Saajnaa - A FarMeed Fic

Part 20

"Can you tell me if Mr. Khan has any co-morbids, since you are his sister?"

The doctor asked Mimi, who was sitting across him with Umeed beside her. After breaking down in each others' arms, with Umeed telling her best friend everything in broken syllables while Mimi could only hold her and let her cry, supressing her own emotions at that crucial point.

"He hasn't had any since the last year" She replied, "Actually, last year he had a severe allergy after which our family doctor had advised him to take a few bronchodilators, as he became much prone to developing asthma. Our father was asthmatic and the doctor said that Bhai's allergy has just accentuated the fact that he might get that in the near future...."

Mimi finished explaining and the frown lines on the doctor's face started to ease, as if the missing piece in this history was found.

"It's definitely possible. Asthma is a  genetic disease" He agreed.

"So he was aware of the fact that entering a burning building full of hazardous smoke could damage his lungs?"

The question asked with a raised eyebrow was left hanging in the atmosphere as Mimi glanced sideways, hesitating before shrugging softly. She could feel Umeed go completely still at her admission and she squeezed her hand, trying her best to convey some sense of comfort to her best friend.

"Did he take the bronchodilators regularly?"

"No, he was pretty non-compliant. We used to force him to have his medications but he wasn't careful about them on his own"

The poor doctor now rubbed his head, feeling a headache coming. His patient has a previously undiagnosed co-morbid, who was non compliant to his medications and his current condition wasn't improving.

"That makes a lot of sense now, thank you. We'll modify the treatment and send some more tests to monitor his blood saturation" He explained, his own mind working in overdrive.

"Doctor, is he going to be okay?" Mimi asked, worried.

"I won't lie to you. His sats are still the same and inhaling that smoke for so long has damaged the mucosal lining of his lungs to some extent, causing fluid to accumulate inside. But now that we know the past history, we'll be able to navigate more efficiently"

"Although he should've been cautious about himself, specially when he knew he could seriously harm himself..."

Unable to listen anymore, Umeed got up hurriedly, pulling her hand from Mimi's grip and ran outside.

She could feel her world spinning and the walls closing on her as Mimi's calls behind her faded while she stumbled out of the cabin, rushing and bumping into people on the way, not knowing where to go. The swarm of people around her was suffocating as she rushed to find an open space. Some place where she could breath.

"Mam, are you okay?" A nurse who bumped into her, asked out of kindness, seeing her haggard state. But Umeed didn't even listen to her and dashed out of there.

Running outside, she didn't realize how she reached here. Her disoriented mind could not fathom anything besides the fact that the person lying inside could've died because of her.

The person who meant everything to her.

Na mujhe aap ke aane se farq pada, na jaane se parega

Behtar hai ke aap chale jayein, aur kabhi wapas na ayein

Lies. Sheer lies.

Ofcourse she didn't want him to leave. Ofcourse, she wanted him to stay and never leave her.