How to Wed A Devil

Chapter 24

Ananya Prasad

The rest of the day went uneventful thankfully. I am done with work for today and just have a meeting regarding this month cases. As usual, the department auditorium is filled, today, there are other departments including anesthesiology, paediatrics and plastic surgery. So Sid and Karthik are also there. Sid and his friends from paediatrics sat together whereas Karthik sat with the devil. I waved at them and went to sit with my department.

"Good evening everyone. Since there are other department residents and professors who also joined with us, let us first discuss the conjoined surgery with them and once they are done we will discuss the remaining cases. As we all need to work together for the case, for which surgery is in just three weeks, starting tomorrow we will do intense preparation. So, we will be dividing into teams for various stages of the surgery" Prof. Acharya opened the meeting.

And so the intense discussion and allotment of teams went on for almost two hours. Everyone is assigned a role. Totally four main surgery teams are created each containing neurosurgeons, paediatrics, anaesthesia and plastic surgery. Every department assigned its own residents in the corresponding teams. Also, nurses and other technical staff were also divided. The first team opens the skulls of the conjoined twins and separates all the nerves, blood vessels in the brains of the twins. This alone will take almost ten hours. Once separated, the plastic surgeons will separate the girls. Then the third and fourth teams will close the twins individually. The paediatrics will monitor the babies throughout the surgery.

Since this operation takes more than 20 hours, we need four teams as it is impossible for one doctor to do the surgery. The first team is headed by Prof. Acharya and Prof. Agarwal from plastic surgery who will be assisted by Dhruv sir and Arjun sir along with me, Hussain and Nidhi, other plastic surgeons and other nurses, technical staff. The second team is an entirely plastic surgeon team and some of our other residents. The third and fourth teams consist of a mix of neuro and plastic surgeons. They are headed by Dr Patel and Dr Chadda of our other neuro team doctors. Natasha mam and Ishaan sir were assigned with them along with Tanya, Joseph and Samar our other residents and some other junior residents.

So, the entire team has a total of 107 members including nurses, compounders and other technical staff. A surgery this big has to have so much preparation. Once the discussion is complete, the other departments left and we continued with our other cases. Once the meeting is done I left the hospital and went to the hostel to grab my things as I have to shift to this apartment. My mom's orders. Sid came to help me with the move. I didn't vacate the hostel because no one knows that I am married. I just grabbed most of my dresses leaving some there in the hostel for emergency purposes. I told Nidhi and Tanya that I am moving to my parent's apartment as they are staying in Delhi because of work and that I am staying with them.

When we brought the luggage downstairs I saw the devil's car. Sid told me that he gave Sid his car to help me shift as it is difficult to shift the luggage on Sid's motorbike and my scooty. I followed Sid on my scooty and parked. Sid left for his hostel as soon as getting my luggage to the apartment as he is sleepy. I too slept soon after that.

When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that the kitchen is almost empty with no groceries. So, I went to a mart and bought the groceries and other essentials for the apartment as it has practically nothing. Once I came back, I organised everything and cooked something for me and him as his shift will be done by 3 PM. I ate and left for my shift at noon. Since I am not in the hostel there is no cafeteria to eat, so I have to do the cooking and I highly doubt that he can cook.

The next month went on like that. I went to work as usual and he and I had minimal interaction. Even when practising for the conjoined surgery, I always practise with Dhruv sir and he practises with Hussain and Nidhi as we have different shifts. We only were together when our shifts overlapped as we have thirty-six-hour shifts. Sid and I have almost the same shifts, so he will come to the apartment for food. Karthik too joins him sometimes. Once or twice, the devil joined us, but we didn't talk that much. Mostly Sid and Karthik do the talking. We were just polite with each other. When he and I are alone in the house, he sometimes washes the dishes and cuts some vegetables. We barely talk.