"Oh my god! Alice? What have you done to yourself? You need to take some rest." Serene blurted as I came back from the washroom. Zia too was with her.
"How did you guys came to know?" I wasn't expecting them because I didn't informed anyone.
"Neil called." Zia made me sit.
"Neil! Why? I hope you didn't call Allan and Susan. Did you?" I turned to Neil. He nodded a no. Oh! Thankgod! Atleast he's still got some brains. Soon, Hans and Agnès too joined us.
Meanwhile, I noticed Mr. Bentley arrive with Dr. Phil, about whom Samantha was talking about. He greeted Dr. Gordon and then was taken into his cabin. Mr. Bentley, till then went to wait with Samantha.
He looked at me, that's what I felt but he ignored me as if I wasn't present there. I was perhaps the most hated person by the BENTLEYs.
Ten-minutes later, Dr. Gordon asked both Mr. and Mrs. Bentley to join in. I stood up and followed Samantha. Before, he could enter, I gathered all the courage and asked her if I could join them as well. She turned around and looked at me with the pain in her eyes. She might have noticed the same pain going inside me and therefore, slightly nodded her head in a yes.
As I entered, Dr. Phil looked at me, puzzled. Samantha motioned him that I was with them.
"Okay. So, Theo's condition is very critical. His heart is already failing to pump most of his blood and with injuries in his head and at several other parts of his body, his heart has become the main complication here. The only option, which Dr. Phil suggests is the heart transplant. With that failing heart, he anyways had only few months life left. " Dr. Gordon explained everything. I never understood how doctors could keep their tone so optimistic, even when the patient is dying.
"The last appointment that Theo missed, is a slight drawback as we were supposed to take some tests. Had he attended it, we'd have already started looking for a heart donor. So, it will now take a bit more of the time as we will have to go through these tests first and then look for a matching donor, for which we'll have to perform some tests on the donor, as well. During all this time, we have to hope that Theo's heart keeps on working." Dr. Phil continued.
"Sorry to interrupt but I would want to know what CHF is exactly." I cleared my throat and spoke. Everyone in the room turned towards me, and finally acknowledged my presence.
Dr. Phil began explaining.
"End-stage heart failure is a disease in which the heart muscle is failing severely in its attempt to pump blood through the body, and in which all other available treatments are no longer helping to improve the heart's function. End-stage heart failure is the final stage of heart failure. Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure, or CHF, is a condition that occurs when the heart is unable to pump blood sufficiently. Despite its name, a diagnosis of heart failure does NOT mean the heart is about to stop beating. The term "failure" refers to the fact that the heart muscle is failing to pump blood in the normal manner because it has become weakened."
I processed the provided information and further asked, "Well, there might be certain risks in this procedure. What could they all be?" I know that Theo was being treated by the best of the doctors but I wanted to be sure about everything, for my own satisfaction.
Dr. Phil immediately answered to this one.
"Infection, bleeding during or after the surgery, blood clots that can cause heart attack, stroke, or lung problems, breathing problems, kidney failure, etc."
