11:03 PM, 6th March, Savitri Medical College, and Hospital Emergency room, 48 hours before the incident
Having a proper sleep, waking up to the first ray of the sunshine, having a coffee relaxing in the morning has never been in Amna's schedule from the day she decided to work in the Emergency Department. With a single shift lasting more than twenty-four hours, she had very few things that she could call hobbies.
One was sleeping, she could literally sleep anywhere and anytime... In short, the god of sleep was her first love. The second one was Korean dramas... Simply ask her the name and you will get the whole plot with spoilers. Third and the last, Harry Potter books... Author J. K Rowling could take her into a new world of fantasy which she loved to indulge in.
Being brought up in an orphanage she had learned the harshness and tyranny of the world too soon, but nothing could ever change the positive outlook she had towards life and the person responsible for that was Rekha Biswas, the caretaker of the orphanage and her foster mother.
Her world revolved around very few people, and she had a seemingly non-existent personal life, spending most of her time in the hospital. She didn't like thinking about the future, she lived in the present and strived to make every part of it worth living. She used to give way almost forty percent of her savings to the orphanage that had made her capable of living the world on her own terms.
She had rented a small house on the outskirts of Bangalore as it was available at a quite cheap price and honesty, she was really a stingy person. The saying, "old habits, seldom die" was very aptly applicable to her because even though she had started earning very well, she knew the importance of saving money owing to her earlier struggles.
She didn't even like buying dresses and accessories unlike other girls, and to be frank her alluring features didn't need the crowning of those things. Dark black eyes, with a honey tan complexion and stunning jawline, could make anyone smitten by her but she had no time to indulge herself in love affairs.
Despite all the coarseness faced by her while getting her education, she was quite happy as she had finally got what she wanted even if her job was really strenuous and demanding.
The most dreadful for her were the Saturday nights, party time for others, and the busiest one for the ER doctors, driving under intoxication, accidents, and many more with time being the critical factor to decide life or death. But still, this was the life that she chose of her free will, and she had never regretted it.
Each sound, of an ambulance siren, brought a story, a story that never usually concerned her or any other doctor in the ER Department because they had no time. Never did she thought that this ambulance siren, this new patient who was now being brought to the emergency room will become her biggest concern in the coming time.
She rushed towards the new patient, a woman in her late twenties wearing a blue dress covered with blood, multiple injuries, and multiple fractures. She had apparently tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building as told by the paramedics and police officers. Her breathing was extremely shallow, BP was dropping and her heart rate was decreasing every passing second.
"Get the oxygen support... Get the defibrillator immediately... Quickly take an emergency X-ray" She commanded the nurse at the top of her voice monitoring the sinking condition of her new patient.
While trying to resuscitate the patient, she saw some strange rope marks on her wrist as well as some injection-like marks with few rashes on her upper arm clearly visible against her fair skin tone. The patient was striving every second to live and Amna was trying every possible way to save her, but her heart rate was dropping more and more.
She started the defibrillator, "1 2 3 shock... 1 2 3 shock", and kept on trying with all her energy. A few minutes later when the ECG showed flat lines, she had to finally give up. Taking a glance at the person who was now dead, she heaved a sigh as drops of sweat plopped from her forehead, and then with a disappointed face she informed, "Time of death 11:24 PM"
She had seen many patients dying in the ER room, some surviving the deadliest accidents, some with not so minor injuries dying, but due to some reason, she felt bad for this unknown woman, as if she was trying to tell her something, perhaps it was her desperation to live... To survive.
Still, she kept this emotion within herself and completed the formalities by handing over the dead body to the Forensic Department for autopsy. The rest of the night was usual for her and finally, after long night duty, she dozed off in the resident doctor's room.
7:45 AM, 7th March, Next Morning, Senior Resident's Room
Dr. Amna! Dr. Amna! Someone called hurriedly as she walked into the room
"What happened sister? Any urgent case or what", Amna replied rubbing her eyes as she was still in a half-awake state.
"You need to see this..." She then hastily switched on the TV in that room.
Bold headlines on the news channel said, "Mhatre Family's Eldest Daughter-in-law Anna Mhatre commits suicide by jumping off a twenty-storeyed building that was under construction. Anna Walter, an NRI from Canada married Shreekant Mhatre, the eldest son of the Mhatre Family last year in August. Sources say that she was unhappy with her marriage and was having depressive episodes, which forced her to commit suicide. Very soon we will be giving you the exclusive footage of the burial ceremony."
