#Chapter 50 - The Stranger’s Story

Layla I’d barely stepped back inside the front doors of the hospital before I was returned to the demanding pace of medical life—hadn’t even made it back to my office. “Incoming! Stab victim, male, mid-thirties!” a nurse called, her voice sharp with urgency. In no time at all, I was gloved and masked, in the heat of the trauma bay. As the stretcher was wheeled in, and I caught sight of the unconscious patient stretched out atop it, my heart fell. I knew the man beneath the oxygen mask. It was the police officer from the alley. The one who looked like Aldo. But how … “Vitals are dropping!” one of the nurses yelled, and that thrust everything else into the background. A man was injured, and I could save him. “I need suction and more gauze!” I ordered as I stepped up to the table. First glance told me he was bleeding heavily from a wound in his side. The paramedics had packed it, but the injury looked deep. Still, I could save him. “Prep for surgery immediately.” “Yes