Life of a Medical Intern

Chapter 9

My alarm woke me up 15 minutes earlier. As soon as I realized where I was I hopped from the bed quietly making sure I won't wake the others and exited the room. I refreshed myself in the adjoined bathroom and ran down the stairs taking 2 steps at a time not wanting to be late so Tamara could get some sleep as well.

When I found Tamara sleeping on the front desk, I felt a pang of guilt creeping inside. I approached her and shook her slightly to wake her up. When she realized it was me she smiled. "Oh! You're here." She said while stretching her arm. "How was your nap?" I sat down across from her. "I'm so sorry, I never should have left. Was it that bad? You could've called ..."

"Woah!" She interrupted. "Relax! Nothing happened. It was all under control and there was no need to call you." "Oh..." was all I could say. She stood up and turned. I followed her to the rooms inside. "There are only two women tonight who came at the same time but more might appear." She continued. "Both of them and their babies are in good condition and if they continued like this they might deliver near dawn. Sorry!" She gave me an apologetic face. "It's OK!" I replied quickly. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. You just go and get some sleep" I smiled.

"OK. I guess I'll be heading upstairs." She started walking but then stopped in her tracks and faced me. "Oh! I forgot to tell you." She exclaimed. "There is a 10 years old girl who came here with her mother right after you went upstairs." She got near and sat beside me behind the desk. "What's wrong with her?" I asked surprised. Why would a little girl come to our department at night? My eyes widened when I came to a certain thought. "Was she raped?" I whispered. I had heard from the midwives that some rape victims came to the department at night. Unfortunately most of them were children. My heart ached for the little girl. What if she was one of those victims?

"NO!" she shook her head vigorously. "Although I don't know if it's worse or better than being raped" she thought aloud. "Hey! Focus with me!" I snapped my fingers at her. "What happened to the girl?"

"I don't know how to put it." She paused a moment which felt hours to me. "She was bleeding heavily and her mother said she fell down. She refused to give us any details on she fell. The girl was crying and in pain and her dress was soaked with blood. It was suspicious." Okay... I stared at her waiting for her to continue. When I didn't respond she carried on. "She was bleeding from...uhmm... her privates."

I frowned and looked at blankly. "I don't follow..." She rolled her eyes. "Dr. Saleem thinks her genitals were mutilated. In other words she has been circumcised!" my eyes widened with surprise. "Do people still do that?!" I thought this culture was extinct. Almost! Tamara just shrugged and looked away. I know some tribes still thinks it's a good idea to rob the childhood and innocence from little girls, but I didn't think it was practiced anymore. It was banned in hospitals and other health institutes. I've never heard of such things except in the stories my grandmother used to tell me, about how female circumcision was an obligation to every girl was born, and how very young women died while giving birth as an outcome to this mutilation. But everything changed since then and most mothers were aware of the consequences and refused to mutilate their daughters opposing their own mothers and grandmothers who believed it was a tradition that must be carried on through generations.

Then suddenly my eyes almost got out from their sockets with terror as something else downed on me. "When you said Dr. Saleem thinks that she was mutilated, did you mean that he was... here?" I slowly asked Tamara with a shaking voice. She nodded "Yeah. He came to check how things were going. He comes almost every Monday. Didn't you know that? That's his on call day."

I didn't quite understand any word after she nodded. My head was spinning and I almost fainted. Can you believe my luck? I was supposed to impress Dr. Saleem and show him that I am a dedicated doctor. Instead he came here and didn't find me working at all. I glanced at her. I was frightened to ask but I had to. "Did he ask about me?" She shook her head meaning no. I sighed with relief. "He didn't actually ask about anything except for this girl." She replied. "He did a quick round in the labour room and examined the girl and after that gave us his instructions and took off."

Phew! That was close. I sighed of relief.

"Well, I gotta go. Please don't hesitate to call me if anything happened." I assured her that I would and went back to the patients in hand.

True to their word, police doctors were assigned to fill in for the residents. Ours for the night was a female doctor that reminded me very much of Miss. Trenchball from the movie Matilda. I haven't seen her before my break but I guess she arrived right after I went. She was wearing a police uniform and that what made her scary beyond all reason. She kept assigning me to chores every 5 minutes, but I had to obey so I won't be on her bad side. I think she enjoyed seeing me miserable. Nevertheless, the night went smoothly, thanks to the help of midwives, and of course – Miss Trenchball.

When the clock hit 8 am, I gathered my things quickly and scurried to the meeting room, not caring about handing over the "torch" to the next shift. All the events of yesterday were recorded anyway and will be discussed over the morning meeting. I started to call Tamara on the way to see if she has woken up so she won't miss the meeting, only to find her already sitting and chatting with other interns. Odd! But I haven't given it much thought and went to find a seat.

Usually, a resident and an intern sit in the front with the attendings and the resident would go through last night's events and answer all questions. Since no residents were available, a poor intern of their choosing would present in the meeting and face their entire wrath.

The poor intern who was chosen today was me

A/N

Hey guys. Happy new year to all of my lovely readers. I hope this year will be full of love and joy and also lots of successes and achievements <3

This chapter is dedicated to  @AvalonRoyce.

She has the most delicate historical fiction which I really adore "Daughters of the Desert". You have to check it out :D