"No sir, the patient you performed the lung transplant on this morning, she ... She's in a lot of pain. She's really critical sir." She informed him worriedly.
"WHAT?!" Armaan exclaimed in shock. "How is that even possible? She was absolutely fine this morning and the surgery went well too."
"I don't know sir, please take a look." She replied.
Without further delay, Armaan rushed with the nurse to the ICU to examine his patient and unfortunately for him what the nurse said was indeed true. Not only was she in a lot of pain, but was also coughing up blood now. "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?!" The patient's very frantic husband yelled at Armaan, who was taken by complete surprise.
But Armaan was quick to pull himself together as he took to examining his patient, while ordering the male nurse to escort the very reluctant and screaming husband to the waiting room.
Armaan was in a serious dilemma as to what he was going to say to Mr Sharma as he made his way to the waiting room. He didn't understand what could have gone so wrong that Mrs Sharma was almost close to dying. Mrs Sharma had been hospitalized for nearly a year, waiting to receive her donor lungs and early this morning he had been called in as they got the news that a donor was finally available for her. Armaan had ordered for her to be prepped for surgery right away so he could operate. The surgery had been successful and Mrs Sharma had been fine up until now. He really couldn't decipher what had gone wrong in such a short span of time.
"Mr Sharma, I'm really sorry. I don't know what's wrong just yet, but ..."
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" He blasted before Armaan could even finish his sentence. "How can you not know?! You're a bloody doctor!"
Armaan, on the other hand maintained his cool. The man's wife was dying and so his reaction was pretty normal. "Sir, I'm running some tests on your wife. Hopefully, we'll know what's wrong when the test results come out and till then we'll monitor her closely. Please trust me, we're doing our best!" He explained patiently, but it all fell on deaf ears as the man continued to rant.
"Well your bloody best is not good enough. And I can't trust you anymore doctor. I want to speak to your dean right now." He shouted at the top of his voice.
"Sir please try to understand .." Armaan tried again.
But the man was incorrigible. "I'm done talking to you. I said I want to speak to the dean."
"Fine, if that's what you want. I'll take you to him." He replied calmly.
"No! Not you! I don't want to go anywhere with you." And the man continued with his unreasonable demands as Armaan listened to him patiently.
After a long hectic surgery, Riddhima was headed down to the cafeteria. She stopped in her tracks when she heard someone shouting in the waiting room and went to check what was going on. She was shocked when she found a man screaming crazily at Armaan and demanding to speak to the dean of the Hospital. What she didn't understand was why the man was shouting at Armaan. that was a rare site. Normally people loved Armaan. They would smile at him, even drool over him, but someone shouting at him? Now that was a site she was witnessing for the first time.
"Nurse, yeh sab kya ho raha hai?" She asked a nurse who was standing nearby.
"Woh Dr Armaan ki patient critical hai and that's her husband." She answered.
Riddhima looked on at the scene and wondered whether to intervene or not. As much as she wanted to stay away from Armaan, she couldn't ignore the fact that Armaan was clearly having trouble dealing with this man who just wouldn't stop shouting and this was a hospital after all. They couldn't have people going around shouting like crazy.
"Sir, will you please calm down. I'll take you to the dean." Riddhima said slowly, hoping she'd get through to him.
"Who the hell are you?" He snapped at her spitefully.
"I'm Dr Gupta, the dean of the hospital is Dr Shashank Gupta, he's my father. Please calm down and come with me sir." Hearing that, the man's temper cooled down a little as he stopped his shouting and followed Riddhima.
Armaan had been so taken aback when Riddhima had popped out of nowhere, that he didn't even notice what had just happened and before he knew it Riddhima had managed to convince Mr Sharma in going along with her. And just like that, she had gave him another reason to be thankful to her.
This was unbelievable! He thought, as he looked at the CT scans again and again to make sure what he was looking at, was actually right. He let out an incredulous gasp, thinking how the hell was this even possible. How could he have made such a huge blunder! What he was more worried about was, how he was going to break this news to Mr Sharma, who was at the moment sitting in Dr Shashank's office waiting for some news from him.
He'd been summoned to Dr Shashank's office an hour ago, right after Riddhima had took Mr Sharma to Dr Shashank. Thankfully, Dr Shanshank had been very understanding and patience towards him as well as reassuring Mr Sharma that they'd find out what had gone wrong with his wife's surgery very soon. Dr Shashank had told Armaan to go get the test results as soon as he could and since then Armaan had been waiting for the results.
But he hadn't expected to find something as outrageous as this. He was so doomed! His career could be over, due to this mistake of his. Armaan ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of what he would do now. Dr Shashank would be enraged on hearing this and he didn't even want to think about what Mr Sharma would do. The man was already going crazy. But he had to do this. If he had unknowningly made this mistake, then he would have to take responsibility and rectify it.
