18 November 2016 incident

Here, I would like to write about an incident that happened on 18 November 2016.

At that time, it was my Hospital Based Weeks for Stage 3 of MBBS. On that week, my group was posted to Batu Pahat hospital. As my group was quite large, we were divided into several subgroups for the hospital sessions. There was a seminar room specifically for NUMed students at Batu Pahat hospital. The key of the seminar room belonged to the hospital. They handed it to us but we had to return it before leaving.

The group leader was holding the key initially. She then passed the key to me as my subgroup was using the seminar room on 15 and 16 November. After the hospital sessions on 16 November, I returned the key to the group leader and I didn't hold the key thereafter. On 17 November, we returned to Johor Bahru.

On 18 November, there were lectures at NUMed. On that morning, the group leader received a call from Batu Pahat hospital. They were asking for the whereabouts of the seminar room key, as it wasn't returned to them. The group leader wasn't the last person holding the key as she had passed it to someone else. She asked everyone in our group about it, but no one was having the key.

BG then said that the key might be with me, as she saw the key on my chair in the seminar room right before she left on the previous day. My group mates began questioning me about the key, and that made me panicked a bit. I was in a rush when leaving the hospital on the previous day, so I might have overlooked the key on my chair, which would be a mistake on my part.

However, I definitely didn't put the key on the chair as I wasn't the one holding the key. Someone else must have placed the key there with the intention of passing it to me, but without telling me about it. If I held the key, I wouldn't have left it unattended. Later, my close friend from another group told me not to worry about the incident, as he had found out the truth.

As a matter of fact, OG was holding the key on 17 November. As his subgroup finished the hospital sessions earlier, he wanted to pass the key to me so that he could leave. OG was the one who placed the key on my chair. He didn't inform me about that, probably because he forgot. Consequently, I didn't know that the key was on the chair.

It was largely OG's mistake that the key got lost. Not wanting to be blamed for his own mistake, OG tried to push the blame onto me. OG and BG had a very close relationship, so BG was helping him by telling our group that she last saw the key on my chair, to make it look as if I was the one who lost the key.

When OG and BG were discussing this among themselves in the lecture theatre, my close friend who was sitting near them overheard their conversation. That was how he knew what happened. He then confronted OG and BG, making it clear that he wouldn't allow their plan to succeed. I felt so relieved after my close friend told me what happened.

Later that day, Batu Pahat hospital informed us that they found the key on the floor in the seminar room. The key must have fallen off from my chair. With that, the issue was resolved. BG then told our group that she was the one who placed the key there and she apologised for that. I too apologised to my group for not noticing that the key was on my chair.

OG remained silent and never revealed the truth that it was him who put the key there. Right from the beginning, he should have admitted his mistake and apologised. I am sure it wouldn't be a great issue and I would have been willing to share the responsibility with him. However, OG was too egoistic to do so. In the end, BG shouldered all the responsibility for OG.

BG had been my friend since Stage 1 of MBBS. OG was my housemate but I rarely communicated with him due to our very different personalities, although I did have a high regard for him. I had never expected that BG and OG would do such a thing. This incident really changed my perceptions towards them. On the other hand, this incident proved that my close friend is a true friend.