To Where It All Began ✔

18. The Ordeal Continues...

9:55 PM, 2nd April, Snehalaya

Heavily breathing and panting with her kurta and hands drenched in blood she went to Jaya's office "Jaya...emergency, someone just shot a bullet at Shreekant, come with me immediately"

"What are you saying!" she exclaimed getting worried immediately. Both of them paced at a great speed to him and found him lying there.

"Jaya help me, try lifting his upper part of the body. Amna opened his shirt entirely and tied it around the wound waiting for the ambulance to come, "Why are they taking so long? Hold on Shreekant." His eyes were closing partially by now.

Around eight minutes later the ambulance arrived. He was immediately taken in a stretcher into the ambulance and Amna informed, "Jaya I am going with him, you stay here"

"But Amna..."

"You can't leave the orphanage like this, the children are sleeping"

"Okay, but inform me if you need any help"

Amna sat in the ambulance and went with Shreekant. "Connect high flow oxygen, BP monitor and pulse oximeter right now, I am a doctor, be quick", she commanded to one of the nurse who was present there.

She opened the shirt that she had wrapped around the wound, "There is no exit wound, the bullet is still stuck inside, Collect his blood immediately and give it to the blood bank as soon as we reach hospital for checking his blood group, he may require transfusion"

"Give me I.V cannulae, connect it to saline. How far is the hospital from here now?"

"Doctor, around 2 km"

"Shreekant are you listening? We are just about to reach", she held his palm tightly gripping it with hers while he softly moaned, "Anna... Anna... Don't leave me..." 

As soon as they reached the hospital, he was transferred into another stretcher. As the stretcher passed the corridors of the hospital, she held his hand tightly until the doctor in-charge gestured her to leave his hand. She tried to loosen her hand from his tight grip by using the fingers of her other hand and finally he was taken to the emergency OT.

She filled the necessary admission details, informed the police giving her statement, and waited patiently near the OT praying silently for his wellbeing. It didn't take a long time for the news of the attempt to murder of Shreekant Mhatre, to spread like a wildfire amongst all the hospital staff. 

Within an hour or so, media swam in huge numbers outside the hospital disrupting the normal movement of the people in and out of the hospital's main entrance. He was already being targeted in the media first for Anna's suicide and then for his unknown relationship with Amna and this news was like a cherry on the top for them. 

A couple of minutes later, Amna saw the doctor who was handling Shreekant's case coming out from the OT and asked in agitated tone fisting her palm, "How is he now?...No complications right?"

"Ma'am he is stable now...The surgery was a success. As the first aid was given to him immediately and correctly, he didn't bleed that much but still, we have kept him under observation for six hours" She heaved a sigh of relief and thanked the doctor.

 As she turned her vision, she saw the Mhatre family coming towards the OT area. She hid herself behind a pillar, standing alone in a confined corner of the hospital, avoiding any form of interaction with them. She thought it would be better for her to go away from their sight. As she was leaving the place, she heard them discuss the details of Shreekant's condition with the doctor. 

As she paced to go out from the hospital's entrance, the media surrounded and lashed out at her and she became prey to the most ridiculous questions.