Dr. Larry Bush

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime... has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade.

My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.

The parking lot's full of every type of media there is. We're meeting in the boardroom with the local health department, the state health department, the CDC, and the FBI. We're on the phone with the governor's office.

Until... I get a call about 7 o'clock that night from the ER that we have a man here who has a hemorrhagic bleeding process in his lungs. He's on a ventilator. And oh, by the way, he works at the AMI building. I'm thinking, oh my God, Martha's not crazy. Wow. Patient two.

Bob Stevens is in the ICU. He's not doing well. The hospital's aware. The local health department's on the scene. The state health department's coming down. The CDC's on their way.

There's more media in the area because things are leaking out than you can imagine. The parking lot's full of every type of media there is. The hospital is going crazy. People are calling the hospital and want their loved ones transferred because we have anthrax. Everybody who has a cough or fever is showing up in the ER now, right? With anthrax, so to speak.

I get a call to come down and see this woman. And I said to the emergency room doctor, you know, this is getting a little overwhelming. You're calling me for every cough that's walking in there. I said, why this one? They said, this woman's got an interesting story. So I go down to the ER, and I meet Martha. And I said, OK, Martha, I look at her history. I examine her.

I look at her x-ray and her lab work. And I say, Martha, I think you have a cold. I said, I don't think you have anthrax. I don't even think you're really sick. But I said, but why are you really here, Martha? Why are you really here? She said, I'm very concerned about where I work. I said, where do you work? She says, I work at AMI.

She says, do you read all the stuff we're writing about the people who did 9-11, all the stuff we write about them? I said, no. She says, I think they're upset with us. I said, you think they read the National Enquirer?

Eight o'clock the next morning, I call Jacksonville Reference Lab and I say, what was the result? And he said to me, I shouldn't tell you that. I said, wow, that's a bold answer. I said, well, there's two things with that answer. I said, first of all, I'm the treating doctor. I'm taking care of this patient. I'm responsible for him. I sent the lab to you.

I said, and by you telling me you shouldn't tell me that, you just told me that. He said, I got to go. I said, where are you going? He says, I have to call the people I work for. He hung up.

The difficult part for me in that press conference was Maureen Stevens was sitting in the front, and they said to me, is Bob Stevens going to die?

But I'm looking at Maureen Stevens, and I said, well, you know, he's seriously ill, he's on the right medication, and we have hope that he could survive.

There's more media in the area because things are leaking out than you can imagine. The parking lot's full of every type of media there is.

The hospital is going crazy. People are calling the hospital and want their loved ones transferred because we have anthrax in the hospital.

The outside of the hospital was one of those things like you see when somebody's coming out of a courthouse and everybody's rushing them with a microphone to get some type of sound bite. It was really chaotic.

I get a call to come down and see this woman, and I said to the emergency room doctor, you know, this is getting a little overwhelming. You're calling me for every cough that's walking in there. I said, why this one? They said, this woman's got an interesting story.

Do you think they're going to submit evidence that implicates them?

What is everybody? A dead man walking?

She found him awake in the bathroom, vomiting over the toilet bowl, confused.

She drove him to the hospital. He walked into JFK emergency room at around 2 in the morning. And after they put him on a ventilator and got a chest radiograph, they sent him for a spinal fluid examination looking for bacteria.

When I look at the microscope, I'm looking to see if I could see what type of bacteria this is because that's important for how I'm going to treat him.

You're lucky if you can see one or two bacteria that help you determine what type of bacterial process this may be. His was overwhelming. I saw an overwhelming amount of pus cells. That's a bad sign. That means there's havoc going on in your nervous system. These bacteria suggest a cause of infection that shocks Larry. They almost never, ever cause spinal fluid infection, meningitis. But one does.

Anthrax.

There were a lot of things going through my mind. There's nothing else that explains it.

He had an overwhelming amount of bacteria, but what struck me was the shape and the color of these bacteria.

I'm an infectious disease person. I lecture, I write on infectious diseases. I look at bacteria under a microscope every day. I knew what I was looking at.

I'm convinced this is anthrax. I don't have 100% proof.

He can't be the only one exposed. That's my concern. My fear was missing bioterrorism and being the person who could blow the whistle.

8 o'clock the next morning, I call Jacksonville Reference Lab and I say, what was the result? And he said to me, I shouldn't tell you that. I said, wow, that's a bold answer. I said, well, there's two things with that answer. I said, first of all, I'm the treating doctor. I'm taking care of this patient. I'm responsible for him. I sent the lab to you.

I said, and by you telling me you shouldn't tell me that, you just told me that. He said, I got to go. I said, where are you going? He says, I have to call the people I work for.

