"Prince Luan, Thank you so much for giving us some time to visit St. Benilde's hospital. We are truly pleased about your visit." said by the man in a grateful voice.
I looked where the voice is coming from and figured out that it is from the same doctor that I met yesterday morning. Aside from him, there are also other three doctors and six females who I assume are the nurses that assist the doctors here.
Yesterday My father, King Rupert allowed me to do my investigation for this new ailment which made me happy since I wanted to see the hospital in this world.
Once the king made his decision. Different reactions can be heard from the other visitor during that time. I can also feel the heavy gazed of the king to me. I know he has many questions for me, suspicious of my knowledge when it comes to medicine yet I keep my lips tight, not allowing myself to say anything to him. For my safety, I have to hide my real identity from them and as much as possible I do not want to involve myself with them.
Since Doctor Neil is the one who answered my questions. I decided that it will be best to go to Saint Benilds's hospital. The way he looked at that time is still vivid in my mind, it's a look of something like he discovered a new thing, excited, and thrilled for the new experience.
Although I originally planned to go alone to check the hospital Aster and my Imperial father opposed it and add a condition that Butler Del will go with me. Left without a choice I just agreed to what they asked me to do.
"Doctor Neil, If I am not mistaken?
" Yes, you are right your highness."
I nodded and looked behind his back, what I see is a plain two-white-story building, it is surrounded by trees and chrysanthemum flowers that are starting to bloom, the wind blows gently to us, its soft breeze lingered to my face for a while as if it's greeting me and happy that it sees me again visiting a hospital, my eyes flickered with that thought in mind, conflicting emotions covered my heart
As I continuously observed, I noticed that the outward appearance of Saint Benilde's hospital looked peaceful in contrast to what the doctors claimed was a troubling situation.
I can't help but remember again my past life. The outward appearance of the hospital is just too far from what I knew in my past life, I can tell since the hospital is like a second home to me. There is no emergency room, which is known as the busiest department of the hospital, there is no ambulance car that went in and out of the hospital, and so on.
Although the thought brought me bittersweet memories, I had to accept that I already died in that lifetime and this is where I belong now.
I looked back to Dr. Neil and in a stern voice I said " Let's get this done."
"Yes, your highness!" he cheerfully replied and failed to notice the emotions in my face. He leads the way towards the hospital, we walked along the pathway and saw the two knights that are on duty, guarding the gate of the hospital. We continued to walk until Doctor Neil open the white front door of the building, as he opened the door, a sudden realization hit me, that although it looks peaceful outside and different from what I used to know before, inside, St. Benilde's hospital is still no different to what I used to know. Desperate plea of the patients and their loved ones are still present inside. Different expressions and emotions such as anxiousness, frustrations, guilt, fear, and insistence can be felt around this place.
There are overall fifty rooms in Saint Benilde's hospital but since there are a lot of patients, the hospital can no longer accommodate them, resulting in others sitting on the bench along the hallway, waiting to be treated.
The group continued to walk but before I proceed with them I halt in my steps and I wear first the clothed face mask that I asked my servant to create.
Once I am done wearing it, I saw that others are stealing some glances at me, I stared back and Ignored them, not minding what will others think about me, and then I walked towards one of the patients that are sitting on the bench.
The man has an uncomfortable expression and I can see that it is not just because of his sickness but also because of his position, he is covered by a blanket, a sign that he is suffering from a fever. I asked for the thermometer from doctor Neil and he immediately gives it to me.
One of the good things about the kingdoms of Ophir is that it all is helping each other to pursue medical knowledge that leads them to create basic medical equipment.
" Is he a new patient?" I asked doctor Neil while still walking towards the man.
" ...Lenny is our receptionist she can tell you, Prince Luan. I am sorry I...I-"
"It's fine. I know that you are already busy doing some preparations for my visit plus you still need to check your patients here."
"Thank you for understanding," Neil said and give a head bow with a small smile in face. 'He is still the understanding prince we knew.'
he thought and quickly introduced Lenny to him.
"Yes, he is."Replied by her
"What did you do so far?"
