He could see it now — the deliberate placement, the way the healthy tissue had been spared, the plain fact that after five days half-buried in a swamp with an infection like that, I still had a leg worth saving at all.

But he turned to his team then, and he made one thing very clear, in a voice meant to be remembered.

“Understand me.

What this woman did was an extreme measure, in a life-or-death emergency, with no other option and years of training behind it.

It is not something anyone should ever attempt on their own.

In a hospital, this kind of therapy is done with specially prepared, medical-grade material, under strict professional supervision.

Out there, it could just as easily have killed her.