Chapter 1: Doctor Sharma

New York City, New York, USA

April 7, 1986

Monday 

06 AM

The city of New York was brimming with people. Tourists from all over the world enjoy their stay with their families, shopkeepers trying to sell their items, and the local people going on with their day-to-day activities.

But the situation was different in The Randall Memorial hospital. Families had worrying faces instead of the happiness and excitement they usually used to have. Their concern for the health of their loved ones was visible on their faces.

A few doctors stepped out of Surgery room #1. Unlike the family members of the patients, they had relieved faces and were filled with joy.

A doctor from the group then said, “That was spectacular as always.”

“Yes, as good as always.” replied another doctor. The doctor then continued, “Imagine clipping that cranial arterial lump in such a difficult spot so quickly!!”

Another doctor joined in the conversation and said, “And with the skill in which he shaved down the skull, he’s the very definition of spectacular.”

Suddenly a doctor stepped out of the room. The doctor was of average height and he had black hair and brown eyes. All of the doctors after seeing him went towards him and extended their hands for a handshake while saying, “A magnificent operation, Dr. Sharma.”

Another doctor continued the conversation by saying, “Once again, I am reminded of what a genius Vikash Sharma is."

Dr. Sharma reciprocated their handshakes and said, “Thank You.”

The doctors continued praising Dr. Sharma, clearly impressed by his skill. They kept on saying, “Performing both a cranial nerve surgery and an emergency operation at the same time…”

“You worked so hard.”

 Dr. Sharma replied, “No it’s thanks to all of you, Kylan Middleton.”

As they kept on talking, the sun's rays from the window hit them.

Dr. Sharma then said, “The sun’s already risen so high…”

"Yes, we struggled through that operation for 6 hours, starting in the dead of night. No more outpatients for today, so take a rest.”

“Yes.”

Suddenly sounds of a woman sobbing could be heard.

Dr. Sharma and the doctors then turned to their right to see a woman sobbing with a child beside her. The woman was probably in her late twenties or early thirties while the child was probably 4 to 6 years old. 

To provide the details of the situation, the nurse said, "Ah that's right there was also a Bangladeshi Laborer brought in supported by his family's shoulders."

She then continued, “Yes…Dr. Durham operated."

“How did it turn out?”

The nurse remained silent which gave the answer Dr. Sharma needed.

“Oh.”

The doctors and the nurse then started moving.

Dr. Sharma said, “That’s a shame.”

While the doctors moved away, the woman kept on sobbing.

The child confused asked, "Where’s daddy?”

The mother kept on sobbing instead of answering the boy’s question.

“What happened to daddy?” asked the child again.

The woman was unable to control her tears and started sobbing hard.

                                 ***

In a room, Dr. Sharma was sleeping soundly on his bed while the TV was on and the news was being broadcasted. The News channel was broadcasting the following news:

“Mr. Fischer, the East German foreign trade advisor who fled here to the US from East Germany a few days ago, appeared before the media with his wife and children yesterday. The Fischer family, appearing with their twin daughter and son put on bright faces with no signs of fatigue. For the present, the family is staying in New York. Now about the political meeting in..."

The TV's voice was cut off by a woman who entered the bedroom of Dr. Sharma.

“Hey, wake up!” But there was no response.

“Wake up, Dr. Sharma!” Still, the woman received no response.

The woman then kissed Dr. Sharma who finally woke up.

The woman then smirked and said, “This is a case of role reversal. It's the beautiful princess like me who is supposed to be awakened with a kiss."  

"Nnn…oh, it's you, Alicia."

“You forgot about our date, didn’t you Vikash?”

“Ah…no. I didn’t.”

"Ugh, I feel like I haven't slept a wink."

The doctor then tried to sleep again but Alicia woke him up.

 “No, come on wake up!! This is your news!! Look at the TV!!”

Dr. Sharma who was half-awake tried to watch the news on the TV.

“Now moving on to the next news. The famous opera singer Kevin Lynch collapsed yesterday, suffering a massive internal hemorrhage. He is reported to be in stable condition after an emergency operation, Director Olson, of the Randall Memorial hospital, where the operation took place, held a press conference with the reporters today. Here is an excerpt from the conference.”

