Chapter Eight, The 'Navajo Plague' Summary and Analysis

Florena Woody, a patient on whom Alvord operated, mysteriously died a week after her surgery for no apparent reason. It later turned out that she had shown up to the Crownpoint clinic with severe respiratory distress. These symptoms were very rare. Alvord was deeply upset: Florena had had elective surgery and apparently she had somehow died from it. Perhaps during her gallbladder removal Alvord had cut a duct that let bile spill into the abdomen which in turn caused an infection. The autopsy determined that she died of 'catastrophic asphyxiation'. Her fiancé, Merrill Bahe, had a similar illness on the day of Florena's funeral.

Alvord and Sue had not caused the problem, but they were still perplexed: what had caused the illness? More deaths occurred over the next week, and among young people...