessful in showing the Healer is a fraud. After reporting his findings, Dawson is fired. Crawford embarks on a dangerous mission to discredit Dawson and protect the hospital.

Dawson’s path collides with gregarious insurance executive Roger Simpson. Simpson’s firm has insured the hospital and the doctor against litigation. However, Simpson is addicted to a no-holds barred gambling and girls life style and has run up huge debts to casino owners. If Crawford loses the case, Simpson will lose hundreds of millions of dollars and his firm will go bankrupt preventing him from paying his casino debts.  To insure a victory by the hospital, the casino owners conspire with Simpson to kill Dawson so he can not testify at trial.  Dawson is wounded and Thomas Crawford’s brother is killed in a suspicious “hit and run” auto accident.

Dawson, hospital, the parents, a prominent doctor, the healer and Simpson are all part of a fascinating trial.  The trial exposes the legal complexity of hospital management, alternative healing techniques, insurance company fraud and a national healthcare system that is clinically gridlocked and systematically denies patients the best care available.  The story concludes with Dawson revealing the healing secrets of Adams on the witness stand and a bombshell jury verdict.