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something has caused your blood-clotting system to stop working properly. We need to get you to MCB for diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.”
    “What
something?
What caused this?” she asked. “Will my baby be all right?”
    “We’ll know better about your baby as soon as we get a monitor on,” Snyder said. “At this moment I can hear its heartbeat clearly.”
    “His,” Lisa said hoarsely.
    “Pardon?”
    “His. Dr. Baldwin sent me for an ultrasound. His name’s going to be Brian.”
    They heard the ambulance siren cut off as it pulled up in front of the house.
    “Lisa,” Snyder said, “I know it’s not easy, but the more relaxed you can be, the slower your blood will flow, and the better chance we’ll have of stopping the bleeding. Is there someone you want us to call? Your parents? A brother or sister?”
    Lisa thought for a moment and then resolutely shook her head.
    “Heidi’s my family,” she said.
    “Okay. Sarah, do you want to go and call MCB?… Sarah?”
    Eyes closed, Sarah had placed her second, third, and fourth fingertips over Lisa’s left radial artery, trying to assess the six pulses located there, which were used only by acupuncturists and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. The left pulses reflected the condition of the heart, liver, kidney, small intestine, gallbladder, and bladder. Many times, especially in patients with vague, nonspecific complaints, careful palpation of the three superficial and three deep pulses at each wrist gave a clue as to the source of the symptom and helped direct placement of the acupuncture needles.
    “Oh, sorry,” she said. Her exam, influenced by Lisa’s agitated state and the profound disturbance in blood flow, was not revealing. And with no circulation at all on the right, there was little point in checking that side. “I’ll call Dr. Blankenship and have him waiting for us with someone from heme.”
    “Thank you.”
    The rescue squad raced into the crowded room. After a brief explanation from Randall Snyder, they hoisted Lisa onto their litter and set about establishing an IV in her left arm. Sarah started for the hallway phone.
    “Dr. Baldwin, don’t leave me,” Lisa begged.
    “I’ll be right back.”
    “Then please just tell me:
Am I going to die?”
    Sarah hoped there would be more conviction in her voice than she was feeling at that moment.
    “Lisa, this is not the time for you to be thinking like that at all,” she said. “It’s very important that you stay centered and focused. You’ve got to be able to use that internal visualization stuff we’ve been working on. Do you think you can do that?”
    “I—I was doing it before all this started. Once I actually saw my cervix. I really did.”
    “I believe you. That’s great. Well, now you’ve got to start doing it again. Concentrate on seeing your bloodstreamand the structures within your hands. It’s very important. I’ll help you once we reach MCB. Dr. Blankenship, the internist who will be treating you, is a wonderful doctor. I’m going to call him now. He and a hematologist will be waiting for us. Together we’ll get on top of this thing.”
    “Promise?”
    Sarah swept some errant wisps of hair from Lisa’s damp forehead.
    “I promise,” she said.
    “IV’s in,” one of the rescue squad announced. “Ringer’s lactate at two-fifty. You want her sitting up like this, Doc?”
    Snyder nodded. “Sarah, why don’t you let me make that call, and you ride to MCB in the ambulance with Lisa. I’ll bring Heidi with me.”
    As she accompanied the rescue squad out of the house, doing what she could to stem the flow of blood from Lisa Summer’s nose and mouth, Sarah tried to remember what she could of the other woman who had developed DIC. Normal pregnancy, normal labor right up to the final stage, then a sudden, catastrophic alteration of her body’s coagulation system. Just the way it was happening today.
    And as she helped load Lisa into the