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The hospital director also came to me,saying he had noticed all my hard work and decided to start preparing for my promotion once things calmed down.Life was finally on the upswing.
A week later,my consultation room wasn’t as crowded as before,and things returned to normal.I finally had time to chat with my colleagues.
One day,when I went to get some water,I heard a commotion.The emergency department staff and security guards sprinted towards the entrance.
Someone was carried out of an ambulance,their face deathly pale.I asked the nurse at the front desk what was going on.She frowned and said,“It seems that the patient’s girlfriend put an excessive amount of sleeping pills in his milk to help him sleep.And then,it seems she wasn’t satisfied and poured more dissolved sleeping pills into him after he fell asleep.”
My heart sank when I heard this crazy story.
The crash team rushed the gurney toward elevators.I dashed ahead and pressed the button for the first floor.The doctors gave me a grateful look.As they pushed the patient in,I finally saw who it was.
It was Ethan Thompson.
After finishing my afternoon consultations,I went to the emergency room where Ethan was.The“In Surgery”sign above the door glowed red.
Sitting outside was Emily.Her hair was a mess,and her eyes were empty.She just stared blankly at the corridor wall.
I went over to ask her what had happened,but she just slammed me against the wall,eyes wild.She used so much strength that I couldn’t move.People around us quickly came to separate us.
With her disheveled hair,she looked terrifying.Her eyes were wide open as she shouted incoherently in the corridor.In response,the hospital gave her a sedative.
As the sedative took effect,a single tear tracked down Emily’s cheek.
Ethan’s parents soon arrived at the hospital.After learning what had happened,they wanted to lash out at Emily but were stopped.His parents’ hair was completely white.
No one wanted to see the tragic sight of the elderly mourning the death of their child.
After several hours of intense surgery,the light outside the operating room finally went out.The door opened,and the doctor walked out slowly.
Ethan’s parents rushed forward hopefully.“Doctor,how is our son?”
The doctor was silent for a few seconds.Finally,he had to break the bad news to the expectant parents.“We did everything we could.”
Ethan had been given the sleeping pills the previous night.Emily didn’t realize something was wrong until she woke up and couldn’t wake him up,and his hands felt ice-cold.In a panic,she even had a meal before calling the ambulance.By the time he was brought to the hospital,it was too late.
Ethan’s parents cried bitterly at the hospital,fainting several times.With much comfort and persuasion,they gradually came to terms with Ethan’s death.
Emily was taken away by the police again.This time,I stopped one of the officers.
“Emily requires psychiatric assessment,”I suggested.
The police took my advice and conducted a thorough psychiatric evaluation on Emily.The results came out quickly.She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
During their college years,Emily’s relationship with Ethan had made her feel like she was on top of the world.Ethan had always indulged her.Even after their breakup,Emily was convinced that Ethan would come back to her unconditionally as soon as she showed up.
Coincidentally,when she came back,she saw Ethan proposing to me.Seeing that the proposal scene was decorated the way she liked,she thought she could easily push me aside now that she was back.But things turned out completely differently.
Ethan’s repeated bouts of insomnia made her believe that I was more important to him.This thought haunted her day after day,eventually leading to her developing paranoid schizophrenia.She was obsessively determined to make Ethan sleep well because of her.
Ethan’s parents sued Emily.The pain of losing their son in middle age made them desperately need an outlet for their grief.The court found Emily guilty of manslaughter by negligence.She would spend the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital.When the verdict was announced,Emily silently shed tears in the defendant’s dock.Her hands were horribly bitten,a clear sign of severe paranoia.
I didn’t attend Ethan’s funeral,but I heard that his parents almost fainted from crying at the service.Emily wasn’t allowed to go to the funeral,and her life in the psychiatric hospital wasn’t easy.Many of the other patients bullied her because of her small stature.Although the hospital tried its best to mediate,the problem persisted.
I visited Emily a few times,hoping to help her let go of her grudges,but her reaction was so extreme when she saw me that I had to stop.Instead,I would send flower baskets and fruits during festivals.
Ultimately,Emily was also a pitiful person.And ironically,her online accusations against me actually brought me more attention,so in a way,I should thank her.
Many health-science video bloggers and TV shows invited me to talk about normal sleep duration and how to deal with insomnia.I was successfully promoted at work.My room was filled with so many banners of appreciation that they could cover an entire wall.
I also gradually found true love.When I was too busy to eat,a colleague would quietly leave a sandwich on my desk.I always thought he bought it from a store.But one day,when I asked him where he got it,he stammered and confessed they were homemade.
I was touched by his thoughtfulness.On the day he confessed his love,he gave me a bouquet of roses outside the department.I inspected the bouquet - no jasmine lurked beneath.
My nightmare was finally over.
