The day was coming to a close at the Alexandria office. Dr. Kam, 31, asks Jocelyn and Genet to give him the reports. The lights slowly started turning off, except for one of the Operating rooms in the back. The girls (Genet and Jocelyn, including the hygienists and assistants) all leave soon after one another. The office is empty except for me and the doctor. From what I thought, Jocelyn had forgotten to turn off room three’s lights so I went back there to flick the switch and to my surprise I saw a tray of instruments laying there; the room was set up for one more patient. I quickly turned around and went to Kam’s office where I asked him why room three was set up. He then told me we had one more patient to take care of. I brushed it off, and continued doing my chores around the office like setting up the new computers and organizing files. After about six months in an office, some things become routine, but today things went out of the usual cycle.
After finishing his papers, Kam came around and told me to put my goggles, mask, and jacket on. Mohammed was here. At first glance he looked like any other person; but after examining him for a second as he passed me by going towards the operating room, his right arm looked quite white as compared to his very dark left arm. His pinstripe, button-up-shirt read Cadillac on a patch over his heart with his name written below. As Kam was preparing the materials for the procedure, I sat there patiently waiting for him to tell me what to do. As I looked even closer at Mohammed, I realized that his right hand was actually a prosthetic. Even closer I looked at Mohammed and things started coming together.
His English accent was poor; it seemed as if he had just come to America within the past couple of years. As Kam started applying the Novocain to Mohammed’s mouth, I handed Mohammed a pair of goggles to put on. For some odd reason the goggles would not stay straight on his face, they were leaning up and becoming crooked every time we adjusted them. We moved on. After waiting a couple minutes for the numbness to settle in, Mohammed opened wide and flashed his, ‘pearly whites.’ Although not so pearly, we began to drill on tooth number three, Mohammed had a large cavity that had to be removed, otherwise it would hit the root ending and he would require a root canal. Dr. Kam all of a sudden handed me the drill after fully informing me of the situation – introducing me as Dr. Kayvan also helped the circumstances. I only allowed myself to drill the tooth for less than ten seconds before I took my foot off the pedal and handed the drill back to the doctor. He continued the operation and successfully removed the entirety of the caries that were in his mouth. I was still wondering, though, how this man had no hand or ear.
After the procedure was done, Mohammed got up and thanked the doctor very earnestly. He left the office without signing anything or looking at any papers. I then asked the doctor who this mystery man was. He told me the story. Mohammed came from Sierra Leone, Africa a couple years ago. He had nothing with him, no money, no family, and no luck. He was taken upon Dr. Kam as a charity patient because Mohammed had no money to pay for any of the tens of thousands of dollars of mouth work needed.
Mohammed is a part of every one of us. Every time we go into the mall he is in those stores that are conveniently located on almost every corner next to department stores. He is part of your family, part of any awards show, and part of any special event. He was a blood diamond worker in Africa for his whole life – they cut of his hand and his ear because of the line of work he was involved in. I bet he’s part of at least one of us. Now tell me, next time you see a diamond, will you think of Mohammed? I will.
No comments:
Post a Comment