Quickly prepare the operating room!” someone barked, and the medics immediately wheeled in a stretcher through the wide doors of the military hospital. On it lay a soldier with his leg tightly bandaged.
Young surgeon Katya immediately approached the stretcher. The paramedic from the ambulance, panting, reported:
“Shrapnel wound to the leg, seems not too deep. The artery is intact, first aid was given, blood stopped as best we could… But he’s getting worse!”
Katya glanced briefly at the soldier. Something was wrong. The ambulance team had acted perfectly. So why was he in this state? She noticed his bluish lips, the tips of his fingers, and the earthy color of his face. His breathing was barely noticeable, and his pulse was weak, barely palpable.
“Take him to the operating room!” Katya commanded the medics. She threw a quick order to the nurse: “Urgently run blood tests!”
She had a troubling feeling about some hidden issue with this young man, which he might not even suspect.
While preparations for the operation were underway, the nurse brought back the test results.
“Wow!” Katya grabbed her head and immediately showed the paper to the anesthesiologist. “That’s why he’s so bad!”
She quickly mentioned the rare disease that causes the blood to lose its ability to carry oxygen.
“No one treated him for this! No wonder the cyanosis and the breathing difficulties. They almost killed the guy! We need to start a different treatment. Once we stabilize him, we’ll address the leg.”
“That’s not by the protocol, Katya,” the anesthesiologist hesitated, glancing warily at her.
“I take full responsibility!” Katya snapped, not giving him a chance to argue. “We can’t wait, or he’ll start suffering from brain hypoxia and complications. Is that what you want?”
The operation was a success. A few hours later, the soldier regained consciousness.
“How are you feeling?” Katya took his hand, checking his pulse. “You look much better than when you were brought in.”
“Doctor, I don’t understand what happened,” the man frowned, looking at her questioningly. “The wound seemed minor, but I feel like I’ve fallen somewhere… I don’t remember how I was taken to the ambulance or brought here…”
“Did you know about your disease?” Katya named the rare illness. The man shook his head.
“What is that?”
“Some substances might have triggered a flare-up when the wound was treated. Normal treatment is now contraindicated for you. You need to know this. We’ll record it in your file, but please, remember this as well. Later, I’ll tell you which medications you shouldn’t take.”
“Wow!” the patient exclaimed. “I’ve been living for thirty-five years and only just found out! Thank you, doctor!”
“No need for thanks,” Katya smiled. “Get well soon.”
She left the room where Captain Gleb Semyonovich Petrov was transferred after the operation. The thirty-year-old captain watched her leave with a slight half-smile on his lips.
“Such a…” he mumbled, not finding the right words.
And Katya truly stood out. Men couldn’t take their eyes off her: thick, almost black hair fell in waves over her shoulders, and her brown almond-shaped eyes seemed to look straight into the soul. Her direct gaze was something few could endure.
She had no time for arguments with her husband, whom she’d been with for eight years—too rarely could they even meet. Katya practically lived in the hospital, spending days and nights at work. And her husband, Kostya, was a long-haul trucker, always on the road.
Lying in the hospital, Gleb noticed Katya’s wedding ring and immediately felt a little down. She had really made an impression on him. “A husband is not a wall,” he thought to himself and decided that once he was discharged, he would find out more about her.
He had been married once before. A beautiful blonde had literally hung herself around his neck. What man could resist such a beauty? But their happiness didn’t last long. His wife didn’t want to move with him to the garrisons, saying she wouldn’t bury her youth in barracks where there was nowhere to go. She also thought all officer wives were boring old hens who only discussed recipes and gossiped. Life in that environment brought little joy.
Gleb didn’t try to hold her back. He had long realized he had made a mistake, and the divorce was quick and without unnecessary stress. There wasn’t much to split. Now, he had met a woman who had drawn him in with incredible force.
Days in the hospital passed slowly and monotonously: injections, drips, physiotherapy. Sometimes, during her shift, Katya would stop by, and they would talk for hours about everything. They found that they had many common interests, and the topics for conversation were endless. Who knows how it all would have ended if not for one terrible accident.