“The diagnosis of Mr. Lynch has revealed a subarachnoid hemorrhage stemming from a ruptured artery, the clipping in the surgery itself has gone perfectly as planned. The problems we foresee are the cerebral swelling and blood vessel spasms, and the cerebral ischemia and secondary hydrocephaly that will result from those, but we plan to have conditions perfect for preventing this.”

“For the many many fans of Mr. Lynch, can we expect a return to his career?”

“Will we ever hear him sing again?”

“Yes. We are using every possible precaution to bring his singing voice back.”

"If anything, thanks to the many difficult operations completed flawlessly by Director Olson's doctors, the capability and status of our country in the medical world are once again strengthened. Next in the news…” 

The TV's voice was once again cut off by Alicia's voice, "That's great Vikash!”

“It wasn’t my news, it was your father’s news.”

“Maybe so. You were one of the members of the team that made the perfect operation. Thanks to you, The Randall Memorial hospital’s fame will grow and my father will be certainly grateful to you.”

"I'm the one who should be grateful. It's thanks to your father that an Indian like me can come here to the US and live like this."

“Just keep it up, Vikash. If you just follow my father, everything will be okay. It's only a matter of time until father's the board of directors and then soon you'll be the head of the surgical department, then the director and then I'll be the director's wife!"

After saying that Alicia hugged Vikash tightly.

“Be happy. Hardship doesn’t suit me.”

She then kissed him passionately.

“Oh that’s right, my father says he’s very impressed with your thesis.”

“Really?”

“Yes. If it’s published under my father’s name, the academic world will certainly react quite well.”

“You wrote it for my father didn’t you?”

“Y…Yeah. I wrote that thesis at your father’s request. I’d love for him to use it.”

She then kissed him again.

She then asked him seductively, “What should we do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Our date… do you want to go out?”

“Or should … we stay just like this?”

                                  ***

"Blood pressure," asked Dr. Vikash.

“128/64.” Replied another doctor.

“Micro scissors.”

“Now pare off the pyramid.”

An hour later the surgery was done and Dr. Sharma was walking out of the room, but he was interrupted by Dr. Durham.

“Well as good as an operation as ever. Although it wasn’t just the surgery that went well.”

“Huh?" replied Dr. Sharma who was confused.

“Your operating skill is peerless.  You sit in the chief’s seat at such a young age. And you’re the director and surgical head’s favorite pet.”

“What are you trying to say, Dr. Durham?”

“No, No, I don’t mean anything bad by it. Hospitals are part of the political world. If you want to get by in the world, you simply can’t sit around on your haunches all the time… that’s what hospitals are like.”

“Dr. Durham…”

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“Keep a firm grip on the director’s daughter’s heart.”

Dr. Sharma started blushing after hearing that.

“You can’t hide it everyone knows. I can’t believe you’re as good in that respect as in others.”

“Please.”

"I'm not saying that in a bad way. You realize that the director's using you damn well."

“I watched the news of how you carried out the operation to success, and I pretended that it was me who did it. Saving the life of a famous opera singer will bring the hospital renown. You had to do the operation because of the director, so you answered his expectations by making it a perfect success.”

“But don’t let him run all over you. Use him as thoroughly as you can too. Use his daughter, anything.”

“But I think you understand that without me telling you, there is power in being used. Even though I wish I was being used, I have no power over it. “

Dr. Durham then smiled and said, “When you get promoted, put in a good word for me. I’ll buy you a drink sometime, I know a place that’s got some great apple brandy.”

Dr. Vikash also smiled after hearing that.

“Dr. Sharma.”

Suddenly the nurse approached Dr. Sharma and asked, "About Mr. Tyson in the ICU… (Intensive Care Unit). His blood pressure's lowered to 70."

“Okay up his inovan 3 gammas. Then raise the oxygen concentration on the ventilator to 50%...”

Suddenly he heard a voice saying, "Are you, Dr. Sharma?"

He then turned towards the source of the voice and it was the same Bangladeshi woman who was there yesterday with her child.

“Yes. What is it? You must be the woman who came in with the injured Bangladeshi man.”

He then towards the nurse and said, “Oh, please go ahead. I’ll be right there.“

“Okay.”

The Bangladeshi woman then said, “Give me my husband back.”

“What?”

She then grabbed him by the collar and angrily said, “Give me my husband back!”

