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"Okay Mr. Stevens, we do have an update on your wife." Cassia smiled once entering into the hospital room, a clipboard in hand with her eyes scanning over the middle-aged white man who held his newborn in his arms. The tiredness in his face was evident, which she understood being that he'd been back and forth to the hospital for days now.
"Please tell me it's good news." He sighed, standing to his feet with the baby close to his body.
Nodding her head, Cassia closed the door behind herself while flipping the page on the clipboard. "Yes, right now we are still assessing why exactly bleeding was happening, however your wife has woken up and she's in stable condition. But, although she's fine, there has been a string of HIV found in her system. Because we weren't aware she was carrying the disease, during the Caesarean section the baby being exposed to her blood has put her at risk. After some immediate testing, we did find the baby to also be HIV positive-."
"What? W- will she be okay?" The man struggled to get out, his voice coming out shaky to Cassia who gripped her clipboard a little tighter. "And please...be honest with me." Nodding her head, she swallowed down hard. Her eyes shifting between the clipboard and the man, until landing back on him to deliver eye contact.
"Most babies who are born HIV positive do not survive past the age of 2, however that does come with the fact that many are not exposed to the right treatment. For a while now, we've been working and testing different methods in attempts to figure out how to treat AIDS. As of currently, we do not have a set and stone treatment, but there are treatments which can slow down the spread of the disease. Which is the main reason I'm here right now, I wanted to go over those with you because it's a very expensive process, and-."
"Oh we don't have the money for any of that, we don't even have a home right now. We're going from shelter to shelter, which is why I'm constantly here because it's been the best way to have heat and a bed to lay in. Not to get so personal but- but we were staying with her family until they found out she was pregnant. Kicked us out because they claimed she was disrespecting their home and we have nobody else, I wouldn't even be able to afford burial if it came to that- I'm sorry." The man spoke with tears welling in his eyes, one blink and the first one went rolling down his face slowly. Followed by many until they turned into sobs, his body backing up to sit back in the chair he stood up from.
Pulling her lips into her mouth, Cassia blinked rapidly to stop herself from getting emotional. It was a sad story, and she didn't need him to say it to know it because they had most of that information in their system. He was telling the truth, the couple being one who was on a journey of getting clean from being addicts. Which was why they were originally staying with the woman's parents, that being more pity than anything. Which was why kicking them out was so easy in the first place.