“Hey, slow down, clumsy! Where are you going?” the driver of the truck bringing oxygen cylinders shouted at the new medic, who managed to drop one of the cylinders off the truck. “Do you want to blow everything up? Call for help! One hands it, the other catches it!”
The other cylinders were unloaded carefully, the truck left, and no one noticed the crack in the valve area of the dropped cylinder. It was rolled into the storage with the others.
“Hey, brother, where’s the smoking area?” the new medic asked his colleague, the one he had called for help. “I’ve been dying for a smoke for two hours.”
“Over there, around the corner,” the other medic waved his hand, rushing somewhere. “Hurry up, there’s plenty of work to do.”
“Such a ridiculous routine here! To go that far…” the new medic muttered when his colleague disappeared around the corner. “If you want it faster, I can smoke here.”
He went under the shelter where the cylinders were stored, patted his pockets for a lighter. He found a matchbox, struck a match, lit a cigarette, and took a long puff with a blissful smile. At that moment, the storage began filling with oxygen from the damaged cylinder.
“What are you doing?!” a shrill female voice screamed. “You can’t smoke here!”
Katya rushed toward the storage to grab the cigarette from him and put it out. The medic, shocked, dropped the cigarette right at his feet. To make matters worse, the driver dropped an oily rag onto the ground, and the medics, not noticing it, kicked it into the corner where the cylinders were. Everything ignited instantly.
“What are you standing there for? Put it out!” Katya shouted at the medic, who stood frozen. She had nothing at hand, so she ripped off her gown and began using it to try to smother the flames. But the more she waved, the bigger the fire grew. “Help!”
Due to the high temperature, the pressure in the cylinders rose to the limit, and they exploded almost simultaneously, throwing both Katya and the medic away with the blast.
She woke up in an unfamiliar ward. A serious-looking doctor was standing by her, speaking, but her head was buzzing, her ears ringing, and she couldn’t understand the words. The pain in her chest was so intense that Katya couldn’t hold back a groan. It felt like her lungs were clamped into a tight ball. The nurse gave her an injection, and Katya fell back into darkness.
When she regained consciousness, dusk had already fallen outside. The silence around her was so overwhelming it seemed like her ears were clogged.
“Where is everyone? What happened?” Katya became anxious and sat up in bed.
Her head was still spinning. She noticed that her hand was bandaged. Stepping out into the hallway, she bumped into a nurse.
“Tell me… where am I?” Katya froze. She didn’t hear her own voice; only felt some vibration in her head from her vocal cords, as if her throat were blocked. The nurse said something, but Katya couldn’t make out the words.
“Am I deaf?” she asked louder than usual, but there was no answer.
The nurse just shrugged and said something else, but her words drowned in the noise in Katya’s head. She swayed but was caught by a nearby medic, who helped her back to the room and put her back into bed.
Later, the doctor she had seen before came in. He pulled up a chair, sat next to her, and after a moment of silence, asked:
“Can you hear me at all?”
Katya watched his lips carefully. She never thought that lip-reading would be so useful. In her normal life, it was only needed to communicate with her deaf parents. She also knew sign language, but now wasn’t the time.
“No, I can’t hear you,” Katya said clearly. “But I can read your lips. Just speak more slowly. What happened to me? Where am I? And why is my hand bandaged?”
“You’ve been concussed,” the doctor said slowly. “During the oxygen cylinder explosion. You have burns—from your shoulder to your wrist.”
“And what about the hospital? There was another medic… What happened to him?” Katya remembered the new medic with the cigarette and the fear in his eyes.
“He’s in the burn unit, serious injuries,” the doctor replied. “The hospital was evacuated. Those who could be discharged went home, and the rest were redistributed to hospitals around the city. You need to rest; we’ll invite a specialist to assess your hearing later.”
“And which city is this?” Katya asked the doctor as he was leaving. He explained that the city was hundreds of kilometers away from her hometown, where the military hospital was. There were no other hospitals here.
The examination showed no serious injuries, and her hearing should recover over time. After a couple of weeks, her hand healed, and she was discharged. She sent an SMS to her husband from another phone—hers had been burned in the fire. She wrote that she had temporarily lost her hearing and connection but would send the address once she settled in.
