One
Asad woke up in a cold sweat, the same dream had been driving him crazy for the last 3 months. He splashed his face with cold water and looked at himself in the mirror 'you have to stop this Asad' he said to himself but how was he going to. For the last 3 months Asad had been seeing a girl who stood in the middle of a field, calling out to him. A girl who couldn't be real as her beauty was not of this world, he had never seen a face so pure, so angelic. It wasn't her ethereal beauty that always disturbed him it was her tears, her screams and the pain she emanated.
Like any other day Asad walked across his lawn and worked out in his gym, he showered changed and drove to the hospital. Asad was one of the youngest most established plastic surgeons not only in India but also in the whole of South East Asia. At the age of 32 he managed to create a name for himself that only a handful could ever match.
Asad looked through his list of patients for the day 'Layla, what happened to Mr Kapoor, I had his surgery booked in for tomorrow?' 'I have no idea, we had arranged for him to come in today for his pre op assessment, let me call and double check' 'Ok, I am due to check on Miss Sara, can you get Dr Ammar to check over the list and take some of the cases on today?' 'Yes sir'
Asad was talking to Sara who had a small procedure done a few days ago 'I think it is safe to discharge you Sara, I will still like you to come in next week so I can see that all is ok''I will do, thank you Dr. Khan' 'you're welcome' As Asad was about to walk towards his next patient his pager started bleeping 'Layla, can you get one of the senior doctors to take over, I am needed in A&E'
Asad rushed towards A&E, it wasn't often he was called there as he always worked through his clinic and patients that had been booked in prior for any type of treatment. As Asad reached the room where the patient had been taken he heard loud pain filled screams, screams that made him stop, as if he had heard them before.
Asad walked in to see a young girl being held down by nurses she was covered in blood, he face, she had no face 'Dr Khan, thank god you are here' 'what is going on, what happened to her?' 'She was brutally attacked and had acid thrown on her, her face...' The nurse couldn't continue as she started to choke with emotion. Asad walked up to her and the minute he saw her he closed his eyes 'Ya Allah, what is wrong with these people' he said to himself 'why has no one sedated her...get me 5ml of morphine and...' Asad couldn't continue as he looked down at the hand that held his 'please don't let them hurt me...please help me' she cried. Asad held her hand back 'its ok, you are safe now, you are in hospital, we will help you...can you please tell me your name?' 'Z...Zoya' 'Ok Zoya, I am going to inject you with some medicine, this will help with the pain'.
Asad injected her and waited until the medication took affect 'prep her for surgery, I need her hair cut back and in theatre within the next half hour' as the doctors and nurses around him started to prepare for surgery Asad started to look closer at her injuries, the whole of her face had been burnt, she had sustained a lot of cuts and bruising on her arms and upper body, whoever she was and what ever happened to her, she managed to put up a fight.
'Does she have any family, did anyone come with her?' 'Yes, a girl, who brought her in' 'I want to speak to her'. Asad walked out to see a young girl standing in the corner crying 'hello, did you come in with Zoya?' 'yes...yes I did, is she ok...please tell me she is ok?' 'No she is not, she has been viciously attacked and burnt, can you please tell me what happened to her?' 'We...we live in St Andrew's orphanage and women's hostel...there is a group of boys who saw Zoya and started following her, they tried to corner and attack her a number of times...it didn't matter how many times we called the police or the managers at the orphanage tried to sort the problem out, they just wouldn't stop. One of the guys...Saleem, he had threatened Zoya that if she didn't give herself to him he would leave her scarred for life...and that is exactly what he did' the girl fell to the floor as she cried.
Asad helped her sit up 'have you called the police?' 'Yes I have, they should be coming soon, one of our carers Sister Anna is with them' 'Ok, I am taking your friend into surgery, I will let you know how it goes, am not sure how long it will take...but from my initial assessment Zoya will need her whole face restructured...do you have a picture of Zoya?' 'No, not on me, there would be one at the hostel...but am not sure how recent it would be' 'Ok, don't worry we will do all we can to help her'.
Asad and another senior surgeon, Dr Sharma looked at Zoya as she was put to sleep 'this is going to take more than one go, and there is no way of knowing if we can give her old face back...Asad I have never come across anything like this' 'Nor have I, but we have to try, try and help her, it doesn't matter how many times we end up in here, she will leave with everything she has lost' Asad was about to face one of the biggest challenges of his career, he knew it was not going to be easy but he also knew that with Allah on his side he was not going to give up.
Asad and his team had been in theatre for almost four hours, Dr Sharma was right this was going to take a number of surgeries. With the first one all they managed to do was try and clean all the burnt and dead cells and skin, they managed to plan out the structure of her face and prep it for the next surgery which they were going to have to do in 8 weeks' time.
Asad took off his overall and walked out looking exhausted, he felt overwhelmed with emotion, he couldn't believe that someone could savagely attack another human, an innocent girl just for trying to protect herself.
Zoya was transferred to ICU where she was going to be kept under close observation. Asad had officially been signed as her doctor 'nurse I am heading back up to my clinic as soon as she starts to wake up I need you to page me' 'I will do'.
Edited by Saima-Syed - 10 years ago
Veer Hanuman
Anupamaa
4