“Err...ugh we used every possible precaution here and…”

“You’re lying!!!”

“Huh?” asked Dr. Sharma who was confused.

“My husband was brought in first! He was here before that opera singer. But you pushed him back! You’re the best doctor they have at this hospital. Why didn’t you do the operation on my husband, who came in first?”

Dr. Sharma then started to remember something.

"That was when my pager woke me up while I was sleeping in my apartment, and I was going to operate on the Bangladeshi man injured in a construction accident.”

                          Flashback

Dr. Sharma was being ready to perform the operation on the Bangladeshi worker, but he was interrupted by a junior doctor.

“Dr. Sharma. This isn’t your operation. We’ve got an emergency. Come to surgery room #1.”

Dr. Sharma without any hesitation said,“Okay.”

Flashback ends

The woman was crying. Streams of tears fell from her eyes.

 “If you’d done the operation, he would have survived. You skipped over my husband’s turn. I thought as a fellow immigrant in this country you will understand us and won't any discrimination. India and Bangladesh are neighbors and once we belong to the same country but you turned out to be a greedy person. Because of you, my five-year-old son will grow up without a father."

The son who was holding on to this mother cried, "Mommy!”

“Give him back! Give him back!”

***

Dr. Sharma and Alicia were having dinner in an expensive restaurant in New York. 

“So both me and my friend were fighting for that dress. They only had one in that size.  But don’t worry, it’s mine now, so…hey, are you listening?”

Vikash who was lost in his thoughts, replied, “Huh? Oh yeah.”

“So I’m going to wear it to the next party.”

“I checked the medical records. Dr. Durham was the one who did that operation on the work.”

Alicia became annoyed after hearing that and said, “God you are still going on about that?”

“The immediate cause of death was a brain hernia…but it was obvious it had taken too much time to start treatment. If we’d only been able to perform a craniotomy and equalize the pressure…”

“Don’t talk about that stuff while we’re eating.”

“No offense to Dr. Durham, but if I had been in charge there, maybe I could have saved that Bangladeshi patient.”

But the doctor then said, "But what does any of that have to do with me? I only did the operation on the opera singer just like the director ordered me to. It's not my responsibility."

Alicia then smiled and nodded.

“Exactly.”

“Right?”

“Of course.”

Alicia then smirked and said, “Not all people’s lives are equal.”

Dr. Vikash after hearing that was shocked. While Alicia kept on eating her dinner.

“Not all people’s lives are equal. Give him back. Give my husband back!”

Even though his fiancé was sitting opposite him, the only thing he could see was the face of the sobbing woman and her child.

***

The same night, many police cars started surrounding a house where a suspected shootout took place. The policemen were conversing with each other but were extremely cautious in their approach.

“Car #107, now at the scene of the crime.”

“Car#208, arriving on scene.”

"The mansion?! Yes, the report came from the neighbors."

“Please, stay back, stay back!”

“The ambulance isn’t ready yet?! We need about 4 more men here.”

"How many gunshots were there again?!"

“Five or six, sir!”

“Do you know whose house this is?”

“Well, it… it appears to be the residence of Mr. Fischer, the trade advisor who crossed the border from East Germany.”

After hearing that, the policemen became more cautious and said, "What?! Shit, we got to be careful about this one. It may be the work of the enemy country which was unhappy with Mr. Fischer's betrayal and fleeing to the US. ”

An officer then shouted, “We’ve got the back door covered!! “

“All right, take the sides of the door!”

“We’ll bust on the count of 3!”

All the officers nodded in unison.

“1!”

“2!”

“3!”

But as the door opened, the dead bodies of Mr. Fischer and his wife were laying down on the ground. Their bodies were covered in blood and it was clear that they were dead and the murderers already left.

“It looks like the intruder already made his escape.”

"Oh, Jesus…"

“God damn…”

Suddenly they heard a noise and all the officers pointed their guns towards the source of the noise but it turned out to be a young girl. A young boy who looked similar to her was laying down on the ground, covered in blood.

After doing a bit of inspection, they found out, "One girl confirmed alive. A man and woman are dead. The boy is in critical condition, but he still has a pulse!"

***

Dr. Vikash was sleeping soundly on his bed, but his pager then started ringing, which just, meant one thing.

"Nnn…A patient…?”

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