Chapter 44 : Focus On Your Job
A nurse blurted out in panic, “Exactly! Madam Berry means everything to Jareth. If anything happens to her, he’ll make you pay with your life!”
Allison didn’t look back, and she uttered in a calm voice, “I know.”
As she spoke, she placed another needle at the Shenting point on Madam Berry’s scalp. The neurology director watched her nervously, and his fists clenched in anger. “You’re gambling with her life! If she dies because of your reckless poking, we won’t be able to save her even if we want to!”
“Enough of this nonsense. Get her away from the patient and prepare for a craniotomy right now!”
He had reached his limit. With a sharp order, his assistants stepped forward to act.
Allison shot them a cold glare, and she retorted, “If anything goes wrong, I’ll take full responsibility. Can you do the same?”
That single sentence made everyone freeze.
Madam Berry was already elderly. The risks of surgery were exponentially higher, especially with brain surgery. One small mistake, and she could end up in a coma. Worse, she could die on the table.
That was exactly why Jareth hadn’t wanted to take the risk. It was why he had switched medical teams at the last minute.
They had expected someone more professional. Someone more authoritative. Not some arrogant little girl.
The director threw his hands up, seething with anger. Fine. Let’s see how this reckless kid plans to pay with her life.
But the moment he turned around, he froze.
Jareth was standing in the doorway, a cane in hand. No one knew how long he had been there.
The realization hit hard. Jareth must have heard Allison’s bold words, yet he hadn’t intervened to stop her. The thought filled the director with frustration. If she failed, wouldn’t it be their mess to clean up?
Jareth must have lost his mind, letting a woman like this play him so easily.
A crowd had gathered at the doorway, including Jareth himself. Everyone stood in silence, watching Allison work.
Allison was still administering acupuncture. She had moved from standing to sitting at Madam Berry’s bedside. Her manner was gentle and composed. She looked less like someone racing to save a life and more like someone giving a routine wellness treatment.
The silver needles were mounted safely on Madam Berry’s skull. Each time Allison twisted or adjusted one, Madam Berry twitched. Her fingers sometimes curled into claw-like shapes. Every small movement made the onlookers tense, afraid the next twitch would be her final breath.
But Allison didn’t react at all. She even started massaging the elderly woman’s head and shoulders.
The director could not take it anymore. Even with Jareth watching them, he finally exploded, “Her problem is in the cerebral blood vessels! It’s a blood clot, a cerebral infarction! What the hell are you doing!”
“Jareth, if you let this continue, you’ll be killing her! Is that what you want!”
Jareth’s brow furrowed. His fingers tightened around his cane without him realizing it. Of course, he did not want Madam Berry to die, but somehow, he could not shake the feeling…that Allison could do it.
This was not just Allison’s gamble. It was his as well.
When Jareth did not respond, the director let out a heavy sigh and slumped to the floor in frustration. He was already deciding which morgue Madam Berry would be sent to.
Meanwhile, Allison kept going. After the massage, she pressed down on one side of the old woman’s clavicle with one hand. With the other, she picked up a syringe filled with thrombolytic medication. She inserted it into a vein and slowly pulled back.
As the pressure drew, a thin red strand of thick material appeared inside the clear syringe.
It stretched slowly, like a living thread, but it did not spread like blood.
The director’s eyes widened in surprise. He scrambled to his feet. “There’s a clot in the jugular vein!”
That kind of clot usually only formed from an IV line. But they had not even inserted one yet. How could there already be a clot?
And it had not shown up in the pre-op scans either.
His face was drained of color. This was a serious oversight. If he had gone ahead with the surgery, that hidden clot could have made everything worse.
Cold sweat slid down his back. For the first time, he was really glad he had not taken over.
Allison glanced at him, as if she could see straight through his thoughts. She stood up and said, “That was a blood clot from the brain.”
Jareth’s eyes softened. He finally walked into the room and stopped beside her. “How is she?”
“The blockage is cleared,” Allison replied. “Let her rest for about an hour. She’ll wake up.”
Jareth looked toward the director, who rushed to the monitors and checked the vitals and scan data. What he saw left him stunned. Madam Berry’s vital signs were stabilizing.
Seeing the disbelief on the director’s face, Jareth finally let out a deep breath. The way he looked at Allison had completely changed.
He was not the only one. Even the director, who had been seconds away from throwing her out, was now gripping her sleeve in awe. His eyes were wide with admiration. “You’re telling me you used a few needles and some massage to push the clot from the brain down to the jugular? How did you even do that?”
Allison replied, “All the vessels are connected. I used pressure points to guide the clot’s movement. I simplified something complex. It’s not a divine miracle. It’s just forgotten medicine. Too few people remember it now.”
The director nodded again and again. “You’re absolutely right. These days, everyone worships Western medicine. Cut first, think later. But for someone of Madam Berry’s age, that’s basically dragging her to the gates of hell. I always wanted to study traditional medicine, but I never found the right teacher…”
He hesitated, then braced himself and asked awkwardly, “Miss… could you teach me a few techniques?”
Afraid she would refuse, he quickly added, “I don’t expect it for free. I’ll serve tea and formally become your student if I have to!”
Allison stared at the older Doctor, someone old enough to be her father, and blinked. She was completely caught off guard.
Before she could decide how to respond, Jareth had already taken her hand and said to the director, “Just focus on doing your own job.”