New York.

The elderly Filipino woman was shaking when she was brought by the EMS paramedic to Triage. Her eyes were shifty and anxious. She clutched my hand, pleading in silence. gWe picked her up at the airport. Her plane had just embarked from Brazil. The fl ight attendants noticed that she was very agitated and she was crying uncontroll ably. It seems she fs traveling alone, but she would not talk to us now. h The EMS p aramedic bypassed the other triage nurse and zeroed in on me, correctly guessing that his patient and I share the same ethnicity. She was in her late 60 s, with grey hair, stooped back, and gnarly hands; she looke d like anybody fs grandma. She held tightly on to her purse with tremulous hands, and her eyes filled up with tears. My initial reaction was to pat her shoulder i n a gesture of comfort. I wondered if she was having an emotional breakdown, but with her tachycardia and hypertension, I knew we have to clear her medically. At that moment, two men in suits appeared and handcuffed gGrandma h to the stretche r. The narcotics agents informed us that gGrandma h was being suspected of swallowi ng condoms of cocaine, and as such, she had to be isolated from the general popu lation. Their plan: to wait for her to pass the condoms. Her story was all too familiar. She was a drug courier, or a gdrug mule h. But she was older than the rest of the couriers who had come to our emergency department . In my naivete, I did not even connect the dots. As I looked at her in disbelie f and disappointment, gGrandma h averted her eyes. She accepted the intravenous wit hout any complaints. gWhy? h. Thrown off by my preconceived notions of a drug mule, I could not help but ask her. She kept her eyes closed, but tears ran freely down her wrinkled cheek s. The hospital administrator had vouchered the patient fs property as we await for a judge to issue a warrant, but had consented for the patient fs cell phone to be t urned over to the authorities. The agents were frustrated with the lack of information. gWe need to find the peo ple who contracted her to carry the drugs. h Their interviews with the patient wer e met with silence. The repressed moan did not escape me. The patient fs face grimaced in pain as she pressed on her stomach with her free hand. Alarmed, I yelled for the doctor STAT . The patient fs blood pressure was rising, and her heart rate was racing. She had not gone to CAT scan yet, but I was afraid that the cocaine packets must have b urst. gHow many packets did you swallow, Grandma? Tell us please! h. The patient hesitate d, but as she squirmed in pain again, she mumbled gTen. h The next few minutes passed in frantic preparations to bring her to the OR for e mergent exploratomy. Just as the surgeons wheeled her out of the room, the patient turned to me and s aid, gI did it for my family. h gGrandma h did not survive the operation. She had died because she wanted the money to pay for her daughter fs cancer treatment back home.