Delayed Consequences, Part I

His name was Alex Bergeron, grew up west of New Orleans, from a line of backwoods Cajuns, went to school to follow his dreams. He grew to become a doctor, quickly built a name for himself, Alex built himself a good life, with tough cases would always help. He brought home plenty of money, and after his own father died, moved his mother into his house, she needed help, so he’d provide. All those years of saving people caught some eyes at the CDC, they asked him to consult one day, so Alex went in happily. But the eyes that greeted him there were full of grimness, every one, the lead said, “We’ve noticed a trend, and we fear that it is not done. “We’re seeing middle-aged women dropping dead at much higher rates, from heart attacks driven by fright, from some sort of panic, they say. “We need a researcher out there to look into what’s causing this, you come highly recommended, and we’re at the end of our wits.” Alex looked at all their data, saw no cause uniting the dead, started his mental gears turning, he looked up and nodded his head. “This does seem to be a strange one… all these woman around seventy, seems too young to just die these days, and I do like a mystery. “I’ll request a leave of absence, a sabbatical, to go ‘round, look more closely at these cases, it will take time to run them down.” The CDC thanked him for this, brought HR in to write a contract, three weeks later Alex went out looking to find some cold, hard facts. But as he went to hospitals, reviewed coroner records there, he found very little that matched, he looked, but there was nothing there. No common place for exposure, no pathogens that they all had, no similarity in genes, it was enough to drive you mad. Different women, different backgrounds, and no common factor for all, after two months he just felt stuck, like he’d just run into a wall. But inspiration soon did come, and did so from the strangest place, a shrill protest on the TV, going on about Roe vs. Wade. It spurred in him a strange idea, but he followed it on a whim, yet as he looked back at the charts one fact soon became clear to him. All of the woman who had died had gone to clinics way back when, they had been young and got pregnant, must’ve been the mid-seventies then. That was just after Roe vs. Wade, the coincidence was shocking, but how could that be connected to these women up and dying? CONTINUES IN PART II.