There was no work for a doctor in this city. And no one especially wanted to hire a medic with temporary hearing loss. She had to agree to work as a janitor. The doctor who had treated her offered her a position at their hospital:
“You’ll work as a medic, stay under the care of specialists, and continue your treatment. Over time, your hearing will return, and you can go back to medicine.”
Katya agreed to work for the janitor’s salary. They even gave her a small room to live in. The head of the hospital was understanding, even though it violated the rules. But soon, he was promoted, and a new boss came to the hospital.
The first person he saw was Katya. She was cleaning the floor in the hallway, and so focused on her work that she didn’t notice him stopping behind her, trying to pass. Katya was working so energetically with the mop that it was impossible to get past her.
“Can you stop for a minute?” he asked sternly, standing behind her. She didn’t answer. Katya continued mopping the floor. “Woman, can you hear me?” he raised his voice, but to no avail.
“Semyon Lvovich,” the nurse approached him, “Katya can’t hear; she’s completely deaf.”
“Well, well!” the man muttered. “Who are they hiring nowadays…”
He patted Katya on the shoulder. She startled, turned around, and smiled at him.
“Sorry, didn’t notice,” she said.
“So, she speaks!” Semyon Lvovich was surprised, turning to the nurse.
“Of course, she’s deaf, not mute,” the nurse nodded and hurried off. The staff had already been warned that the new head wasn’t particularly tactful.
Meanwhile, the ENT doctor and neurologist prescribed Katya some medication and physiotherapy to restore nerve cells. She worked hard on her treatment, hoping to regain her hearing soon.
One day, Kostya arrived after a long trip. The girls from the reception department led him to her room.
“Hi, Katya! How are you here?” he blurted as he entered, not even hugging her or bringing anything. “Is this your home now? They told me… that you’re some kind of deaf janitor… It’s all so strange…”
Katya didn’t expect such coldness from her husband. She had hoped for support, but instead, she got complaints and dissatisfaction.
“It’s only temporary,” she said firmly, but Kostya interrupted her with a skeptical grunt:
“Nothing stays temporary. Sorry, we barely see each other as it is, and now I have to communicate with you… how? I think we should break up. I can’t spend my life sitting across from you and watching you stare at my lips.”
Katya was stunned. It was a blow below the belt. She understood their relationship had cooled, but that he would leave her in such a situation… she never thought about it.
“Fine,” she said calmly, turning away. “Leave the keys to the apartment on the nightstand and just slam the door.”
Now he could say whatever he wanted—she wouldn’t hear it anyway. That’s how her family life ended. Without any regret, Katya took off her wedding ring and threw it out the window. Life went on, and she had to recover her hearing.
One day, there was some hustle in the department. Katya noticed it from the hurried movements of the nurses and doctors.
“What happened?” she stopped one of them and looked carefully at her lips.
“Car accident,” the nurse quickly but clearly explained. “A truck crashed into a car with military personnel at a turn. Three victims, all being brought here. Only David Isakovich is on site, the others are on sick leave.”
The nurse rattled off the information and ran off. Katya just shook her head. She didn’t know what help she could offer, so she decided to just observe.
Fifteen minutes later, the victims were brought in. When one of the stretchers passed by, Katya gasped—it was Gleb. She sometimes thought about him, but never expected to meet him again. She really hoped he hadn’t been hurt in the fire. Katya couldn’t see the lips of the medics who were bringing him in, so she didn’t know what was wrong, but the oxygen mask made her suspicious. Grabbing a bucket and mop, she hurried to follow the stretcher.
David Isakovich, an elderly doctor with two years until retirement, was rushing between the three victims. Katya tracked where they took Gleb and decided to talk to the doctor. She left the bucket and headed toward him, but noticed his frightened look directed behind her. Turning around, she saw the following: Semyon Lvovich, rushing to the ward, tripped over her bucket and knocked it over. The water spread across the floor, soaking his shoes.
“Why do we need this deaf fool in the ward?!” he hissed, throwing her an angry glance and shaking his legs, trying to shake off the water. “All she brings is trouble! I’ll fire her!”