"Your highness ... I usually do the same thing. I gathered all their complaints so that later on I can give them to doctor Neil."
"Did you assign someone to assist him?"
"N-Not yet... All of the doctors are is assisting more patients than they are originally required and everyone is so busy for your visit today. And due to the sudden increase in patients numbers, although we add some nurses working here, ... it is still not enough. I plan to ask Doctor Neil about it." Lenny said softly.
"That's None sense!" I exclaimed and stop. I looked back at them and can see that all of them can have feared me.
'I retract what I told to him earlier. He is not understanding at all' Doctor Neil thought.
" Don't reason out my visit or that there are too many patients.m. May I remind you all that you are working in a hospital, so you have to always expect at all times the sudden pouring of patients that need help!" I said and looked at them directly in their eyes.
"Besides, you can always do multi-tasking to assist them while you attend to others. You can also ask for help from their companion it is fine, as long as you will teach them what they need to do. After all, family education is important to achieve the optimum health of the patient."
The nurse and even the doctors are stunned by these, a moment of silence can be observed and thought that the prince has point.
On the other hand Doctor, Neil's eyes glint in excitement afterward.
"Takedown notes of what I will say and remember what I will do."
"Yes!"They answered in chorus.
I turned my head back to the sick patient and his teenage son. Their brows are knitted for several seconds and their eyes turned big when they saw me coming. They look like they have questions for me but they decided to wait for the right time to do it for their reason.
" May I ask for your name?"I asked when I am in front of the sick man.
" Gab."
"How about you?" referring to his son.
"I am Gabriel...Are you... a doctor sir?" replied by the boy, his eyes are full of hope. So sincere that it made me silent. His question also startled me for a minute. Wondering how I will answer it. ' Should I say Yes or Should I say No'
I blinked my eyes and decided to ask him a question. "Gabriel, I will need your help to get your father better, are you willing?
"Yes! Yes! please I want him to be healed.
"You are a good son Gabrielle" I said and patted his right shoulder. "Look carefully to what I will do okay?"
"Yes Sir!"
I looked again to his father. "Gab can you please put this thermometer under your armpit."
"yes sir" replied the sick man and once he is done
"Gabriel, you have to do this from time to time. You need to hold his right hand, specifically to his wrist, you have to place your second and third fingers near the base of the thumb finger, this is the radial artery, can you feel it? ".
" Yes sir! .. .I-I can feel it. its pulsating sir!".
"Good!.. now you have to count for 60 seconds and while you do that you also need to observe the number of times that his chest rises. You got that?"
The boy nodded and earnestly do his job. While the men and women that surround them looked Luan in awe.
Since there is a fever, it's most likely to expect to have raise in pulse rate and respiratory rate. He also used the sphygmometer and the stethoscope for blood pressure. After I am done doing it. I told Gabrielle to take a record of everything and that he needs to give it to a nurse for them to record and for comparison.
After that I begin to ask Gab some questions, he then told me that like others he also had the symptoms but.
" Sir, I must say to you that although I am already sick for five days, I am not feeling good. My fever is not getting any better...I felt like I am burning. I also felt body aches, my cough is still here and I felt tired, more tired right now unlike before"
"Did you feel like your body is heavy?"
"Yes. If you noticed, my voice, it's kinda hoarse."
"Is your throat painful?"
" Yes" my brows knitted and my forehead frown at his response. "and you are sick for five days now?"
"Yes"
"Did those symptoms that you mentioned to me did that happened suddenly or slowly?"
"
"It developed suddenly."
With his answer, I can now be sure of what it is. His symptoms are more systemic and abrupt.
"Doctor Neil, those who can recover, did every one of them had a fever?"
"No... Not all of them. Their temperature is much lower compared to what you get to Mr. Gab earlier, and they can fully recover within a week without having any of the symptoms said by Mr. Gab."
My eyes went big from what he said, 'It can't be! This is not a common cold. This is .... Influenza!'
"Sir, is there a problem?"
"....."
"Doctor, you can heal my father right?!!"
'If we are in my lifetime yes, but now?'