Chapter 15
Dr.Shankar Ready was washing his hands with an antiseptic soap to prepare himself for the surgery. He had planned to do a simple tonsilis operation on a four year old .He was always concerned about infection especially when you were dealing with young children. .The child had been moved to the operation table. It was a matter of 10 minutes delicate work. He had always maintained a high level of cleanliness. He prayed for a few minutes with his eyes closed, when he was rudely shaken up by 4 four sleepy looking men holding guns..He was physically lifted and brought to the van.On the way, he was briefed,” Look doctor.This is an emergency. My friend here has been shot and he has lost lot of blood. You have to extract the bullet .”
The Doctor was alarmed. The child was already in the theatre and here he was being bulldozed into some thing totally un expected.
He looked at Ravi lying on the floor of the van which was not clean. Ravi was on threshold of consciousness and he was holding on surprisingly well. Doctor knew he was already in deep trouble, but maintained himself calm.
He told, ‘You have come to a wrong hospital. I have never done an extraction of bullet. It is a messy affair. I am not trained for that sort of work. I can not do it.If you force me , I will end up killing your friend before I reach the bullet through all that flesh and bone. Believe me, you need a different skills for extraction of bullet and dealing with bullet wounds.’
If his intention was to scare the gang, he failed.
“Listen Doctor. We are not going anywhere else. We know all about extraction of bullet and we have checked about you before stopping here. If you refuse to do what we tell you, we will kill you and destroy your hospital.’
It was not working well for the doctor.he said, ‘you do not seem to understand. This man has lost lot of blood. He needs blood first .We don’t keep blood in this hospital. we have to get it from govt blood bank. There is paper work for that. then we should know his type ‘ .
We don’t have to go anywhere Doctor.Your lab technician can make type test in five minutes and we are six of us here to give blood.so start extraction with out wasting any ones time’
Doctor would not give in so easily, guns or no guns
He said in the same calm tone, ’listen, you people are acting like ignorant fools. I can not do type testing here because our lab technicians will come by 9.30 only. second , I can not use your blood with out screening it. That will take moretime.
Thirdly, you can not give blood on empty stomach. you go out , have breakfast and come. then I will see about using your blood. Fourthly I will need help to do extraction.as you are so stubborn to getting the bullet removed in this hospital, I will have to summon help. I will call asurgeon/ doctor over. just give me minute. he quickly took his cell phone and dialled the first number that came to his mind. The intruders could not stop him because he sounded so convincing..
The number that had come to Dr.sankarrao ‘s mind was that of Dickey.The moment Dickey responded with a formal and sleepy hello, Dr spoke rapidly. This is Dr sankar rao from legacy hospital. Doctor, I need your help immediately, please come here in next twenty minutes.pl bring your lab technician with automated blood test equipment, for typecasting, screening and filtration .I have a bullet extraction job on emergency. All hush hush.pl come soon, I will attend to all preparatory work on the patient’
The doctor did not wait for any response. he turned his back and ordered an attendant to take a stretcher and bring the patient to the spare operation theater. He ordered a senior nurse to get the theatre to be ready in next fifteen minutes with all equipment and surgical tools all sterilised and ready.
The doctor supervised while Ravi was removed out of the van and placed on stretcher.He told the gang, ,”you all go to some near by hotel and have some breakfast, so that if necessary, I will use your blood.. You do not worry about your friend. By 9 o clock, you can take him with you. He moved away fast leaving the gang stunned and a little confused. They realised suddenly that they were all really very hungry. breakfast sounded good. Ravi seemed to be in safe hands. They went in search of a hotel, taking their van with them.
Dickey heard the rapid fire talk by the doctor and made notes about name of hospital. He remembered the doctor’s name from kamalkant train incident.Though he had no idea of the early morning attack on the police commissioner’s office complex, he was quick to connect the information given by the doctor to some Maoist activity and proceeded to inform his friend APC Chandra Mouli.
