(WRITTEN BY JOY A. ADEWUMI)

Femi Damijo turned his neck from one side to the other and tried rotating it to work out some cricks. Lifting his hands and swinging them back and forth, he shook his head at the drama unfolding some few feet away from him.

While some patients had their way of making the job harder than it ought to be, some made it worth the while. He smiled as Doctor Badru smiled and tried to refuse the wrap of BBQ a patient’s guardian was offering him in appreciation for his care.

‘Doctor Damz!’ A tiny voice called from a short distance behind him. Femi jerked from his daze at the happy scene happening in front of him and turned towards the voice. The moment he sighted a frantic look on the nurse’s face, he broke into a run in her direction and dashed into the ward, where she was standing.

‘She has a high fever and her BP has been rising rapidly. She…’ Femi listened as the nurse droned on and swung into action.

READ ALSO: REDEEMED – Episode 1

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‘You look bummed!’ Deborah commented as she sat beside Femi on the concrete slab just outside the building that housed the male wards, about an hour later. Deborah was his very good friend since their days in the College of Health Sciences. Now she was married to his best friend, Stan, whom she met through him. They both worked at the General Hospital, Lagos, where currently she was a nurse at the Maternity Centre.

‘A patient went from high fever to cardiac arrest in five short minutes and I thought I would shed a few tears when we couldn’t resuscitate her after three minutes of CPR. The feeling of life that returned to me when her pulse picked again was second to none.’

Deborah smiled and passed on an extra cold bottle of Coke she’d been holding in her hands, while Femi recounted his experience.

‘Poor you! Forget shedding tears, you look like you’re about to drop,’ she commented.

‘Poor? I don’t think I qualify.’ Femi replied as he opened the bottle of Coke. The bottle hissed as gas escaped. ‘I don’t get to feel poor when every single room you enter in this large complex, you find one person or the other fighting desperately for their lives. People staring into a doctor’s face and silently pleading for a mild diagnosis, while the doctor is plagued with the dilemma of breaking a very hard news to them. I don’t qualify for poor, when somewhere right now in this very complex, a guardian is probably hearing the worst news of the year about his loved one and is feeling the whole world crashing down on him.’ He shook his head as he gulped some of the drink and continued, ‘Now, those people are the ones that qualify to be called poor. I just feel privileged to be able to give my best under God, to help the few I can live healthier and longer lives.’

Deborah shook her half-empty bottle of Chapman as she stared at it and replied, ‘Another angle.’

They both smiled at that, and he asked, ‘Did you put something in that drink?’

‘Huh? Something like what? No, I didn’t.’ She answered glancing up at him before turning back to her object of fixation.

‘Why then are you shaking it and staring at it, like you’re waiting for something to dissolve?’ He asked.

She chuckled and replied, ‘I love watching the bubbles.’

Femi laughed out loud and it felt good after the events of the last hour. ‘You’re such a baby.’

‘Guilty as charged!’ She replied with a small smile.

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‘So, how’s your place?’ He asked as he took a swig of the drink she gave him.

‘Hmmn… Good, I guess. Our mothers and babies are doing fine. We had a set of triplets today. I helped deliver.’ Her excitement was palpable.

Femi laughed at the excited look on her face and said, ‘Yea, everyone heard, even those off duty. You must have been super-elated!’

‘I was over the moon. Two damsels and a Superman.’ Femi burst into laughter again at her description and she joined in. By this time, his heart wasn’t as heavy as it was when he had stepped out of the building.

‘Thanks, Debby, for helping lighten my heart. How did you find me anyway? And since you’re here, doesn’t it mean you are done with your shift? Shouldn’t you take the opportunity to dash home and get some much-needed rest?’

Debby’s smile dimmed and Femi’s frown returned. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘I wanted you to join me in praying about something.’ Debby replied.

‘What’s that?’

‘There’s this cute little baby who’s barely a month old. Her parents waited a solid decade and a year for her and when she arrived, it was a house party at the ward. We didn’t even have the heart to stop the constant celebration each visiting time. It was a miracle.’ Then she released a deep breath and Femi’s heart started getting heavy. He didn’t like the sound of what was coming. A baby, no less!

‘A friend of mine in Pediatrics told me yesterday that the girl was transferred to their unit from Emergency. Short breaths, sweating while feeding, loss of weight, paleness and a host of others. A ventricular septal defect was suspected.’

‘Jesus!’ Femi breathed. A hole in the heart? He didn’t see that one coming. It hit him like hardball.

‘I’m sorry I’m sharing this burden with you on a day like this, when you’re already down. But you know how this ministry is; we can’t but stand in the gap. So, do you mind praying alongside Stan and me? We’ve been at it since the news came in and he suggested I tell you about it today.’

Femi swallowed down the emotions clogging his throat and nodded at Deborah.

‘Thanks, Doctor Damz. I know a miracle will happen. She has been scheduled for further investigations and when the results are out, we will know for sure what we are dealing with. If we can obtain mercy however, it can turn out to be something milder. We just need a miracle.’ He nodded again and Debby stood up, bade him farewell and left.

READ ALSO: REDEEMED – Episode 2

Clearing his throat over and over to dislodge the emotions stubbornly lodged there, Femi wished he could be as strong as his other colleagues, but no, it always hit him hard when something terrible happened to any patient or a tough diagnosis was made. That was why he had always known he could never specialize in Pediatrics.

General surgery, the department in which he was a resident doctor, of course, wasn’t any less tough, but at least they didn’t have tons of babies checking in with ailments and defects that made one wonder what on earth they had done wrong to deserve them.

With a sigh, he bent his head and mouthed, ‘Abba, I know you know exactly what is wrong with that baby, but I couldn’t care less about the diagnosis. I just need a miracle. Please, whatever it is, make that little girl healthy and make her family happy again. Please Father, this I plead for in Jesus name. Amen.’ As he rounded off his prayer, his phone vibrated in his white coat pocket and he fished it out to find a text informing him, that one of the consultants wanted to see him.

With another sigh, he lifted himself off the slab and checked his watch, counting down to the time when his shift would be over. Two more hours.

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Dear reader,

Our lead support has just been introduced and the lives of both men seem to be completely different. What do you think could make their paths cross? Let me know your thoughts in the comment box below.

Thanks for your precious time here on the blog. I hope you have downloaded your free copy of my new eBook- Dare to Hope. If not subscribe below in the subscription prompt to get yours. God bless you abundantly. See you tomorrow!

Yours truly,
The Girl with the Winning Smile,
Spirit Pen!