The difficult part for me in that press conference was Maureen Stevens was sitting in the front and they said to me, is Bob Stevens going to die?

But I'm looking at Maureen Stevens and I said, well, you know, he's seriously ill. He's on the right medication and we have hope that he could survive.

There's more media in the area because things are leaking out than you can imagine. The parking lot's full of every type of media there is.

The hospital is going crazy. People are calling the hospital and want their loved ones transferred because we have anthrax in the hospital.

The outside of the hospital was one of those things like you see when, you know, somebody's coming out of a courthouse and everybody's rushing them with a microphone to get some type of sound bite. It was, you know, really chaotic.

Bob Stevens is in the ICU. He's not doing well.

I get a call to come down and see this woman, and I said to the emergency room doctor, you know, this is getting a little overwhelming. You're calling me for every cough that's walking in there. I said, why this one? They said, this woman's got an interesting story.

Do you think they're going to submit evidence that implicates them?

She found him awake in the bathroom vomiting over the toilet bowl, confused.

She drove him to the hospital. He walked into JFK emergency room at around two in the morning. And after they put him on a ventilator and got a chest radiograph, they sent him for a spinal fluid examination, looking for bacteria.

When I look at the microscope, I'm looking to see if I could see what type of bacteria this is because that's important for how I'm going to treat them.

You're lucky if you can see one or two bacteria that help you determine what type of bacterial processes may be. His was overwhelming. I saw an overwhelming amount of pus cells. That's a bad sign. That means there's havoc going on in your nervous system.

They almost never, ever cause spinal fluid infection, meningitis. But one does. Anthrax.

There were a lot of things going through my mind. There's nothing else that explains it.

He had an overwhelming amount of bacteria, but what struck me was the shape and the color of these bacteria.

I'm an infectious disease person. I lecture, I write on infectious diseases. I look at bacteria under a microscope every day. I knew what I was looking at.

I'm convinced this is anthrax. I don't have 100% proof.

My fear was creating chaos in the hospital.

He can't be the only one exposed. That's my concern. My fear was missing bioterrorism and being the person who could blow the whistle.

Eight o'clock the next morning, I call Jacksonville Reference Lab and I say, what was the result? And he said to me, I shouldn't tell you that. I said, wow, that's a bold answer. I said, well, there's two things with that answer. I said, first of all, I'm the treating doctor. I'm taking care of this patient. I'm responsible for him. I sent the lab to you.

I said, and by you telling me you shouldn't tell me that, you just told me that. He said, I got to go. I said, where are you going? He says, I have to call the people I work for.

The difficult part for me in that press conference was Maureen Stevens was sitting in the front, and they said to me, is Bob Stevens going to die?

But I'm looking at Maureen Stevens, and I said, well, you know, he's seriously ill, He's on the right medication, and we have hope that he could survive.

There's more media in the area because things are leaking out than you can imagine. The parking lot's full of every type of media there is.

The hospital is going crazy. People are calling the hospital and want their loved ones transferred because we have anthrax in the hospital.

The outside of the hospital was one of those things like you see when somebody's coming out of a courthouse and everybody's rushing them with a microphone to get some type of sound bite. It was really chaotic.

I get a call to come down and see this woman, and I said to the emergency room doctor, you know, this is getting a little overwhelming. You're calling me for every cough that's walking in there. I said, why this one? They said, this woman's got an interesting story.

Do you think they're going to submit evidence that implicates them?

She found him awake in the bathroom, vomiting over the toilet bowl, confused.

She drove him to the hospital. He walked into JFK emergency room at around 2 in the morning. And after they put him on a ventilator and got a chest radiograph, they sent him for a spinal fluid examination looking for bacteria.

When I look at the microscope, I'm looking to see if I could see what type of bacteria this is because that's important for how I'm going to treat him.

You're lucky if you can see one or two bacteria that help you determine what type of bacterial process this may be. His was overwhelming. I saw an overwhelming amount of pus cells. That's a bad sign. That means there's havoc going on in your nervous system. These bacteria suggest a cause of infection that shocks Larry. They almost never, ever cause spinal fluid infection, meningitis. But one does.

Anthrax.

There were a lot of things going through my mind. There's nothing else that explains it.

He had an overwhelming amount of bacteria, but what struck me was the shape and the color of these bacteria.

I'm an infectious disease person. I lecture, I write on infectious diseases. I look at bacteria under a microscope every day. I knew what I was looking at.

I'm convinced this is anthrax. I don't have 100% proof.

He can't be the only one exposed. That's my concern. My fear was missing bioterrorism and being the person who could blow the whistle.