Stories of the Dark: Compilation

Two: Operating Room

I was the kind of girl who would take any job as long as it paid me well. And work at a hospital presented itself to me. Don't get me wrong. I am not a nurse or doctor. I was hired as an Information Clerk.

My job was mixed with some tasks from the Admitting office since we're under the same department. And the mix includes going for rounds at the hospital before midnight to check if all the patients in our system are still there. Definitely someone else's job, but our supervisor insists. I have no choice but to do it when I am on a graveyard shift.

Our uniform, being extra fit, does not make it any easier.

Our office has to file a report of the total number of admissions and discharges for the day. We need to have the exact numbers with the nurse station's record for new admissions and discharges per floor. We could have done this easily via phone call, but again, our supervisor insisted on making the rounds and seeing the patients firsthand.

For the record, taking this job was the biggest mistake of my life.

One night, while going around the hospital, I saw the hallway going to the Operating Room. There are no rooms near it, and it's the only door in that hall. I stared at it as I felt something luring me into that room.

A little bit later, while I was slowly walking towards the door, it opened as an orderly, and a nurse brought out a covered body in a blanket.

"Expired?" I asked.

"Yup, do you have a paper? Let me give you the details," said the male nurse.

I gave him a pen and paper so I could look for the information and update our system. But when he gave the paper back to me, I saw a mobile number instead of the patient's details.

"Come back here later. I will give you what you need." He winked at me and then left. They walked away giggling.

I felt disgusted. I have no reason to go back there, so why would I?

As I watched them walk away, I thought I saw the patient flinch. I gasped. They stopped walking and looked at me.

"Relax. That's normal; they even fart sometimes." The nurse laughed and smacked the chest of the deceased patient multiple times. He even removed the cover of the patient's face for me to see.

I felt bad for the patient. After a few minutes, the doctors came out of the OR. I heard them talking about the patient. A male doctor said that the patient had gone under the knife earlier and had emergency surgery tonight. Everything was fine after the bypass, according to him. The doctor also said that he noticed an external wound that looked like someone had stabbed the patient.

The doctor looked my way. Probably thinking about why I was there. "Can I ask a question?" I hesitantly inquired.

"Sure, what is it?" The doctor responded.

"May I ask the name of the expired patient so I can update my report?"

He looked for my ID. And when he confirmed that I was an employee, he gave me the name. He also said to keep the information private because there would be an investigation. I didn't want to bother him so much since he looked tired, so I did not ask for anything else and walked away after thanking him.

"Rafael Mila, he's a VIP," I said to myself.

I went to the ground floor, where our department was located, and headed to my table. I looked for the patient's information and saw that he was a 67-year-old man who had undergone bypass surgery this morning.

I wondered what went wrong but then proceeded to mark him as deceased and wrote the info on our logbook for the next shift.

The night passed, and the emergency room just beside our office was particularly quiet. I went to the water dispenser beside the office window to get hot water for my coffee. And while I was getting water, I saw the nurse who gave his number pass by our office. Behind him was another guy, probably a patient.