CHAPTER 3

Ceres got a message from the hospital about an emergency so he got in his car and drive towards the hospital. While driving she started thinking about the conversation he had with Fred after he dropped Madeline back at her house.

Dr. Ceres said to Fred “I’m sorry to have kept your daughter out so late at night”. Fred replied, “What’re you talking about ? You are Madeline's fiancé don’t worry about it. Why don’t you come inside for a cup of coffee”.

After the coffee, they all started discussing the wedding. Fred asked Ceres “ Have you told your parents in Marssille about the wedding date?”

To which Ceres replied, “ Yes but my père is a doctor at a small practice clinic so I don’t think he would have time to come here”. Fred said, “  isn’t it a good time for him to come and enjoy his son’s wedding, and travel a bit”?

Madeline excitedly replied “ YES! It’d be our pleasure to have him.

Ceres replied, “I’m grateful for everything, for you to guide me.”

Madeline making eye contact with Ceres said “When you came to ravenhood, I thought you were like a teenage boy.” Ceres smiled and gave a laugh to which she added “ Now you are the upcoming top neurosurgeon at Nevermore hospital.” Fred interrupted them by bringing Cere's research on aneural SAH. A spark shone in Cere's eyes he shifted his attention to him and replied “ Yes he is working on a rabbit with it”. Fred said, “ I’m sorry but we’re canceling the research project”. All the spark of his eyes got lost and he asked “why?” to which Fred replied smiling “ I’ll be presenting at the next seminar of the United Society of Medicine and I want you to prepare my draft speech.” Not knowing how to say anything at the moment Ceres hesitated and said he is almost done with his research but before he could complete his sentence Fred interrupted and said he had a tough afternoon today. Madeline asked “ what happened ?” Fred replied “ some people came and started protesting about the surgery for a VIP patient saying we put off the worker’s surgery for him. It’s a total misunderstanding. The worker man’s surgery was performed earlier, nothing is wrong with our procedure.” “Right?” he asked sipping his coffee confused Ceres replied “uh..yes.” “Did they think doctors are volunteers or something? We have to advance as academic scholars before we can save lives. Right?” Fred says. Ceres's hands started shaking but he didn’t say anything. Fred continued “ I’m counting on you for my speech manuscript. I’ve high hopes for you.” Shaking Ceres replied “yes. Thank you.”

Suddenly a loud horn sound brought Ceres back from his thought as he sees a big truck approaching speedily towards him. He applied the brake as fast as possible and when the truck passed him he took long deep breaths and punched the car steering wheel cursing.

CHAPTER 4

Ceres reached the hospital and saw a girl in severe condition. Dr.Barnes was with the patient. Ceres asked him “what are her vitals?”; He replied, “ Blood pressure is 70/49. Pulse rate is 135. The bullet entered from her forehead, show me the x-ray”. To which Dr. Barnes said “right away.” Dr ceres saw a girl standing near the nurse. The nurse reported Ceres about the girl as the twin sister of his patient. Ceres asked the nurse about any serious injury to the girl. The nurse said “ No, but she has suffered severe mental trauma.” The girl was muttering something when Ceres took a close look to hear he heard the word “killer”. Dr. Barnes came with the x-ray and told about it “ The bullet entered deep into the brain from her forehead. It will be difficult to operate her as the bullet grazed her left middle cerebral artery and if we move the bullet even a little bit the artery might burst leading to brain hemorrhage.” Dr. Ceres took his time looking at every detail of the x-ray and came to a conclusion “ we will do a bifrontal craniotomy, clean up her bones and infection. Then we will carefully take the bullet out. Finally, we will repair the artery. It’ll take some time but we will do our best.”

IN OPERATION THEATRE

“Blood pressure is 110/75 and the pulse rate is 92. Anesthesia is applied” said a nurse. Dr. Ceres is getting ready for the operation but then a Doctor comes and informs him to go to OT Room 2 right now”. Ceres gets confused and asked for more information so the doctor replied: “Mayor Connel has collapsed with a stroke. He will be here in a few minutes”. Dr. Ceres replied, “ Please call Dr. Peralta”. The Doctor says “ He might have an arterial blockage, if it happens to be that case you’ll do the surgery then.”

Dr. Ceres counters “ But I’m about to perform the surgery for this girl”. The Doctor put out his phone and pass it to Dr. Ceres when he speaks it is the director of the hospital on the call. Fred the director of the hospital orders him to take care of the mayor but Ceres says before he could cut the call “ But I’m about to start another surgery”. Fred replied “ You can let Dr. Peralta handle that.” Ceres was in dilemma but with enough confidence said “ To be honest with you, my current patient’s left middle cerebral artery is damaged by a bullet. It will be a very complicated surgery but I think I can do it. Dr. Peralta can operate on the mayor. I’ve to be the one to operate this girl.” 

Fred said “Ceres, just do your best and save the mayor. The mayor has promised to pass favor for our hospital during the next medical conference. We can’t let him die yet. I’m counting on you as I’ve high hopes for you.” Shocked Dr. Ceres cut the call. The doctor informed Ceres about the arrival of the mayor but Ceres didn’t move he is in this weird situation and can’t decide what to do. His mind replays the conversation with Fred at his house, everything which was going on, which went, all in a loop.The voice of the lady crying for the life of her dead husband. How he could have saved his life; At that moment of time Dr. Ceres decides that he’ll not repeat the same mistake and will save the life of this girl.

Dr. Ceres said to other members of the operation team that he had another surgery to do and went back.

As he enters the operation theatre he said to the girl “ Don’t worry. Hold on. I’ll save you.”

After many hours the surgery went well and all Dr. Ceres could hope was for his patient to keep fighting. As he went to have some coffee he saw his co-surgery team members is not in a good mood. As soon they saw Dr. Ceres one of them asks about Dr. Ceres' surgery and then informed them about the death of the mayor as they couldn’t save him. Dr. Ceres said, “ Oh. I’m sorry to hear that”. One of the doctors sitting beside him said “ It’s so easy for you to say that; It’s because of you as you backed out from the surgical team. We have to cover for you without permission.” Dr. Ceres tries to explain himself but the chief doesn’t let him speak. He said to him “ You disrupted the teamwork. I told you it was the director’s order but you ignored it. Surgery can only proceed with trust between every member but you were not there. I’ve already reported the matter to the director as the incident has affected the authority of the hospital. The director is very disappointed to be prepared for the consequences”.