Chapter 4
“WHAT is it?” Wendy asked Maria when she suddenly stopped walking. “Did you forget something?”
Maria looked back at the man Wendy bumped with, but they were already walking away. “Nothing…” she said as her eyes followed the two men walking out of the Hospital vicinity.
Her gaze focused on the man wearing a simple denim blue dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves. The coldness in his smoky voice was making her feel something painful. Maria shut her eyes, she must’ve mistaken that guy for somebody. ‘Of course, it can’t be,’ she said in her mind.
Wendy nudged her in the shoulder. “Do you like him?”
Maria’s brows furrowed when she opened her eyes. “What are you saying?”
Her friend chuckled. “What’s with that face?”
She shook her head. “Come on,” she said. “Did you bring Sara’s records? We’ll need it to get medicine discounts.”
Wendy rolled her eyes heavenwards. “Guess what? I already know that.”
They were about to enter the building when Sara’s doctor got out. He looks in a hurry but slowed down when he saw them approaching the hospital’s entrance.
“Maria, I was about to call you,” the handsome doctor told her and gave Wendy a curt nod.
Maria knotted her forehead. “For what, Doc Connor?”
Wendy nudged her again in the waist. “Come on, of course, it’s because of Sara.”
But based on the doctor’s expression, Maria suspected that it was not just about her daughter.
She swallowed hard before she spoke to Connor. “What is it about, Doc?”
Connor smiled hesitantly. The lines in his forehead were making Maria’s chest hammered. “Let’s go to my office.”
“Why do you have to go out of the building to call Maria?” Wendy asked Connor with an arched as they were walking towards the Hospital lobby.
Maria glared at her friend, but Wendy didn’t budge.
Connor scratched the corner of his brow. “Actually, I ran out of the mobile load. I was about to reload my network when I saw the two of you.”
“Oh, really?” Wendy asked, nodding. “You’re the only doctor I know that doesn’t have a postpaid plan in mobile network—”
“Wendy,” Maria cut off with a glare. “Stop being nosy.”
“Well, I’m just wondering,” she said with a shrug.
Connor chuckled. “I lost my phone when I went to Recto Street yesterday.”
Maria paused. She looked at Connor, surprised and nervous about what she heard. “W-What did you do at Recto?”
“I just bought some preloved medical books,” he said and opened the door of his office for them. “Come in. I need to discuss something very important to you.”
After felt being relieved of his reply, her heartbeat suddenly increased of what he was going to discuss with them. Her lips trembled as she spoke. “Is it about Sara’s condition?”
Connor sat on his swivel chair. He propped his elbows on the table and heaved a sigh. “I did some tests to her last week and…” He turned the laptop towards them. “These are the results.”
Maria’s brows furrowed as she stared at the monitor flashing a series of up and down lines. “Can you please explain what those lines mean?”
Wendy leaned closer to the monitor. “It looks like a normal heartbeat for me.”
Connor’s facial expression hardened. He touched the laptop’s screen, and the image zoomed. “Those are the images of Sara’s heartbeat in her recent ECG tests.”
“Then?” Wendy asked. When she looked at her and noticed her worried expression, she reached her hand and squeezed it.
Maria relaxed a little with that gesture from her friend. She smiled at her before she turned to Sara’s doctor, Connor. “Tell me, what does it mean?”
Connor looked in her eyes for seconds. His concerned expression only worsened her worries. “These lines showed the long spaces between Q and T lines.” Using his pen, he encircled the long lines between elevated lines. “On the first graph, it wasn’t noticeable.” He switched the image to another series of lines.
“I don’t see any differences,” Wendy commented, just like what she thought. “But, its definition wasn’t that scary, right? I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, right, Doc?”
Maria lowered her head. Her chest rose and fell due to tenseness. “Is it… serious?”
Connor heaved a sigh. “I won’t sugarcoat it to you, Maria. You have the right to know it. These lines were signs of the severity of Sara’s heart situation. Prolonged lines between Q and T can be life-threatening if weren’t treated early,” he said and point at the long flat line in between the elevated tracks. “It can trigger a severe heart atFredk.”
Maria bit her lower lip to prevent her tears. She breathed deeply and looked away from the laptop monitor. “Sara’s so young…” her voice cracked.
“Maria…” Connor touched her hand on the table. “You have to be strong. I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to Sara. I will monitor her from time to time.”
Maria nodded, trying her best to fight her tears but failed. Wendy took out her face towel and offered it to her. She buried her face to the cloth and cried quietly. She can’t afford to lose her daughter. She can’t afford to lose the only reason for her strength to continue in life.
“What could be the possible reasons for it?” Wendy asked after a few seconds of staring at the images on the screen. “Last time, you told us that it wasn’t that serious, that it can be treated with drugs—”
“Long flat lines usually caused by heart disease,” Connor shifted his gaze to her. “Her previous ECG before this one showed an uneven heartbeat. And, because these prolonged lines didn’t exceed the normal length before, I assumed that she has arrhythmia, that’s why I prescribed medicine that could prevent it from worsening—”
“Doc,” Maria cut off, clenching her fist on the table. “Can you just tell me what she really has?”
Wendy squeezed her hand. “Maria… calm down—”
“I can’t just calm down, Wendy,” she said in a quivered voice.
Connor heaved a sigh. “Sara has Long Q-T Syndrome. It’s a kind of the heart of failure. And, crying almost every night worsened her heart situation, Maria.”
Maria balled her hand into a fist. “Why does it have to be Sara? Why does it have to be her—”
“Maria…” Wendy stood and hugged her.
As soon as Wendy’s arms enveloped her, Maria broke down and wept in tears.
***
