Chapter 31
1104 Words
Gon kept the door locked and blinds closed for another hour after 6 in the morning, during which he took his remaining time to sleep after treating a lot of patients until last night. He was too tired to go home, so he decided to sleep in the hospital inside his office.
“Let me take a nap for another hour...” And he closed his eyes again.
It was quarter to seven when he was awakened by a loud noise coming from outside the door. Aside from a familiar male’s voice who were shouting his whole name, he was knocking at the door simultaneously which made his eyebrows met.
“Hey, Gon Velarde, you annoying guy! Open the door!”
His forehead wrinkled. Moving up from the couch, he rubbed his eyes and yelled, “Hey, Damek Ivanov, you dimwit! Stop banging the door! I’m coming!”
“I’ve been here outside for 10 minutes, knocking, but—”
“Shut up!”
“Just open this door before—”
“I’m sleeping, you asshole,” Gon cut him off as soon as he opened the door. Brushing his hair up, he added, “What’s the business?”
Damek, who was just in his hoodie, sweat pants, and running shoes stepped inside without minding his friend’s question. He was obviously gone to exercise before he drop at his office.
On his hand was a paper bag with two orders of egg sandwich and Starbucks coffee for two.
“I just want to visit you,” he said plainly, “and eat with breakfast with you.”
Gon slowly twitched his lips. “I think I’m going to throw up,” he replied as he still couldn’t believe that Damek could be this so cringy early this morning.
“What?” Damek squinted his eyes. “Aren’t you hungry? And why did you sleep here?”
Gon closed the door before he went beside Damek and asked, “Why are you here?”
“Well, obviously, we are going to eat.”
Damek handed him the egg sandwich and the coffee as he took a bite of his food.
“I’m asking you aside from that,” Gon mumbled, but Damek seemed deaf. He added, “Why egg sandwich and coffee, instead of beer and chicken?”
Chewing, Damek answered, “This is better so eat.”
“I thought you forgot what’s healthy and not,” Gon teased him before he unwrapped the sandwich and finally took a bite. “Thanks by the way.”
“Um.”
“You look happy,” Gon commented and sip his coffee.
“I am happy, of course.”
“That’s nice.”
It was not long before Damek noticed his bothered friend.
“Why?” Damek turned to Gon. “You sounded so doleful. Something’s wrong?”
Gon breathed heavily as soon as he remembered the CCB overdose patient last night.
“Nothing. It’s just that...” Gon gave his coffee another sip before he let out another sigh.
“Why?” Damek queried and faced his friend as he seemed so curious. “Was there an unlucky patient again?”
Gon took a few seconds before he could answer. “I don’t know, but she’s okay now although she’s still under monitoring,” Gon replied, shaking his head. “She is just 8 years old, a calcium channel blocker overdose case. It’s a family attempted suicide.”
“Family attempted suicide?” Damek exclaimed, brows knitted in surprise. “That’s horrible!”
“I know.”
“A patient!” they shouted. “This is suspected drug poisoning. We received a call with unconscious children in an apartment. When we got there, one of them was dead. We saw this girl barely awake, expressing her pain. BP 70/40, heart rate 30.”
All eyes were at them. Gon clenched his jaw when he saw that the patient was just a little girl.
“Move her here,” Gon instructed as he inched to an unoccupied bed.
They carried the girl and carefully lifted for moving.
“Okay! 1, 2, 3!”
Gon queried with concern, “What happened?”
“When the mother came home from work, she found her children lying on the floor. The apartment door was locked, and they had to destroy it. The mother could not contact his husband and found out that he was in the bathroom unconscious as well.”
All of them gasped, eyes were wondering.
“Isn’t this an attempted group suicide?” Doctor Oliver mused.
“We thought the same thing and we found this.”
Gon reached for the small, white plastic container. He immediately asked Nurse Gwen to examine it.
A paramedic cut in, “His son were too pale, so we did not bring him here and left him to the police. When they searched inside the apartment, they found bottles of medicine under the bed.”
When the paramedics left, Gon looked at the child. She was mumbling and whining and he could strangely feel her suffering.
“Oh my god! My daughter!”
A woman rushing inside the emergency room surprised everyone. She was crying and she kept on saying the name of her daughter.
“Ali, my daughter! Oh my god, please save my daughter! Ali, please don’t leave me...”
Two female nurses approached her and tried to calm her, but she was too devastated to see her child.
“I’m sorry, Ali. I’m sorry,” the mother cried.
“Madam, please. You’re not allowed here. Let us escort you outside.”
Before she turned to exit, her eyes met Gon’s. All he could do was to heave a deep sigh as how the mother could be so frustrated.
Damek tapped Gon’s back, consoling him as he felt his worry over the child.
“You’re upset?”
“I couldn’t help, but to get concerned. She’s just a child,” Gon said. “Thankfully, she’s still alive.”
“Glad to hear that. And how’s the father? Well, if you don’t mind me asking.”
A two-second pause and he said, “He couldn’t make it.” Gon shut his eyes.
- Writer
