Chapter 11

Becca bounded into the hospital before eight o'clock and brushed past the staff to his room. He was awake and he had food in front of him although she could see that he hadn't eaten any of it. It suddenly dawned on her that the food was solid and he probably couldn't chew it yet, she ran for the nurse and complained that the food he had been given was unsuitable for him. An argument ensued and she picked up her cell phone and called Mr. Blum. When the nurse found out that she had called a lawyer the head nurse was called and immediately came to Carl's room. Proper food was ordered for him and Becca fed him slowly to avoid choking him.

After he had eaten what little he could, he started moving his hand sideways rapidly. He seemed very agitated. She tried to calm him down, but he continued to move his hand and tried to push her hand away.

"I don't know what you want, Carl. Do you want me to leave?

He raised his hand and she was hurt that he didn't want her help. He put his hand over her and patted her hand and then pushed her hand away. Then it dawned on her what he wanted.

"Do you want me to leave and go to work?"

His hand rose twice and he pushed her hand away. She reached for him and hugged him.

"OK, I'll leave. I'm going to get you your own doctor and a therapist and a full time nursing staff. We're going to get you out of here as soon as the doctor approves it and get you back on your feet."

After she had kissed him and had bathed him as well as she could, she went to the office. She immediately called a meeting of all of the managers and presented them with a copy of the power of attorney. They asked if Carl was sick and she brushed off their questions and told them that he would be back in the office shortly. Until then they would consider her the person in charge of all decisions for the company.

After the meeting and the few kiss-asses trying to jockey for position with her, she called Alex Blum.

"Alex," she said as he came on the line, "I want you to find the best stroke specialist in France and hire him to take care of Carl. I want a team of the best therapists that you can find and I want his therapy to start today. I want a full-time nursing staff to watch over him twenty-four hours a day. I want this done today and that is to be your only job. I want Carl out of that hospital and home as soon as he can be moved. By the way, no one is to know that Carl had a stroke. If anyone asks, he is on another project and he will get back to them."

She hung up the phone without waiting for his reply. Alex Blum was a brilliant lawyer and he was an employee of the company. Carl paid him well and he had no private clients.

The rest of the morning was taken up with reading the requests for venture capital from people who had heard that Carl had financed FMI. She turned all of them down. None of them were very good and she didn't want to over-extend the company. FMI seemed to be getting off the ground with few problems and she silently hoped that they would not have to take over the factory. They would make much more money if FMI succeeded.

About four hours after she had called Alex Blum, he called to tell her that Carl's new doctor was with him as they spoke and a therapist would start working with Carl the next day. Four nurses were hired to take care of him and one of the nurses would be at the hospital within an hour. The doctor had been given her office number and he had been instructed to call her as soon as he had completed the examination.

Becca thanked him and reminded him to get the powers of attorney for every country that they did business in. She was worried that some of the managers would find out what had happened to Carl and would loot the company.