Dear Reader, Love Louis Kraft

Dear Reader…

I’m thrilled that you chose to purchase and are reading The Discovery. My first published book was a novel (The Final Showdown, 1992, which dealt with race relations on the Kansas frontier in 1867). I thought that I would be a novelist, but then the publisher reneged on my second contracted western story when they eliminated that genre from their booklist. A nonfiction publisher had been pitching me to write an Indian wars book, and I jumped at the chance. Until The Discovery all of my published books have been nonfiction.

In 2013 Dr. Robert Goodman, who was responsible for saving my life over a decade earlier, asked me to partner—that is flesh out and write his terrific idea about a physician being sued for malpractice twenty years after a baby he had delivered was born. Over the years I’ve had a good doctor-patient relationship with Bob. I actually supplied him with a review markup and detailed comments on how he could improve his manuscript. Bob isn’t a writer but his story premise is unique. I had reservations in regards to partnering with him due to a contract I had to deliver a polished nonfiction manuscript to my publisher on October 1, 2016, but damnit, if not for Bob Goodman I would be long dead. I agreed to write his manuscript (and unfortunately at the cost of making the October 1, 2016, nonfiction delivery).

I did not shortchange Bob or his manuscript but did everything I could to bring the characters and events to life while figuring out how to bridge the gaps in twenty-plus years in the storyline.

Do not take this story—The Discovery—lightly for it deals with people at critical moments in their lives and their decisions on how to move forward. It is about real people at all times and how they react to the circumstances beyond their control. It is about good and evil, but more it is about survival, love, and redemption. You will enjoy the book.

LK

Meet the Author

Author/historian Louis Kraft has focused his energy on producing work that highlights racism and the human experience of people who have put their lives on the line to prevent war. He has written articles for magazines, including Research Review and Wild West, as well as fiction (The Final Showdown) and nonfiction (Gatewood & Geronimo) books. Kraft returned to fiction writing when he collaborated with Robert S. Goodman on The Discovery.

Visit his website at www.readthediscovery.com.

About the Book:

Title: THE DISCOVERY
Author: Louis Kraft & Robert S. Goodman MD
Publisher: Createspace
Pages: 311
Genre: Legal Thriller

In THE DISCOVERY by Robert S. Goodman and Louis Kraft, a young obstetrician/gynecologist delivers a premature baby after attending a dinner party. The child survives the delivery, but complications lead to a malpractice lawsuit two decades later.

In 1952, a pregnant seventeen-year-old gives birth in a Los Angeles hospital. Two nurses attend to the young woman while they wait for the doctor on call to arrive for the delivery. Dr. Harry Chapman arrives at the hospital clearheaded but with alcohol on his breath. The premature baby is born blue and placed in an incubator. The nurses turn the oxygen to the level recommended to pediatricians for preemies the year before to prevent blindness. When the baby’s color doesn’t change, Harry instructs the nurses to turn the oxygen up to maximum. They protest, but Harry insists that the nurses comply to save the baby from brain damage or death.

In 1972, Greg Weston, a twenty-year-old paralegal meets a young woman who works with a renowned pediatrician. When she questions the attractive young man about his blindness, Greg reveals that his adoptive parents told him he was born blind. After agreeing to see the doctor Gail works for, Greg becomes aware that his blindness may have occurred as a result of physician error. Greg requests his medical records from the hospital and the adoption agency, and he finds that the hospital records tell a different story about what took place after his birth. In both records, Dr. Harry Chapman is indicated as the doctor who delivered him. Greg shares his findings with a partner in his law firm, and they build a case against Dr. Chapman based on fraudulent changes in the hospital records, which allows the statute of limitations to be thrown out.

After Harry receives word that he is being sued, his attorney advises him that the malpractice insurance he carried in 1952 will not cover even a fraction of the multimillion-dollar lawsuit. The stress and uncertainty of the case, along with the accusation of fraud, breaks Harry, leading him down a road of depression and alcohol dependence. As Harry’s wife, Helen, watches her husband deteriorate, she makes an unthinkable choice to put an end to the plaintiff’s case.

In THE DISCOVERY, the authors connect the lives of two individuals across two decades, exposing vulnerabilities, bitterness, and frailties. As the case moves forward, a key witness’s testimony alters the lives of both men.

In writing THE DISCOVERY, Goodman and Kraft’s intentions were to offer readers multidimensional characters with real-world problems and to bring awareness to the severe affect malpractice lawsuits can have on physicians’ professional and personal lives.

The Discovery is available at Amazon.