Super Healthy Issues | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Super Healthy Issues | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Westefeld
10/16/16
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I am the doctor for the man the rest of the world knew as Speedster. Of course, I knew him as Wallace Garrick, a police officer. His blood sugar had always been low and his pressure high, which before he divulged his secret to me, he had attributed to the high stress life on the force. How I discovered his secret is irrelevant. My patient had been hiding something from me.

He admitted that his hypoglycemia was likely from his hyper-metabolism. His body literally burned sugar faster than he could consume it. It would take a diet so heavy in calories that no normal man could handle it without risking Type II Diabetes and a heart attack. I once calculated that a day of superheroics at full speed would use over 18,000,000 calories just to keep him going.

When Speedster died in the line of duty, saving hundreds of children from a burning school, he was unmasked, identified, and as his primary care physician, I was called in to make my final examination of Mr. Garrick. I was not qualified to do an autopsy, nor did the city leaders think there need for such. In their minds he died from smoke inhalation.

However, I prevailed on the coroner's office to do a blood test, and to see if any food was in his stomach, to finalize the cause of death. As he opened Speedster’s stomach to see what was inside, he found the remains of well over 2000 candy bars. Yet his blood sugar was at less than thirty. At lower than seventy it was dangerous. His body used up the carbohydrates faster than he could eat and replace the sugar in his blood. I realized that the mayor’s office and the fire chief's report of his dying due to smoke inhalation might be correct after all.

I tried to understand, as the coroner stood shaking his head, shocked at his findings. If he ran out of energy to run, he could have been overcome by smoke, leading to his death. Short of a full autopsy, I knew there was no real way to confirm his cause of death. His dying due to smoke inhalation, while rescuing those children, seemed more noble than letting the press know my patient starved to death.

A few short days later, I watched on television as Speedster was given a hero’s burial, and the coroner's findings began to leak out. The press seems to live on scandal as their lifeblood. I received many calls at my office to explain why the possible causes of death of Riverside’s beloved hero were so contradictory.

I had my office manager issue a statement that at our practice we don’t violate our patients' privacy, no matter how famous.

In a couple of weeks, normalcy had returned to Riverside, right down to sightings of the Speedster. I was sure this was a media hoax, perpetuated by City Hall, to cast doubt that Riverside was heroless. I felt this way until I got a call from a Miss Belinda Snow. She claimed she needed to see me on an important dietary issue.

I had an opening that Thursday afternoon, and welcomed Miss Snow into an examination room. I asked her, “What seems to be so urgent that you needed to see me on such short notice?”

I saw a blur of motion, and in an instant was faced with the figure sitting on my exam table wearing the gold and indigo colors of the Speedster. My first response was far from professional. “I… I don’t understand. What is going on?”

In her husky voice the young woman on the table said, “You were Dad’s doctor. Don’t you recognize his “working clothes”? Granted I had to tailor them to my measurements and size.”

As I gaped at her, I said the first thing to come into my head, “Dad?”

She looked at me with a bit of a bemused look, which I understood later to mean, “And how else do you think I got these powers?” I followed up with a more sensible question, ”You said you needed help on a dietary issue? What can I help you with?”

“I... I need to know exactly how Dad died, and if I am eating enough for my powers?” she responded, holding her hands out in resignation.

"You'll want to change back to street clothes before going to my office to discuss a diet for your heroics."

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