The news was powerful enough to break the deep slumber she was in, making her absolutely stunned and out of words. Just as her mind was grasping everything her phone rang and the name flashed, "Head of Department"
"Hello...Yes sir... Okay sir... I am coming in two minutes." The Head of the ER Department had called her urgently to his cabin so she rushed there as quickly as possible.
*******************
"I heard you handled Mrs. Anna Mhatre's case last night", Dr. Damodar asked skeptically with his usual hoarse voice.
"Yes sir, I did but I tried my best to save the patient but unfortunately I couldn't" She replied in a seemingly nervous tone, trying to persuade him that she had done her job to the best of her ability.
She had seen a couple of her own professors getting chided, yelled at, and to the extent of getting thrashed and beaten by the relatives of the patient in case they were not satisfied with the results and thought to herself, "Why did sir call me? Did the patient's party complain against me? Am I getting suspended? Is my career over even before it could start?"
"I know that you must have tried your level best; after all, you are one of the best residents, don't worry... But did you notice something unusual with her?" She was relieved and worried at the same time hearing him. She contemplated for a second whether to or not say about the rope and injection marks to him and paused herself.
"See Mhatre Family is already worried about their reputation, so I suggest you keep yourself away from this mess. That way the hospital's name will also not be targeted in the media plus the autopsy results and police investigation has already suggested that it was a simple case of suicide. I think you should take a day's leave and get some rest. Make sure that you don't make any kind of interaction with the media," she heard him say that in a grave tone as if he was warning her.
She silently nodded to whatever he said and went out of his cabin, but something kept perturbing her. She went to the records room and searched for Anna's case on the computer.
As she scrolled through the file she found an X-ray that she had never seen before, perhaps because she was too busy resuscitating the patient and the patient succumbed to her injuries minutes later that the X-ray thing completely slipped out of her mind.
What she saw on the X-ray baffled her, "The patient had swallowed a very small rectangular metallic kind of an object before dying. What is this? It looks like a pen drive... Why would someone swallow a pen drive and commit suicide?" She thought this to be very strange as the autopsy had revealed it to be a case of simple suicide.
She closed the PC and went out of the records room but was still not able to take her mind off it. She had passed her MBBS from the same college, three years ago and knew the Forensic Department Head, Dr. Rathore well. She thought she could confide this information and her doubts in him so she decides to meet him in his department office.
As she went out of the main entrance, she would see a few journalists gathered near the area but went past them as her mind was boggling with a different issue altogether.
9:50 AM, 7th March, Forensic Medicine Department, Savitri Devi College & Hospital
"Excuse me, can I meet Rathore sir? She asked formally to a man who sat at the department's main desk hovering busily on his phone.
"Sir went this morning to attend some seminar in Delhi" the attendant replied in an unconcerned manner.
"Did sir conduct an autopsy yesterday at midnight, a woman in her late twenties with multiple injuries?"
He glanced up and frowned, "Yes, he did but alone without the help of any assistants. A lot of reporters have already eaten my brain from yesterday night, I have just got some peace, so please..."
Despite his behavior, she still managed to ask, "Can I please see the autopsy report once?"
He bluntly said, "No! It's not allowed"
She reasoned herself saying," It's very important," still he didn't agree at all.
"Dr. Rathore had told me to go through the autopsy report as I was the doctor-in-charge of the patient before she died," she had to lie as she was out of any other option. He still refused to believe her and told her that he will confirm with sir first, he called him, but the phone said switched off again and again.
"Sir will get very angry later on so you must show the reports to me," she said in an irritated way widening her eyes. On hearing that he finally concurred and told her to wait for a minute.
As she read through it, she found no mention of any pen drive or any sort of foreign body in Anna's body further, the signs of the rope marks and injection marks were missing from the autopsy report. "Why is the report missing such important details? Has Dr. Rathore fabricated the autopsy report...? Those marks were clearly visible" While her mind still pondered over those questions she hurriedly went through the whole of it and left the place thanking the attendant.
She went again to the records room to verify that the X-ray was correct, but to her astonishment, when she reached there to validate, she found the X-ray file of Mrs. Anna already deleted from the system, "How can the official records of a patient be deleted from Hospital Management's server?"
A/N: With Amna getting involved in the mysterious suicide case coincidentally what do you think her life will turn? Destiny had started playing its part and only it knew how many secrets were going to be unraveled? How is the first chapter?