Not long after she left the room, a beeping sound was heard from the boy's room. The heart monitor was beeping, and the boy's heart rate seemed to be dropping gradually.
Nurses ran into the little boy's room, trying to revive him. A nurse ran to Matthew's office to inform him of what was going on since he was in charge of the boy's case.
"Doctor Matthew?" the nurse called.
"Yes, nurse," he replied, pushing his glasses to the bridge of his nose and looking up from the document he was reviewing.
He was reading the little boy's file. He had requested it immediately after he left the boy's room earlier. We have a situation. The heart monitor of the little boy whose operation is in about an hour just went off, the nurse replied.
Matthew's eyes widened, and he got up from his seat, grabbed his stethoscope, and ran out of his office, the nurse running behind him.
He ran in the direction of the little boy's room. He asked the other nurses to leave. He remained in the room with only the nurses assigned to join him in operation.
"Get the defibrillator," he said with a deep voice, trying hard not to shout at the nurse.
He was praying in his heart not to lose the kid. He didn't want to break his promise to the little boy's mother.
When the defibrillator was handed to him, he rubbed the defibrillators together.
"Clear"
He placed the defibrillators on the boy's chest. The boy jerked, but there was still no sign of him coming back.
Matthew asked the nurse to increase the volume of the defibrillators. When she did, he repeated the same process, but it was still the same. He continued until the heart monitor dropped and made a long beep.
Matthew was shocked. He was heartbroken. He had never lost a patient before, but he just did. He now felt what other doctors felt when they lost a patient. He asked the nurses to cover up the little boy's lifeless boy. One of the nurses approached him and said.
"Whose going to tell his mother?" she asked.
"I will give her the news myself, but in the meantime, collect a sample of the kid's blood and find out what caused his sudden death. I don't believe he died from kidney failure. His operation wasn't due till later. We had injected him with medications to keep him till then. Find out what went wrong and let your investigation be between you and me. Do you understand?" he inquired of the nurse.
"Yes, sir," she replied.
When he walked out of the boy's room, he met a crowd of nurses waiting outside the door.
They probably wanted to find out if he could save the boy's life.
"Everyone, please get back to your duty post," he said.
With that, everyone dispersed. He turned to his left and saw the little boy's mother coming back with a cup of coffee. She saw the crowd dispersing and increased her pace.
"I hope there was no problem, doc. Why did all those nurses leave my son's room? Is it time for the operation yet?" she asked all at once.
"Ma'am, please, catch your breath and take a seat. I have something to tell you," Matthew said.
The boy's mother looked at him with fear in her eyes. Still, she did what the surgeon told her. Matthew shifted his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. He was scared and didn't know how to break the news to her.
"Your son was fine up until now. He was supposed to have his operation in about a few minutes from now. I don't know what went wrong, but I'm sorry to say, ma'am, we lost your son," he said.
The woman let out a little laugh.
"You must be kidding me, right, doctor. You promised me that you would save my son, and you couldn't just do your fucking job. Please tell me you are joking, and my son is still in there sleeping peacefully," she said.
Tears had gathered in her eyes, and she stood up. She walked into her son's room and saw the nurses cleaning up his body so he would be moved to the morgue. She removed the cover from his face and touched his cheeks with her palm. His cheeks felt old in her hands.
"My baby," she cried.
She pulled her son to her chest and wailed. The nurse tried to pull her off her son, but she wouldn't let go of her dead child. Matthew intervened, and they could pull her off the dead child.
Matthew took her out of the room while she made a tantrum. She wailed, almost drawing the attention of the whole hospital.
Ten minutes later, she was calm. She sat on the bench outside her son's room and stared at the door of the room her son was occupying earlier. Tears kept falling from her eyes.
Not long, Clark walks in and hugs her. She breaks down once again, crying as she leans into Clark's embrace.
"Georgie is gone, Clark. I am never going to see him again," she cried
"It is okay, Daphne," Clark replied.
"Wait for me, and I will be right back," he said.
He walks away in search of Mitchell. He found her in her office. Mitchell was surprised but happy to see him, but Clark wasn't here for all that. He pulled her by her wrist and dragged her to a corner where no one would see them.
"Do you know anything about the death of the kid, whose mother is wailing in the hall?" Clark asked.
"Maybe, maybe not," she replied, smiling.
"What did you do?" he asked, his voice getting harsher.
"I just gave him a shot of some toxic fluid. I did it for us. I wanted to ruin Matthew's reputation so that we would have a shot ahead of him," Mitchell said.
"And because of your wicked act, he is dead. That boy you killed was my nephew!"
Mitchell's face became white upon hearing that. Her mouth flew wide open, and shock was visibly written on her face.
"I am sorry, Clark. I didn't know he was your nephew," she replied.
"Even if he wasn't my nephew, he was just a little kid, Mitch. I know we both hate Matthew, but you shouldn't have gone to the extent of murdering an innocent kid. This is just the extreme. You could have waited patiently for the right victim!"
"I am sorry, Clark, I just wanted us to get the recognition we need, and I wanted you to be proud of me and know I am still on your side against Matthew," Mitchell replied.
"I don't want to hear of it. The deeds have been done. I will get back at you for killing my nephew. Trust me on that, and from now henceforth, I cut ties with you. We are no longer partners. Stay away from me for your good," Clark warns and walks away.
After a few days, the news of the little boy's death died down. Davis was pissed at first, but then when the results from the autopsy came out, a toxic substance was found in the blood of the little boy.
He promised that he would investigate the case. He knew it wasn't Matthew's fault that the boy was dead. The truth behind the little boy's death revolved just around the nurse who carried out the autopsy, that was his suspect.
Normal activities continued around the hospital, except the news that the dead boy was Dr. Matthew's patient spread like wildfire. Everyone staff of St Gregory hospital was talking about it. Nobody believed that he was capable of such horrors.
-
The following week, another considerable surgery was about to be performed, and it was heart surgery, the surgery for Mrs. Walker.
Many Surgeons, including Matthew, were involved in the surgery, including Petra, who volunteered to help.
When she stepped forward and volunteered to help with the surgery, everyone was against her, but before she could withdraw, Davis called her into the office to speak with her.
"So I see you have decided to take on this surgery?" Petra knew Davis was a man of discipline and thus was respected by many.
"Yes, sir, but seeing the negative response I am getting, I don't think I will be able to do it," She stated, a look of sadness gracing her face.
Davis allowed her to have her moment before breaking the news to her.
"Well, Mrs. Walker has ordered that only you should handle her surgery. Which means you are doing this alone" Petra's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Are you kidding?" She held back her excitement, seeing the looks Davis gave to her.
"There has never been a time I no about something so serious. So, congratulations, and I do hope you succeed this time."
"I do not doubt that sir," Petra stated with a huge smile on her face.