Mouli was having a testing time at his office fielding so many calls from all and sundrywhile monitoring progress made by search parties tracking down the jail birds.He was naturally irritated when Dickey’s call came through and he barked into phone unceremoniously,”what is it Dickey?Are you also calling me to tell how in efficient my police force is.Yes, Yes.They blasted the rear wall of the complex and spirited away the two Sinhalese Maoists and Iam here, there and everwher, trying to bring them back.so unless it is terribly important, switch off your call and let me do my work”
Dickey herd all that outburst without interrupting.He had been in similar situation and his sympathies were with Mouli. So he made himself heard by adapting his most pleasant tone and said, ‘Relax buddy. I am most probably giving you the best news you would ever hear. I just got a call from Doctor Shankar rao of legacy hospital. He has got a man with bullet wound and half a dozen gun wielding goons are threatening to cut his throat if he did not extract the bullet. the doctor claimed he is not an extraction specialist and needs a surgeon’s help. Doctor is on stalling mode and his time is running out. I think this is your chance to redeem your glory .So get your police surgeon with his toolkit ready and help thepoor doctor.If you want, Ican go dressed as assistant to surgeon to deal with thegoon squad.Are you listening ?.say yes sir brightly, you idiot.’
Mouli stared at the phone with his mouth open and his face broke into most pleasant smile and he said, ‘Dickey ,Iwill kiss you sometime very soon.but just now the post of assistant to police surgeon is already taken and big thanks to you.call youas soon as I grab that joker.’ he put the phone down and called his inspector kamath and shouted instruction rapid fire.
In less than 30 minutes, Mouli , a police surgeon and Kamath, all in plain clothes were at the hospital driving furiously in a private car. A few minutes later, a police ambulances with attendants raced into the hospital compound..
Ravi was sedated in preparation for the surgery, so he never knew what happened to him. The two goons standing guard outside the operation theatre,were dozing when Inspector Kamath and another constable appeared to take them away. They were too surprised to offer any resistance.
The gang of four and their leader Maliah drove round the block looking for a decent hotel to have some breakfast and strong coffee. Hyderabad is unique in this regard because not many hotels open early in the morning , so they had to waste considerable time before sighting a popular Udipi hotel .They sat down and ordered and by 8 o clock returned to the hospital, carrying parcels of food for their comrades waiting in the hotel.
They climbed up the flight of stairs leading to surgical section. Their friends were not there to greet them. The operation theatre was locked from outside. The entire place seemed deserted.
He raced down the stairs sensing trouble, reached the reception desk and caught hold of young man who had just arrived to take over his day shift.
‘Where is the Doctor?’ Malliah asked.
“which Doctor sir?”the man asked in return.
Dr.Sankar Rao.malliah was now screaming
Oh! Dr.Sankar rao left at 8 o clock immediately after his surgery. He will now be available after 11.00A.M”.The man answered politely, not understanding why the GUEST was getting agitated. He was blissfully unaware of the events of early morning.
Where are my friends? where is the patient we brought?
“What is name of patient, sir?”.the man was provocatively polite and Malliah answered him with a resounding slap. The receptionist was shocked beyond words. The most un expected stinging slap brought tears in his eyes but he held on and played his part of a trained receptionist to the hilt.
‘This is outrageous , sir. I will report you to the police immediately.’He reached for the phone watching Malliah get his gun out.
“YOUNGMAN, IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR Doctor Sankar in next five minutes, Iwill blow your brains out and burn this hospital to ground.
The man got the doctor on line.
Dr Shankar Rao was calm. He said, ”The police came and took your friends away. I finished my scheduled work and returned home. I do not know any thing else about your friends.”
Doctor, if you do not come back here in next ten minutes, we will kill your receptionists , all your doctors and burn your place. He banged the phone and told his friends to take the hospital apart. In next ten minutes they smashed every thing in sight.. A couple of shots were sufficient to scare all the in patients and there was a stampede to get out of the hospital. Systematically, they burned the hospital to the ground. Malliah knew that if police had taken his friends back to police jail, his work was finished and waiting at thehospital would not be such a smart idea. he told his friends to wrap up and get back to the van.He swore he will kill the doctor for betraying him.
Back in the van, the gang considered their situation.it was bad that Ravi could not be sprung out of jain.They hoped he would get proper treatment at the hands ofgovernment.They also hoped that Ravi would not talk.
About getting even with the doctor, they may have to wait.He would now be under a stiif security blanket. It is better to lie low. But the temptation to have the last word with the doctor was strong. Malliah called up the doctor’s number and when he came on line, he said, ”Do not be too happy about what you have done. We have killed your doctors and destroyed your hospital. We will come after you now after all excitement dies out. Your sleeping days are over. Prepare yourself to deal with your end.”
He drove away with out waiting to hear what the good doctor had to say..
The news about the massacre at the hospital hit the city like a bomb. Kamalkant watched it on TV being played again and again.
Kamala heard about it too at her construction site. She remembered that swamiji had predicted it.