Clash Of Cultures

25. John Doe

Noor

As word spread about me agreeing to marry Omar, my phone had been ringing off the hook over the last 24 hrs. My parents had called, then Omar's parents, and then Omar himself.

"Noor...my mom just called! Are you sure about this?", I could hear the excitement in his voice.

"Of course I am Omar", I had replied, knowing that my mind agreed with that statement one hundred percent, even as my heart held back.

He had said that he was the happiest man alive, and I was glad I could do that for him. He deserved all the joy in the world.

Soon after aunts, uncles and cousins were calling, each asking the same questions: what does Omar do, when is the wedding and, was I happy. My standard reply was: he is doing a PhD- wants to be a surgeon, parents and in-laws are working on the wedding date, and yes I was happy to have met such a great guy.

Walking in to work today almost felt like a blessing. I had been rotating through the Peds ICU when we had gone to the fair a couple of days ago. And I was looking forward to a busy day so that I could keep my mind off everything else that was happening in my life. One of the patients assigned to me was a John Doe, a name given to a person whose real name was not known. However, when I heard about the patient's illness I immediately knew it was the 14 year old because of whom Sal was abducted.

He had been in surgery for almost 6 hours on the day he was bought to the hospital. The surgeons had painstakingly removed the infected, ruptured appendix and then cleaned his abdomen of pus that had spread everywhere. Because he was in septic shock, his blood pressure had become dangerously low several times requiring the surgeons to stop and make sure that he was stable enough before continuing. Over the last 36 hours his condition had remained tenuous, with his blood pressure and heart rate abruptly changing at times. He was still not breathing on his own so the team had kept him on the ventilator.

On rounds, while I was presenting John Doe's case, our attending suddenly realized that I had been there during Sal's abduction.

He immediately paused rounds and asked me, "Noor are you ok taking care of this patient? Someone else can take over if his case brings up too many terrifying memories"

Honestly, the only memory John Doe bought up was Sal telling me that he he was done with me and that he will never need me. I had to start ignoring any memories of him, so I insisted that I would be fine and carried on with the presentation as if nothing had happened at all.

The patient was on all the right medications including antibiotics. But was still requiring significant support from the ventilator to help him breathe and epinephrine to support his heart function. But there wasn't anything more to do at the moment except watching him very carefully. And potentially taking him back to the OR at the first sigh of worsening infection.

Later in the afternoon I went to the resident teaching session but asked the nurse to page me if anything worsened for John Doe. I should have left my phone in the resident room though, because it buzzed through out the session. It seemed like the news of Omar and I being together had spread to our college friends. He was a popular guy in medical school and his friends must have known about his crush on me because most messages started with 'Finally!'. If nothing else, this was further validation that we should be together.

And my heart will accept that fact too, even if it takes time.

As I walked out of the room at the end of the session, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Could I talk to you for a second?", someone said in a deep, voice.

I knew exactly who that was, and debated just ignoring him. But I needed closure and perhaps the best way for that was to tell him that I was getting married and let that be the end of it.