Katya read all this on his lips and was stunned by the unjust accusations. It was he who hadn’t looked where he was going and tripped himself. But she didn’t have time to respond—Semyon Lvovich disappeared into the ward. A minute later, he came out again and grumbled:
“Why are you standing there like statues? Move! A lung injury is not a scratch!”
David Isakovich began reporting to him on the prescribed treatment. The head nodded approvingly and then barked, “Work!” and went into his office, throwing one last angry look at Katya. She just indifferently watched him with her eyes.
“I understand, now Gleb will be treated according to the standard protocol. But they don’t know about his disease, and that could really harm him,” Katya thought.
The elderly doctor was already giving orders to the nurses when Katya called out to him:
“David Isakovich, wait! This patient shouldn’t be treated the usual way!”
The doctor looked at her in surprise. To him, the experienced doctor, it seemed strange that a young woman dared to teach him, the wise specialist who had saved hundreds of lives.
“Girl, what are you talking about? The head of the hospital approved the treatment,” David Isakovich tried to brush her off.
“David Isakovich,” Katya insisted, “It’s Gleb! He was in our hospital with a thigh wound, you can check the scar. You almost killed him back then! No one knew about his illness…”
She named the illness. The doctor grabbed his head.
“It looks like God really sent you!” he exclaimed, and immediately canceled the prescribed treatment, ordering urgent blood tests. Although he trusted Katya, he decided to personally confirm the diagnosis.
“Katya, you were right,” David Isakovich said, pale after studying the test results. “How could we not have known…”
New treatment was immediately prescribed. The other victims—the driver and the second passenger—had lighter injuries, the main impact had been on Gleb’s side.
After cleaning up the water spilled by the head, Katya changed into a clean gown and quietly entered the ward. Gleb was there. His condition had stabilized. Oxygen was being supplied through cannulas, and the instruments showed normal readings.
“That’s good,” Katya whispered and left.
The next morning, while cleaning the nurses’ station, she didn’t notice the new head entering. Only when he grabbed her elbow and suddenly… knelt down.
“Katya… Forgive me, old fool!” he pleaded, kissing her hands. “I was terribly wrong, I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that!”
The head’s face showed sincere repentance, and his eyes were filled with tears.
“Semyon Lvovich, please get up! What happened?” Katya tried to lift him.
“You saved my son,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “If it weren’t for you… something terrible could have happened.”
“My son?!” Katya didn’t understand.
“Gleb is my son,” Semyon Lvovich admitted. “I didn’t know about his illness… No one ever paid attention to his elevated hemoglobin…”
“How is he? Is he better?”
“Much better! And thank you, Katya, for noticing this about my son in the hospital. If it weren’t for you…” he repeated.
“I’m glad everything’s fine,” Katya smiled, taking off her gloves. The head kissed her hand once more and left.
The news quickly spread through the department. Besides Katya and Semyon Lvovich, the nurse who witnessed this scene was also present in the station.
After changing, Katya went to visit Gleb again. He was lying with his eyes closed, but there was already a slight blush on his cheeks.
“Get better soon, Gleb Semyonovich,” she whispered and turned to leave when suddenly his hand tightly gripped hers. Katya startled and turned around. Gleb was smiling.
“You saved me again,” she read his lips.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he said slowly and distinctly so she could understand him. They had already told him about her hearing loss. “Where’s the ring?” he asked, surprised, looking at her bare finger.
Katya shrugged and smiled weakly. Her heart raced, and she thought she could hear the sounds of the instruments, the footsteps outside the door, the squeak of the medicine cart. Her surprise didn’t escape Gleb.
“What? Did you hear?” he asked. His voice was muffled but understandable.
“I can hear!” she whispered, not believing her luck.
“Marry me,” Gleb suddenly said. “Can you hear that?”
Katya laughed with happiness.
“Yes, I hear it! With pleasure!”
Gleb smiled like a Cheshire cat. Katya’s hearing was fully restored. They got married right in the hospital, and soon she was invited back to work as a doctor. She worked there until her maternity leave.