Spark of love ...It lasts forever (available on AMAZON KINDLE -on Sale)

Chapter 5

Next morning

Ritika and Tanusha reached The Emergency Room (ER) at 7:58 in the morning .The morning shift would usually  start at 8:00 am and they didn't want to invite the wrath of Dr.Shareef for being late.Dr .Shareef was the Head Of Emergency Medicine Department ,and was well known for his short temper. Nevertheless, he was the pillar of the Department and an expert in trauma care.

Ritika looked around for Abhiram. He must  be  on his way to the hospital from the hostel,she thought. Both Tanusha and herself wanted to check the duty roster for their shifts. Just then , Tanusha felt a tap on her head. She turned around and saw Tarak Varma. 

"How annoying are you? Why did you come so early by the way?" Tanusha  asked him.

"So that I can see you ". Tarak beamed. 
 

"Stop it! Someone might listen".Tanusha went stiff and looked around.

Ritika was struggling to contain her laughter.

"I'm always stuck with you in all my postings Tarak. God save me. I hope we both are posted in different shifts".Tanusha told Tarak, faking annoyance. 

Tarak was grinning at her . Tarak would always openly flirt with her and deep within she actually liked it when he did that.

"Bad luck dear! As far as i know, we three are going to be together for the next two weeks.Here's the roster." Tarak scrolled down his whatsapp images and showed the duty roster image to Ritika and Tanusha. 

Ritika,Tanusha and Tarak in the morning shift  along with Dr Abhiram. Sidharth ,Rahul in the night shift with Dr Harsha who was the other Emergency Medicine post graduate.

Ritika was happy.She remembered what Abhiram had told her a couple of days ago - that he would post three of them in the same shift. Ritika was clearly happy because Tanusha was a fun person to be with and Tarak was an extremely helpful boy. 

At that point, Abhiram walked in and gave them a huge smile. He was shortly followed by Dr Shareef who instantly walked towards the  interns.

 "What have you come here for people? To attend a marriage party? You are standing here in front of sick patients and chatting?Only three of you are here?." He fired questions at them one after the other. 

"We were waiting for you to come sir.We didn't know what to do here". Tarak answered.

"Yeah Yeah. Get to work now.Abhiram will brief you about your duty but relieve the night duty interns first." Dr Shareef ordered them.

All three of them heaved a sigh of relief and ran towards Abhiram.

"Ram, tell us what we are supposed to do". Ritika spoke first.

"Each of you can go through the case sheets of the patients. The night duty interns will tell you the details of each case. You people have to find out from them what has been done for the patients and what else needs to be done.And if the patient is stable we can shift him/her to the respective wards.Now each of you can divide the cases among yourselves". Abhiram briefed them and then carried on with his routine.

At around 9:30 am , a middle aged man was brought to the ER in s stretcher. He seemed to be sweating profusely and was in pain. 

"Hey ! Three of you come here! Check his vitals. Sister please follow the  protocol. Connect him to the monitor fast and put him on oxygen." Abhiram was quick with his instructions. 

Tarak volunteered to check the patient's vitals.

"Sir, his pulse is feeble ,irregular.  He has cold ,clammy extremities, increased rate of respiration .BP is 80/60" Tarak informed Abhiram about their findings.

"And his ECG shows ST Segment elevation. So he has a Myocardial infarction (heart attack)." Abhiram had already given the patient  life saving drugs by then and informed the details to his boss,Dr Shareef who was now leaning against the nursing station.

"Have you sent his blood for cardiac enzymes Abhiram?". Dr shareef enquired and Abhiram replied in positive.

"OK now we can wait for the reports and then thrombolyse the patient. And want you three to keep a close watch on his vital signs." He told the interns and walked to his chamber.

"So this is the first life you saved in the ER, happy? Abhiram asked the three of them. 

Ritika looked at him in awe. 

"You do this everyday Ram .You must be feeling so happy and proud of taking up  this branch ?"

"It feels great no doubt but it sometimes can get really overwhelming . It's fine if you are in control of everything but not when things get out of hand.Makes us we feel paralysed ".He scratched his neck and  raised his eyebrows . He looked so cute that Ritika had to look away.

                                                 

One week passed and they saw new cases each day,learnt new things. Tarak kept pulling Tanusha's leg all the time. Ritika was really inspired by Abhiram . She even contemplated taking up Emergency medicine as her speciality. Ritika voiced her opinion to Abhiram but he was skeptical about the idea. 

"You may call me a male chauvinist Ritu, but I don't think girls can handle Emergency medicine. It is physically very demanding. And once you get married you may not be able to devote time for your family".He then shifted in his chair while studying Ritika's face.She didn't look very happy.

Ritika's eyes narrowed. 

 "So you mean to say that  only girls are supposed to take care of the family while boys are entitled to have all the fun? You are such a typical Indian male Ram".

"You have completely misunderstood me  Ritu. I honestly don't mind cooking or doing the week's  laundry .It's just that Emergency medicine demands extremely long working hours, you have to be on call most of the time and family life would not be easy. And I didn't know in all these years that you could get angry ".  Abhiram exclaimed looking at her reddened face and flaring nostrils. She looked cute when angry ,he thought.

"Sir, poor Rupa mam!".  Tanusha said looking at Abhiram. "She s not going to get any help from you in her house hold chores I'm sure."

"Tanusha ,you too !". He remarked incredulously.

 "Ritu, Tanusha ,now both of you please don't start ragging me. Tarak,be careful with these girls!"

 He then offered them Cadbury Dairy milk which he had bought  for them from the nearby shop.

Their friendly banter continued  for some more time .

They all got along so well that the long duty hours didn't seem to bother them. 

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hey friends! how is today's chapter? Hope u all had fun reading it. Had a few medical details in today's chapter coz i wanted to show you how things happen in the casualty or emergency Room.

pls dont forget to let me know ur views and suggestions.and pls dont forget to vote if you have liked reading it!!

happy reading