603 Ch 603 - Alex Saves a Life

The crowd ignored Michael's attempts to placate them. They wanted to be cured for one dollar, and they refused to be sent away. The situation was getting out of control, and the patients were now shouting and pushing each other.

Michael tried to appease them while encouraging his exhausted doctors to see a few more patients.

One man pushed his way to the front and called out to Ann. "Dr. Glover, I'm Lee Elgin. When you worked at the Woodside Clinic, you saw me and my wife several times, so I know you're a great doctor. When I heard you were here, I drove for several hours to see you. Please, I beg you, find the time to examine my wife."

Lee was gently supporting his pregnant wife, Maria, with an arm around her waist. "She's got a sore throat and is finding it difficult to eat," he said. "But she also coughs so hard it's impossible for her to sleep at night."

As if on cue, Maria coughed painfully. "Yes, Dr. Glover, please examine me," she pleaded. "I'm so uncomfortable, but because I'm five months pregnant, I don't dare take any over-the-counter medicine. I've traveled so far to see you. Please, you have to help me."

"Give me your hand," Ann told her, realizing she wouldn't be able to go home for a while yet.

She took Maria's wrist and checked her pulse. Then she gently checked inside her patient's mouth and under her eyelids. A moment later, she made a diagnosis. "You have some serious vitamin and iron deficiencies. I'll give you some medication, and I want you to take two pills immediately. After that, take it once a day to help build your immunity back up."

Ann wrote out the prescription, which was quickly dispensed from the virtually depleted stock.

Lee looked at the packet when it arrived. "Dr. Glover, this medicine looks really powerful. Are you sure it won't be harmful to the baby?"

Maria was short of breath. She touched her rounded stomach and asked, "I don't like the sound of it. Isn't there any other way to cure me?"

"Yes," Lee agreed. "If she could take medicine, she would have already taken it. We were afraid it would be bad for the unborn child. We're trying to be so careful." He paused. "Couldn't you use acupuncture instead?"

His wife nodded. "Yes, can you try acupuncture? When I saw you before, you gave me acupuncture, and it worked brilliantly."

Pressured by the couple, and growing more and more impatient to leave, Ann picked up some needles and said, "Okay. Lie down on this examination table."

Maria quickly got settled.

Ann tried hard not to imagine she was stabbing Alex's face as she aimed her needle. She worked through the key areas, aiming to relieve the woman's cough and other symptoms.

After the acupuncture was complete, she let Maria rest while she went to see another patient.

Almost immediately after the treatment, Maria felt her chest loosen as her asthma eased and the frequency of her cough decreased. Obviously, the acupuncture had helped.

But, just as Ann was about to give her other patient an injection, Maria cried out, covering her stomach instinctively with her hands and shouting, "Dr. Glover, please come quickly. My stomach hurts really, really badly." She screwed up her face in pain. "It's so hot! It feels like I'm burning from the inside out!"

"Doctor, what's going on?" Lee asked nervously.

"It's probably nothing," Ann said, frowning. "I'm sure it will pass shortly. If you'll excuse me, I'll just—"

Lee screamed. "She's bleeding! She's bleeding!"

He yelled so loudly the crowd went quiet, and Michael rushed to see what the matter was.

Looking down, Ann saw that the woman's skirt was wet with blood.

"How could this happen?" she asked, growing flustered.

Maria cried out. "Dr. Glover, it's so painful. Please, help me."

"This isn't good," Ann said, her face creasing with worry. "We need to get you to the hospital. I think you're having a miscarriage."

Panicked, the woman screamed at Michael and Ann, "This is your fault! Damn you both!"

At the start of the day, the medical center may have been able to cope with the situation, but by now, the drugs were almost gone, and the blood supplies had been used up. Even the best doctor would struggle to treat a patient without the necessary resources.

Several other doctors came running over and tried their best to stop the bleeding, but nothing seemed to be working.

"Is she going to die? Will our baby die?" Lee was terrified.

Michael hissed at one of the doctors standing nearby. "What are you waiting for? Call an ambulance. Now!"

He wasn't really concerned about the fate of the woman, but he knew they couldn't afford to have a death at the new center if they wanted to destroy Alex's clinic.

"If anything happens to my wife and our unborn child, I will make you pay for their lives." Lee grabbed his wife's hand as his eyes filled with tears.

"Rest assured that they are in the best hands," Michael said, trying to calm the situation down.

Even though they were exhausted, the medical team knew that if Maria died, their careers would be over.

"Get out of the way!" someone shouted.

There was a disturbance at the back of the crowd as someone pushed their way through them. Then Alex appeared and kneeled beside Maria.

He reached for her pulse, and then he took out his own acupuncture needles. Holding nine needles, his right hand moved so rapidly no one could follow his movements clearly. Once each of the needles was in the correct position, Alex began to pour some of his inner power into them.

The needles seemed to vibrate as the power moved through them, and Maria's breathing started to slow. Then Alex reached out and gently turned a few of the needles.

"Alex, don't interfere," Ann said. "This isn't the time for…" She trailed off when she noticed Maria's cries of pain had stopped, and the flow of blood had also been stemmed.

"That's amazing!" someone called.

The crowd stared at Alex, finding it hard to believe what they had witnessed.

"She'll be all right now," Alex said, speaking quietly. "She won't miscarry. Both she and the baby will be fine, but she should stay in bed and rest fully for the next week."

He turned and looked at Lee. "After a week, she can get up, but don't let her do any physical work. She needs to take it easy."

Lee nodded. "I understand, and I'm going to treat her like a princess. I—" His voice caught, and he swallowed hard. "I can't thank you enough for what you've done."

"It was my pleasure." Alex gave a faint smile. "But I'm afraid I do need to charge you. My fee is one hundred dollars, but you can settle up with me later."

Lee took out his wallet and pulled out five hundred dollars, placing it in Alex's hand. "Please, take it. If I had more, I would give it to you for saving my wife and child."

"No, one hundred is my price," Alex said. "I can't accept more than that." He took the agreed sum, and then returned the rest before turning and walking away.

Tears of gratitude filled Lee's eyes as he watched Alex go.

Outside, the waiting patients clapped and cheered Alex as he walked past them, acknowledging his superb medical skills.

Kendall and Sophie were also ecstatic. They realized the crowd would now prefer being treated by Alex than taking a risk with the one-dollar treatment at the Trinity Medical Center.

Ann chased after Alex. "Why did she start to miscarry like that?" she asked, desperate to know what had happened. "I was right to use acupuncture, wasn't I?"

She had played it over and over in her mind and was convinced she hadn't made a mistake.

The other doctors were also puzzled about how acupuncture could make a pregnant woman miscarry.

"You weren't wrong to offer acupuncture," Alex said. "But you overlooked her pregnancy when you decided where to place your needles. There are key pressure points that are dangerous to someone who is carrying a baby." His voice grew stern. "Have you forgotten your training, Ann?"

Ann's head dropped in shame. In the madness of the day, and in her tiredness, that crucial rule had simply flown out of her head. She realized how close she had come to making a terrible, career-ending decision in wanting a quick fix for Maria's cough.

"You can't forget the rules just to make it seem like you've cured someone and make a good impression," Alex told her. "You were so eager for a quick result that you ignored the bigger picture."