Ethan- An Open Heart Story

Chapter 2- Subtle Diagnosis

Naveen was finally doing something real seriously.

The conference room was not brimming with a school of doctors as Diagnostic Team comprised of only five attendings. The whole bunch of internal medicine was of course here because the ratified residents who were interns few days ago were to be given charge of handling the newbies coming two days later. Their faces were overloaded with the highest excitation energy levels as if they were winning lottery tickets together.

Since these residents had successfully survived a year or two here without having killed anyone by mistake or with wrong diagnosis, I was satisfied that the new batch would be in capable hands. There were some of them who were close to goodness...but none near to perfection.

They never bore the perfect scars to know the perfection.

I sat, with my arms crossed in front of my chest and ignored something which Dr. Loyoza was saying. Her cases were always too organic and involved a blink of mind signalling. She was a good doctor, but not the hard core one.

But for some reason, she was in the Edenbrook Board.

"I'll now announce the pairs or trios of you residents and then hand over the names of the interns to your group. If you have any problem with your partner/partners, please inform me and I'll see what we can do." Naveen smiled at us from the podium, holding a long list of names. I frowned in his direction. He shouldn't be extending his liberties like this around these doctors, which will only result in getting their mind loosened up when the situation demanded something serious. I knew Naveen's approach was to keep the nervousness which these residents radiated in the hall at bay, but sometimes those nerves were important. They would set up as a reminder always.

Naveen began calling out the names of the senior residents.

There were a few grumbles of unhappiness which immediately turned down when I directed a glare towards them. They may dance happy go lucky in front of Naveen, but they knew what would happen if the same was repeated in front of me. These very senior residents after all had bore a year under my delicate guidance.

Behind me, Dr. Delorosa let out a happy squeal as it was announced that she would be paired with Dr. Mirani. Take it to Delarosa who would be the only one able to stand the rad Mirani. Maybe he was really a pain to deal with but he always took his job seriously. I would hope both of them will be good orchestration to the new interns.

Edenbrook had its fair share of arrogant doctors who would rather believe in the medical legacy families they were brought up into. For the first months, they would dominate and by the next definitely they will face an identity crisis and would whether misdiagnose a patient or kill them. It was a cycle of occurrence and I knew it would be the same this year too.

The names went on and on until I shut it off completely. It had become a habit of mine to close the interference of Boston. Sometimes, the normality was too much of a plague to my ears which couldn't bear to hear the fake lucidity of the world. Problem was whenever I did, my mind always drifted back to almost the time when I was in high school. From that time, everything had changed in my life and the memories would never leave me, nor would be the person I used to be.

Seeing the faces of these doctors was a sad reminder but with a hint of relief that they were unaware of how close danger lurked near them, not the cases and accidents they dealt daily, but the cases which were always in the shadows. Always watching.

----XXXXXXX----

The announcement went off like flash and I walked back to my private room which I shared with another physician. Edenbrook by all measures was a heaven for doctors like me. That was...the doctor in me. Not the...