Chapter Seven

“No, that's Brandon Harrison”, his subconsciousness said to him, “and he was never even in medical school”, he reminded himself while still being puzzled about the young new director.

The Brandon Harrison that had made him widen his eyes was a notorious well known nepobaby who was all over campus back at Howard, and it certainly would be unimaginable if he were to become the new director.

“Good morning everyone”, Brandon Harris said after the clapping had quieted down and people were now back on their seats.

“ As Dr. Lewis said, my name is Brandon Harris, and I have been appointed as the new director here, at Billywood's. And uh……for starters, I'm not going to say much. I'm just here to officially present myself before all of you. Even though I was placed here as a leader, I'm not going to be doing much of that. Instead, I will be working together with you all to see to the growth of this hospital. So please, give me your maximum cooperation. Thank you”, he said and took a little step away from the lectern and bowed.

Another round of applause echoed and roared throughout the conference room, and once again, everyone stood on their feet, clapping and smiling.

They had already fallen in love with him.

Brandon still has it in him. That speaking eloquence that glued people's ears to him. It was still in him, and Ben knew that he had heard him speak before. His voice, his manner of speech, he was sure that he had heard it before, but he couldn't tell where.

“Mr. Baron, you don't seem to understand. Your son needs this blood to survive”, Ben was almost at the edge of tears as he tried to talk some sense into the father of his patient. “His blood level is below 5.0, and it is as dangerous as it can get. Blood supplements won't get him anywhere. He needs blood, and if he doesn't get it, I don't want to think about what would happen”.

“Doctor, my son will not be getting any blood”, Mr. Baron said firmly as his wife stood beside him, crying.

“Mr. Baron, I don't think you really understand what I'm saying”.

“No, I understand, doctor. You're saying that my son might die if he does not receive blood transfusion, and as his legal guardian, I said no, he won't be getting any”, the old man also had tears in his eyes. “We are believers. We don't and will not fall prey to going against God's wishes and doing something so ungodly. So no, he won't be getting any blood transfusion. Do everything you have to do to save him, if you can, but he will not be getting any blood transfusion”.

Ben heaved. He had had enough, and now, he was tired. It was already 7:00 pm.

“He could die. For heaven's sake, your son could die”.

He should've used ‘will’. That was the situation they were in.

“Then it is God's will. If he does, he will one day go to join our Lord. And that is better than receiving sin and forever being condemned to never seeing the face of the Lord”.

Ben has seen religious fanatics, people who believed that synthetic medicine itself was a sin against God, but this one was topping his list.

“Mrs. Baron, what do you have to say? You can also give consent. We can start the transfusion immediately and your son can live”.

The crying lady shook her head, and her eyes said it before her lips could; she had no choice but to watch her son die all due to the stupidity of her husband.

He looked at the young man lying on the bed, plugged into devices that were merely keeping him alive. His blood pressure was steadily reducing, and there wasn't enough blood to get to all his cells and tissues.

“Then you have to sign the paperwork, because if anything happens to him, you will have yourself to blame”, Ben said.

“This is what he would've wanted. I will sign it. Let the will of the Lord be done”, the words smelled like shit coming out from the old man's mouth.

Ben walked away, feeling the anger in him rising, an anger that was saddled by helplessness.

On his way back to his office, he wondered what the young man's decision would've been if he wasn't in a coma. Would it still be the same as that of his father? And what about the woman? Would she have allowed it and watched her son to die all because of her faith, knowing fully well that there was a way to take him away from death's doorway?

He could only answer the latter. If that man wasn't there, the mother would've allowed it. All mothers would've allowed it.

It was 1:34 AM when Ben started running back to the patient’s ward from his office due to a code blue, and without even asking the nurse on the phone who the patient was, he knew immediately that it was him.

The shock resuscitation was administered, but it was of no use. There wasn't enough blood to keep the heart pumping, and so with teary eyes and a heavy heart, Ben pronounced the young man, Alex Baron, dead, at 1:54 Am, on the 6th of October, 2025.

He went home later in the day with that heavy heart. He should've looked for something to eat, but he didn't. Even if he did, he was sure the only thing in his apartment was bread. He has always been so engrossed in work that he sometimes forgets that he actually needs to go grocery shopping. The lack of something edible in the house wasn't due to lack of money. Far from that. It was due to lack of time. And so he laid on his bed and dozed off. Whenever he wakes up, he'll order.

One of the perks of being a health worker was that you had to get used to the reality of life; that people actually die, never to be seen again, and that life had to go on for the living.

Ben still thought about the kind of agony Alex's mother must be in, but he had to put all that to the back of his mind. He had evening call and he had other patients to save.

He arrived at the hospital by 8:00 pm, and while he was greeting people and walking to the elevator, he bumped into someone, someone carrying papers, and so a snowfall of papers ensued.

“Oh my God, I'm so so sorry”, Ben said as he immediately bent down to pick the scattered papers.

The person also bent down to pick the fallen papers.

“I'm so so sorry”, Ben said as he stood up, handing the papers over to the person and realizing that the person wasn't just anybody, but was Brandon Harrison, the new director.

“No problem”, Brandon said and collected the papers from him. “Hey, are you a doctor here?”

“Yes, I am”, Brandon tried to be casual and polite.

“Oh. It just feels like I've seen you somewhere before. Somewhere that isn't here”.

“Right? I was wondering the same thing too, but I couldn't quite say where it was that I met you”.

“Mmmh, let's see…..uh…..”, Brandon closed one of his eyes, slightly looking up to the ceiling as if the answers he sought were there, “ah ha, I remember!” He almost shouted, “the graduation ceremony. Hickey”.

“Graduation ceremony? Hickey? Is that a place?”

“No, you were the graduate with a hickey. I spoke at your graduation ceremony. Yeah, at Howard University, remember?”

Ben didn't need to be told twice. He remembered immediately, and when he realized that Brandon was actually the guest speaker at his graduation, his eyes widened again. But this time it wasn't just his eyes that widened. His jaws almost dropped to the ground.