I took on Liam O’Connor as a patient because I had believed that treating a zombie would be very similar to treating a vampire. After all, we are both the undead, right?

I now realize that there are significant differences between vampires and zombies, and significantly different sets of issues which arise when treating a patient of one type or the other.

For example, vampires are functionally immortal. The vampire will live forever, assuming he or she is not destroyed by exposure to UV light, a stake to the heart, or beheading. Also, a vampire’s life span is independent of others in his or her lineage. Killing a sire will not automatically destroy any of that vampire’s descendents.

Zombies, on the other hand, while extremely durable by themselves, have a finite existence tied into the life of another. A zombie may be beheaded or drawn and quartered, and still that zombie’s limbs and parts will continue to operate independently. But should the necromancer that raised him die, he also ceases to be.