Mending Broken Hearts

7. Focus on Her

September 2019

Omar

8:00 AM

"Where the hell is her husband?", I could feel the anger building inside me as Madi related what she knew so far about Noor's condition. 

I was being irrational and childish. I had no right to judge her husband and their relationship. I was supposedly over her, accepted the fact that she chose him and not me. I lost, he won. 

I knew of all of that. 

Yet, this was Noor. 

The girl who would cheer me on from the sidelines when I played cricket in school. The friend who was the first person I ran to when I got accepted to my dream medical college. The woman I used to follow around when she got accepted to the same college, to keep her safe - to keep her mine. 

She left me, heartbroken and spirit shattered. What she could never do though, was erase my memories of her and the bond we once shared. That bond was a means to an end for me, it was just part of a journey for her. I understood that. At some point in the last couple of months, I even convinced myself that I didn't love her anymore. Our destinies were always meant to be parallel, never cross. 

But I could never not care for her. 

And right now, she was in the ICU room in front of me. Pregnant, unconscious and alone. With the man who was supposed to keep her safe was no where to be found. So, I saw no reason to mince my words. 

"How could that idiot leave his pregnant and sick wife alone at home and just disappear?"

"I don't know Omar. I've seen these two together. I can't imagine him ever leaving her alone if he knew just how sick she was", Madi tried to placate me outside Noor's room.

"But...", she put a firm hand on my shoulder. Her unflinching gaze anchored mine. Her soft but determined voice enveloped my anxiety in a warm tight embrace. 

"We need to focus on her right now. It doesn't matter where Salman is. She is here and we have to do everything we can to keep her and her baby safe. So I am going to ask you again. Can you be her physician and keep your emotions in check? Or do I need to send you home?", she asked slowly, like she was studying me, trying to discern the truth even if I lied. 

I swallowed, took a breath, and made a resolution not to let down Noor or Madi. 

"I can be her physician", I told my senior resident, with certainty this time. 

"Good", she nodded, "Lets look over her chart again and pull up the labs she has gotten so far"

Soon after that we were joined by the rest of our team.

"Given the terrible flu season, her cold symptoms were likely early flu", Madi told the attending, Dr Muller and the fellow, "Her records say she had just gotten vaccinated two days ago"

"That's not enough time to mount an adequate immune response", I noted.

"Yes. But how did she get so sick so quickly? Was it just because she is pregnant?", the fellow asked what was on all our minds.

I remembered a research paper that I had read for my PhD thesis, "What if she has a secondary bacterial process, on top of the flu? The chest x-ray certainly looks bad enough for this not to be a viral process alone"

"That's a great idea Omar. We should broaden her antibiotic coverage", Dr Muller said and Madi immediately ordered the new broader spectrum antibiotics, to add to the anti-Flu medication she was already on.