Very nervously, he knocked on the door to Dr Shashank's office. "Come in." He heard him say. He gulped and took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the consequences he would have to face.
"Ahh Dr Armaan. Finally, you're here. So, what do you have?" Dr Shahsank asked him eagerly.
Armaan looked anxiously from Dr Shashank to Mr Sharma who was sat down opposite Dr Shashank at his desk, to Riddhima who was standing at the far corner. Their eyes met for a very brief moment and in that one brief moment, Armaan felt a thousand times better. It gave him hope that everything would be fine. He would be fine. They would be fine. They would be happy.
But soon enough he was snapped out of his reverie and back to reality, where he had made a huge blunder which had nearly cost someone their life and it was time he confessed to it. "Dr Armaan? Aap kuch bol kyun nahi rahe hain? Will you please tell us what's wrong?" Clearly, Dr Shashank was getting impatient now and so was Mr Sharma, who was almost spitting fire at him through those dark angry eyes of his.
Armaan gulped once again, as he tried to string some words together. "Woh Sir .. Actually .." He looked up at their faces once again as they all waited to hear his answer with bated breath and faltered.
One look at Armaan's face had been enough for Riddhima to know that something was terribly wrong. Her doubts were confirmed when Armaan couldn't stop stammering as he tried to tell them what had gone wrong.
Mr Sharma had, had enough now! "Damn it Dr Armaan! Will you please just tell me what's wrong!" He shouted angrily.
"I accidentally left a gauze sponge inside your wife and that's been piercing her intestine." He blurted out in a single breath.
To say Mr Sharma was enraged would have been an understatement. The man was going ballistic. "HOW COULD YOU BE SO BLOODY IRRESPONSIBLE?!" He screamed and he was almost about to attack Armaan in his anger if it hadn't been for Riddhima who quickly came and stood between the two. Mr Sharma tightly clenched his fists as he tried to regain his cool, while Amraan just looked down at the floor hoping it would somehow swallow him up. He was gutted. He couldn't believe he had done this to someone.
Riddhima looked desperately at her father for her help, who was standing in utter shock trying to process the possibilties of one of his most capable doctors making such a huge blunder. But, he soon recovered and took charge.
"Mr Sharma, I know this is an extremely difficult time for you and I'm extremely sorry about this. I'll sort this out right away. In fact I'll do your wife's surgery myself and have this thing removed from inside her. Don't worry sir." Shashank tried his best to reason with Mr Sharma.
"I don't care what you have to do, but if anything happens to me wife then I will sue this damned hospital!" He yelled back at Shashank and stormed off from his cabin, banging the door behind him.
"I don't believe this! How could you possible do that Dr Mallik!" Shashank questioned Armaan as soon as Mr Sharma was out of the room.
Armaan, on the other hand stood hopelessly, his eyes fixed on the floor, not knowing what to say. "Dr Mallik I'm talking to you!" He shouted, when he got no response from Armaan.
"I don't know sir! I just don't know!" Armaan replied, his voice breaking and before Shashank could say anything he was gone.
Riddhima sighed at that. She wanted to help him, but had no idea what she could do in this situation. All she knew was that there had to be something more to this. It was impossible for Armaan to make such a huge blunder. It just wasn't possible. "Papa, what are you going to do now?" She asked her father in concern.
After a long moment, Shashank replied. And his answer was more of shock to Riddhima than Armaan's revelation. "Firstly, I'm going to fire Dr Armaan."
"WHAT?! Papa what's wrong with you? You can't do that!" She exclaimed in horror.
"Of course I can Riddhima. This was his mistake and our hospital could get sued because of him."
No! No! No! This was so not happening! "But papa, you haven't even investigated into the situation. Anything could have happened. Aap itni jaldi yeh kaise decide kar sakte hain?!"
Shashank, however didn't pay much heed to his daughter. "What's there to investigate Riddhima. Dr Armaan himself has confessed to his mistake and I don't understand why are you getting so defensive about him?" He questioned her back.
"Kyun ki papa, I know he can't so something like this. Woh .. Woh asia kabhi nahi kar sakta, galti se bhi nahi. Papa just please listen to me, just give me a chance and .. And I'll find out how this happened. Please papa, you can't do this." Shashank was rather surprised when his daughter started pleading to him almost in tears and that's when he melted a little.
"Fine! But, you have 24 hours Riddhima. If you don't have something till then to convince me that Dr Armaan is not at fault in this, then I will fire him and then you can cry and plead as much as you want but my decision won't change." He told her sternly.
Riddhima sighed in relief. "Thank you, thank you so much papa." She had no idea what she was going to do. How she was going to prove Armaan had nothing to do with this. But she had to do something if she were to save Armaan from getting fired. She had to something fast! Very fast!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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