Boundless Love (A Limitless Love Series.): (Christian Romance)

CHAPTER 6

Rushing out of the exam room, Ryan made his way to the office through the airy corridor. He acknowledged the now-familiar faces of hospital staff and patients alike, who had become accustomed to his presence in the hospital.

"Sasa mzungu!" shouted a pair of giggling, boisterous children who he recognized from a previous appointment. Their wide grins warmed his heart as he recalled the last time he had seen their sickly selves.

"Poa!" He called back joyfully as Halima had taught him to respond to the Swahili greeting.

The pair took off running in a different direction. He continued with hastened steps to pick his bag and head off to the camp as Joe had asked of him.

"How was the examination?" asked Nurse Halima once he was in their office.

"It was just another skin rash."

"That's the third one this week."

"Yeah, I noticed, I gave him the cream and some tablets, hope that will clear it. I hope it's not an outbreak of some sort." He picked a couple of folders and stashed them in his bag.

"Same here, where are you headed?"

"They need me at the camp. Things are calm around here, please don't hesitate to call if you need me. Use the radio phone. I'd give you my cell number if I had one." He simpered hoping the joke would get her to reveal those breathtaking dimples one more time. It didn't, instead, a pink color crept to her cheeks as she avoided his gaze. He almost apologized for the bad joke. Almost.

He graciously took in the effect he was certain was due to his presence and looked away gently aiding his stiff legs in the direction of the door.

****

There had been a pretend sword fight. An attempted karate move gone wrong, sent a flimsy rock wall tumbling down taking the seven-year-old karate wizard with them, onto even younger unsuspecting onlookers. Screaming children and broken limbs sent the MSF hospital in the camp into sheer chaos. A five-year-old girl had been at the bottom of the rock pile. Her bloody limp body now lay on a table in the emergency room.

To the untrained eye, the frantic activity in the small room would be baffling to witness. Ryan, knee deep in his domain, was calling out orders to the other two doctors and nurses in the room, in the scramble of time to save the young girls fading life.

The opening door went unnoticed as the frantic orders raged on. Gwen stood back watching Dr. Ryan Mitchell in all his glory, trying to save the young girl from the grip of death. When all else failed and the heart monitor went flat, Ryan took over resuscitation measures. With two hands clasped over the girl's chest he gently pressed over and over, momentarily stopping to breathe into her lungs, hoping for a heartbeat.

Twenty minutes later, the room had gone quiet except for the continuous rugged breath of an exhausted Dr. Mitchell who refused to give up.

"Dr. Mitchell!" Said a Nurse's voice again "She's gone!" Her words fell on deaf ears as he continued.

"Ryan, stop!" Joe's voice said from the background. That too was ineffective as he continued with his rigorous motion.

A strong pair of hands grabbed the tranced doctor and gently pulled him from the lifeless body. Someone called time of death making it final. He was directed out of the room and outside the camp, where he could compose himself away from sympathetic eyes. It was his first loss at the camp.

"Ryan," Joe's voice was filled with empathy.

"I'm fine!" He said, raising his hand.

"I am sorry." Continued his concerned friend not knowing what else to say.

"Why are you sorry, for a patient we all lost?" He placed his hands on his knees and exhaled in exhaustion.

"Yeah, but you clearly took it the hardest, understandably so, this is your first assignment after all."

"Look, I said I'm fine can we drop it?" Ryan growled looking away.

"Yeah sure. I will be in the hospital if you need me." Joe turned around almost bumping into Gwen who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Ryan, that nurse from the hospital just called. She needs you for a consultation." Gwen said gently waving the radio phone she held in her hands.

"Couldn't you take it? He needs a minute," asked Joe.

"I did offer to go but she insisted on having Ryan instead, she said it's one of his patients."

"It's alright I'll go..." He stood hands akimbo.

"Are you sure?" Joe corked a brow at his obviously burnt out colleague.

"Drop it, Joe!" He scowled.

"Alright fine, I'm just looking out for you."

"I'll just get my bag, see you later." He pushed past them and disappeared into the camp.

*****

Halima met the car at the gate of the hospital. Ryan scrambled out of the vehicle and met the anxious nurse.

"Dr. Mitchell! Thank God you made it so fast."

"What's the problem," he fell into step beside her as she hurried back into the building.

"It's Salim Omar doc, the first patient who presented with the mysterious rash..."

"Yes...?"

"Well he's back and it doesn't look good at all."

"What do you mean?"

"I think you had better see it for yourself."

She led him to the children's ward wing and to a partitioned section. She pulled the curtains to reveal a boy lying in bed, covered in the same rash only this time, most pimples were now oozing. A woman whom he recognized as the boy's mother sat beside the bed looking timorous.