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alice-edevane-blog · 6 years ago

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An Encounter

@subject-project-exodus

[4:00 a.m. - University Girl’s Dorm]

Beep beep beep beeeep.

The sound of an alarm kept ringing in a pitch black room. A figure covered in blankets and white sheets groaned in bed.

“Alicee. Could you turn down that alarm! I’m trying to sleep heree”, called out a voice from another room.

Alice slowly put out her hand to tap the bedside table, felt her way to locate the red square alarm clock making the noise and finally switched it off.

5 minutes go by and another alarm goes off in the distance. This time it was her phone charging by the dresser.

“ALICEEE.”, yelled the same voice from the other room causing her to slide her sheets, run for the source of the noise, unlock her phone and switch off the second alarm.

“Sorry!” she replied back to the voice.

At least that technique of setting two alarms far apart from each other worked. God, who on earth holds rounds 6.a.m. in the morning? She thought to herself as she rubbed her eyes and walked to the side for her bed to open up the window. It was still dark outside, the sun had barely come out leaving the girls dormitories as dark as night. She yawned and stretched then started to get ready for the day.

[6:00.am. - Hospital Wards, Oncology Building]

The hustle and bustle of students gathering around with their bloodshot eyes was depressing. There were about 8 students in total. They were all gathered around in the vacant hospital corridor. A nurse walked up to them looking very displeased and said “Could you stop blocking the corridor for goodness sake! We have patients in here trying to sleep you know!”. The students shushed whatever little noise they were making, Alice had just found her group having discreetly joined in as they all nodded an apology and waited for their professor to appear.

Dr. Felix Taylor, a middle-aged man wearing a clean white lab coat and a pair of glasses, greeted the class with a wave then proceeded to walk towards the patient wards. The students stared at him walking away for a while and then at each other and then at him again before they rushed after him.

Room 501

There was a child in the room. Without close inspection, they could tell there was something wrong with his eyes. Dr. Taylor greeted the family of the boy and explained to them that they were here to examine their son. The family agreed to let the students look at the boy and the doctor thanked them. He then turned to his students clapping his hands together with a question: “So, what do you see?”.

“Blue instead of the usual white in the eyes,” all of them replied.

“Good, what else would you expect?” Dr. Taylor asked further.

“Fragile bones and probably difficulty hearing?” one of the students answered.

“Very good, so tell me what is this condition called?” asked Dr. Taylor.

“Osteogenesis Imperfecta!”, almost everyone replied in unison.

“Great, that is what I’d expect from my class! Now tell me, what is the mutation that causes this?” he questioned and the class fell silent. “Anyone?” he asked again.

“Mutations in the COL1A1 gene,” Alice answered.

Everyone turned around to look at her as she continued on with her answer,

“Although, it could also be a mutation in it’s partner the COL1A2 gene. Both of these genes are responsible for producing type 1 collagen, which is important to form the outer layer of the eye. A mutation usually causes either a decrease in number or a decrease in functionality of these collagen fibers thinning out the said layer, thus the underlying veins are visible. This is why we see blue to grayish discoloration in the eyes.”

Dr. Taylor just stood there giving out a slight chuckle to express his amazement, “Excellent as always, Alice.” The rest of the students started jotting down notes on what was just said.

“Now, let’s move on, shall we?” The doc said as he left the room and proceeded to the next. The group saw a total of 4 patients before they entered a special ward.

A restricted ward.

He swapped his card by the door as it beeped and clicked open. The door led to a hall with many rooms. There were no names on the rooms, just numbers. There were nurses stationed at each door and each holding a clipboard.

“Good morning Dr. Taylor”, the nurse greeted as they walked past her into one of the rooms that contained yet another door. This door was a see-through glass door.

When Alice first saw him, he was a young 12 year old lying on the bed with his father by his side. There were IV lines attached to his arm along with a pump that administered a specified dose of various drugs into his arteries. She could hear them talk while the nurse briefed everyone of the patient’s overnight status.

"Dad...when can I come home?"

"...Soon, son."

"They say I'm sick. When I get better, can we go to the fair?"

"Of course."

"Yay..I look forward to it."

"I know, son. Now rest."

There was a knock on the door before a nurse, a doctor and a bunch of students came in.

“Excuse us, Mr. Valentine. May we borrow your son for a few minutes?”

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