Calculating the odds

“Panacea has taken care of our wounded,” the woman said. “Civilian casualties number twenty, including the driver of the bus Intuition was on.”

“He died almost immediately,” I said. “If it had just been him, I might have been able to do something, but there was only a twenty five percent chance of his even surviving to see the paramedics, and the chance of his reaching the hospital dropped even further. There were too many people dying for me to take the chance.”

It had seemed so clear at the time, but looking back on it, I felt horrible. I'd made a decision that resulted in a guy who had just been doing his job dying. I could try to comfort myself with the survival of the others, but I wondered if his relatives would have felt the same way. If it hadn't been for Panacea, at least two of the people I'd treated would have likely died, unless they'd gotten gifted medical teams. Why hadn't I abandoned them in the same way?

***

Den