Legacies and Scalpels

Chapter 29: Christmas Eve

It sucks being an intern especially when you're working on Christmas Eve, that's right instead of being home relaxing with your family or waiting for Santa to come, I was in the hospital, checking on Aunt Cristina's lung dissection. I was checking their vitals when the patients heart monitor began beating rapidly. I said "Damn it code blue, stats are going down" I pressed the code blue button as the patient began to crash. The code team arrived and said "Doctor..." I grabbed the paddles and I said "Charge to 300" the defibrillator began charging and I said "Clear!" I used the defribillator on the patient and checked the stats, while checking I said "No change! Charge to 350 and Page Dr. Yang!" The defribillator began charging and I said "Clear!" I used it and checked the stats which I then said "Stats are going up!" In that moment, Aunt Cristina came in and said "Dr. Grey-Shepherd update" I said "I was checking the stats on our John Doe when his stats dropped, he began coding and I ran the code, I charged to 300 and nothing, then I charged once again to 350 and stats came back" Aunt Cristina said "Perfect Dr. Grey-Shepherd now what do we do now" I said "Well I would order a CT, because we don't know what would have caused him to code" Aunt Cristina said "The surgery went flawless, my technique was impeccable!" I nodded and said "Maybe a stitch ripped causing internal bleeding or the patient may be allergic to the material used for the closure" Aunt Cristina nodded and said "Those two things are reasonable explanations.... Let's just open him up..." I said "Dr. Yang what about the scans" Aunt Cristina answered saying "It cannot be that a stitch burst, but I remember your mother and Jackson had a case where the patient was allergic to chromic sutures..." I said "Wasn't that Harper Avery?" She nodded and said "I think this is what happened" I said "You did use chromic sutures???" She nodded and said "I use my judgement and went with the suture I thought was best" I said "So we aren't getting a scan...." She shook her head and said "Prep him for transport, I already called the OR" I nodded and went to prep with the patient.

When I went to the scrub room, I said "Aunt Cristina are you sure, it's the suture" she nodded and said "Lia your smart, you thought it was this as well... I'm trusting your judgement...." I gulped because I could be wrong... Aunt Cristina said "Scrub Grey-Shep" I nodded and began to scrub. I was scrubbing thinking about what could it be... I know my Aunt Cristina is one of the best cardio surgeons this country has ever seen, but if she's wrong we would have opened the patient up for nothing, and It would be half my fault because I gave her the idea that it could be the sutures. I got pulled away from my thoughts when I knew I finished scrubbing. I went into the OR where Aunt Cristina had the staple remover to open him up. The nurses gowned me and I stepped up towards the patient and my Aunt said "Ready Dr. Grey-Shepherd???" I nodded and she began removing the staples with the staple remover. She began exposing the lungs and I said "There it is, it looks infected" Aunt Cristina said "I told you now let's start the debridement" I watched as my Aunt Cristina took off the infected sutures and began the debridement in the area making sure the allergic reaction didn't spread. After she began suturing back, but using instead 3.0 silk. She made sure the area was clean before closing.

We were scrubbing out and she said "Remember I'm coming over tomorrow for Christmas to give you guys your Christmas gifts" I said "Aunt Cristina I know you don't do Christmas your Jewish" Aunt Cristina nodded and said "That's true, but Bailey and Ellis believe in Santa and you know..." I nodded and said "Of course....I don't need you to get me anything" Aunt Cristina said "I already know what I'm getting you" I said "It's not necessary Aunt Cristina..." Aunt Cristina said "My job as a godmother is to spoiled you and cheer you on in whatever your heart desires..." I said "Okay that sounded so not like you..." Aunt Cristina said "I don't like children, but you and your siblings are my exception..." I looked at my aunt and then she said "Don't get all sappy on me, go do what's left of my charts and then go home" I nodded and said "Yes Dr. Yang" I left the scrub room and headed towards her office to get her charts.