Love is infectious

=== 3 ===

Sujata had a meeting at 2:00 pm, a presentation to be given to a client about a new product being designed by her company. She was very excited about it, since it was her baby. She had worked her ass off on the prototype, and was very confident about it. Whenever she was in this exciting mood, she’s always put on “beautiful day” by U2 in her car, put it on full volume and drive. She did the same this time, and drove while singing as loud as possible.

 

“Bam!”. She remembered her body swaying to the music, and then suddenly it was flying forward, until she felt a jerk, a bang on her head, and a crack in the windscreen.

 

She woke up with Anisha and Rohit on her side, and Sandeep on phone, outside her room. When he saw her, with her eyes opened, he rushed in, held her, and said “Don’t worry, you’re alright. It was just a minor accident, you hit another car when it was taking a reverse. Thank god for the traffic, you were not going that fast, and the seatbelt and airbag saved you.”

 

“I don’t know what happened, how it happened. I just feel strain in my back and neck. Where is the doctor? Can I check my file first?”

 

“The file’s with the doctor, he might be coming in a few minutes. You take some more rest, I’ll order coffee for you”. Sandeep went out of the room. Sujata looked at Rohit, and asked him about his school, and what he did the whole day. Instead of replying, Rohit said “Mom, you know the other car’s driver is also admitted here, in a room just across the hallway. And he was fighting with dad about the way you drove and that you’re the whole reason for this mess. He was supposed to go to see his wife who was in labor, and instead he hit the side mirror of his car, and cut his head.”

 

“Stupid, first answer to mom’s question”, interrupted Anisha, “Mom, you know he got a “B” in Hindi, and his teacher was scolding him like anything”.

 

An old looking doctor entered the room with Sandeep, and asked Sujata about her health and how she was feeling.

 

“It is a case of minor whiplash, which is sustained when a victim’s head is violently hurled forward and then backward. This sudden and violent motion is called hyperextension & hyper flexion. We have already done the X-Ray and CT scan. And just to confirm that nothing major has happened, we would do a series of myelograms, and bone scans. But you don’t have to worry about anything, you would be out of the hospital in no time at all”, confirmed the Dilip Kumar look-alike doc’. “All we need to worry is about the guy you hit, because he’s cut his head and lost a lot of blood. And his type is not available in our blood bank right now, damn those rare O negative people.”

 

Sujata tried to jump off the bed, and she shouted “Can I give him the blood, I’m O negative”.

 

The doctor looked at her once, and the said “First you stand on your feet for sometime, build up some energy, and then think about helping someone. Don’t worry, we’ll should get the blood from somewhere”.

 

“Doctor Metha, we still haven’t found the match yet.” A beautiful looking nurse entered the room and informed the doc about unavailability of the match.

 

“Look doctor, according to your report I have sustained no physical injuries as such, and I am fit n fine. Then I see no reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to help out the guy I hit in the first place. Please let me help him, please.” Sujata was pleading with her eyes. And the doc read it, and asked nurse to check whether Sujata’s blood as compatible or not.

 

“Thanks doctor, I owe you one”. Sujata said while smiling at her kids as if she had won a war or something. The nurse took her reports, and asked her to get ready to be taken for blood cross matching.

 

Sujata entered the pathology lab and looked around to see jars and test tubes. She sat down on the chair waiting for the nurse to come. Sandeep entered the room, looked around and said “you’re sure you want to do this?”. Sujata nodded, and looked at the chart in front of her, displaying the blood compatibility chart. She said “isn’t this a coincidence, a good driver like me injuring a guy of the same rare blood type as mine, there is something going on here, some sign or something”.

 

“Yes, I guess it’s a sign to tell us that you’re not a great driver”. Bad Timing, thought Sandeep.

 

The nurse entered the lab, and asked Sandeep to wait outside for a few moments. The she said, “Ma’m, first we need to check your blood for any infection, normally the testing standards include screening for potential risk factors and health problems among donors by determining donor hemoglobin levels and laboratory testing of donated units for infection. This would take about a couple of hours, and then once the tests are back we can go ahead with the transfusion.”

 

Sandeep waited outside the lab, and once Sujata was back he asked the nurse to take care of her till he dropped the children off to their home. He returned with lunch, and some fruits. It was almost an year since they had lunch together. And the place was just as weird as the event, a lunch, in a hospital.

 

At around 4o’clock in the afternoon the doctor came with the report, he looked a little worried. Sandeep sensed something, and before doctor could enter the room, he rushed outside, to speak to the him.

 

“I’m afraid there is some problem with the sample, we need to do a detailed test”. The doctor looked at Sandeep hoping that he would not get into details.

 

“Can I know what seems to be the problem, doctor?”

 

“Well, nothing has been confirmed yet, and we still haven’t done a through tests, so its difficult to say…”

 

“Say what doctor?”

 

“We are not sure of it now, but it seems that Sujata is HIV positive…”