[2016] Good Girl Bad Girl by Ann Girdharry

Author:Ann Girdharry [Girdharry, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9780993560217
Google: h1b5vQAACAAJ
Publisher: Ann Girdharry
Published: 2016-07-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

As Kal crossed the ScottBioTec compound, the sun shone mercilessly down, pounding the baked earth. The children were in school and no noise came from anywhere. Even the cicadas were silent, over powered by the heat.

At the hospital entrance, Kal pressed the pass against a metal pad and the glass doors slid open. A welcome draught swept down from the air conditioning. The hospital smelled of cleaning fluids and disinfectant. A white man waited in the foyer. In his thirties, with curly brown hair, he wore a blue, nurse’s tunic.

“You must be Kavita. Hello, my name's Tommy and I'll be taking you on a visit of the facility.”

“Pleased to meet you, Tommy,” she said, “you sound American.”

“Can't hide the accent. I'm from Illinois.”

“So how did you find your way to India?”

“By chance,” he said, giving her a mischievous smile.

Tommy was attractive, in good shape, full of personality, and on first glance, most probably gay.

“I’m pretty good at puzzling people out, give me a few seconds, hmmm, let me see… was it by chance anything to do with love?” she asked.

Tommy laughed. “You're a good guesser. I was chasing after a nurse who came to work here. That was two years ago and I'm still here.”

“And the nurse, where's she?”

“Actually it was a ‘he’. He left. I'm a mental health nurse myself so I stayed on and what d'ya know, I fell in love with the people. I can't get enough of their honesty and spirituality, not to mention the dahl and curry.” Tommy patted his stomach and laughed again. “Come on, we’ll start at the top and I’ll explain as we go.”

They took the stairs to the top floor.

“This is a whistle-stop tour, so you understand the basics. There are five separate departments – the research institute, specialised surgery unit, intensive care, therapy and technical department. First of all, if children are selected at the clinic, they're put straight on a physical therapy and nutrition programme to prepare them for surgery. Most of the children have been under-nourished since birth, so you can't just wheel them into the operating theatre. It can take up to a year for them to be fit to withstand the procedures.”

“That’s a long time.”

“Sure, and it’s what’s required. When a child is ready, a tiny micro-electrode array is implanted in the brain. As you can imagine, the brain surgery is a delicate procedure and the children remain in intensive care until they've been stabilised. After that’s successful, the child’s limb stems are prepared to be ready to accept the artificial replacements. “

“Does the brain surgery always go well?”

“Mostly, yes. In occasional cases, the children can react badly. It's a highly specialised field and Dr Mark, our senior surgeon, has pioneered the work. In fact, he's become a world expert. Before we started at ScottBioTec, implantation of electrodes in the brain had only been attempted on animals.”

They peered in the window of a ward. Four children lay surrounded by machines.

“These four have already completed the brain surgery procedures and they’ve recently had their lower limbs prepared.

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