Pediatrics - Ongoing

34

chapter thirtyfour
dumbass interim head pediatric

phoenix raye
perspective

i walked through the top floor of the hospital, seeing William and Sage talking. "hey, your back?" he shrugged before looking at sage who groaned and walked off as her pager went off, "what are you doing here?"

"tell me about this new Peds guy?" he asked.

"he's a dick," i replied walking off with him following me, "i need you back if im going to learn. are you sure you should be back?"

he smiled, "I've been cleared. I've been off for 5 months, i need to get back into an operating room."

i stopped quickly as we reached a tv that was showing live news coverage of a mass shooting, "we have reported on a gunman that opened fire on students and faculty."

my body was frozen as i watched everything go down before i was paged downstairs to the emergency room, "i need to go, um, ill see you later."

"yeah," he said softly as i walked away and rushed down towards the ER. residents and doctors were standing around with trauma gowns on and i followed after them standing towards the back of the crowd.

"There are 15 ambulances on the way, maybe more to come," sam spoke from in front of everyone, "the first one is 3 minutes out."

"Okay, everyone," sage continued, "our own trauma is fresh and we are gonna have feelings today and there's no shame in that. what i want to say is, what we went through 5 months ago, they are going through right now. so the very best of our ability, we are gonna do our work first and your feelings later."

my feet stayed frozen to the ground as an ambulance drove through stopping. i heard '28' and moved to the side, knowing i wouldn't be helping since he's not a kid. another two came and i went to the second ambulance.

"15 year old, Kimberly bailey, GSW's to the leg and abdomen," one of the paramedics announced as they pulled the teenager out of the ambulance by the stretcher, "abdomen rigid, systolic 75, last pulse 147."

"shes 15?" i questioned.

"yeah," the paramedic replied, "look what being a genius gets you."

"clear trauma 3 and page meadows!"

i stood over the open girl's leg, dr meadows, the stand-in head of pediatric, holding the suction in my hand, "this artery is in pieces. vascular clamp."

meadows spoke, "your best move is to amputate that leg. you got no more time to waste down there."

"what?" i questioned looking up at him.

"the arterys' blown," he replied casually and i looked up in the gallery to see William standing there looking down, "the femur is shattered."

"dr beers can fix that."

"im more concert about the life than the leg and im sure her parents will, too."

"this kid is 15. you can save this leg. you cant just cut it off," i argued.

"what i cant do is spend any more time arguing with you. would you keep pressure there?" he asked the person standing next to him, "prep the leg, raye."

i watched as he grabbed the saw before looking up at William, "do something!"

he moved over to the intercom pressing the button, "you can put in a shunt then do a graft."

"do you even have privileges here?"

"whether i have privileges or not isn't the point. She's right."

"she is not on this case anymore," he said looking over at me.

"dr meadows, take the time to do the graft, and you can save her leg."

"i know very well what can and can't be done, dr Sinclair. i have bigger fish to fry and this was very unprofessional of you. i am done engaging with it."

he was now next to me buzzing the saw, "all right get the hell out of my OR, raye."

"im sorry, im unprofessional? im un-," he pointed over at me, "body block him, phoenix. do not let him near that leg!"

"body block him?" i questioned turning to face meadows who was a tiny bit taller than me. he looked over at me and i smiled at him underneath the mask.

making sure he didn't pass me i looked up watching Christina beers walk in with a mask on her face, "you wanna tell me what's going on here?"

"she's lost her mind, that's what's going on here. She's lost her mind and she's destroying her career. that is what is going on here!"

"check it out," i spoke, "fifteen-year-old GSW to the thigh with comminuted feumur fracture. lacerating is the superficial femoral artery."

she stepped around us and moved to look at the leg while i kept him back, "all right. what about her nerves? are her nerves salvageable?"

"she was moving her leg before we put her under. they're intact," i replied.

"she has a life-threatening hemorrhage in her leg and multi-organ injuries in her abdomen!"

"abdominal bleeding is under control for now," the scrub nurse that was standing next to me replied.

"Thanks so much, dave. i appreciate the support there."

"well, i can put in a traction pin to stabilize the femur. and then we can use a graft to restore blood flow."

"exactly."

"i have never experienced anything like this before in my life!" meadows said.

"dr meadows, you're new here, but in this hospital, we take shootings personally. and i can save this leg so are you gonna work with me or not?"

"no, i am," William spoke walking into the room, "dr meadows, I've some to chief Bentley. this is now my patient, along with my department."

"what?" he questioned, "this is-" he put the saw down walking out of the theatre. 

"yes," i said victoriously turning back around.

"you've gotta go too," Christina said, "the pit is full of kids that need doctors and we can handle this without you, okay?" 

"my work is done here," i said pulling the surgical gown off and walking out of the theatre after dumping everything in the bin.

hours later, the sky was dark as i walked across one of the catwalks looking out of the window seeing people crowding outside with candles. leaning down over the balusters i took a sip of my coffee. i looked over before standing up straight as William walked over with his blue attending scrubs on, "hey."

"so you're back?" i asked.

"im back," he nodded putting a hand on my lower back, "im so ready to be back."

"and you're sure? like your 100% okay and ready?"

"honey, I've been ready for the past 4 months."

"i know," i spoke softly, "it's just you getting shot and zara not stepping into an OR."

"she in OR 1, or so I've heard," i looked up at him a small smile coming to my face, "she's here."

he smiled and i walked off walking towards the elevator which i took downstairs. the elevator doors opened and i stepped out making my way to Operating Room One. walking in i sat down in the front row with William next to me on one side.

one by one, the room started to fill up. "i just took my kid to a room, he was the last one," Samantha spoke breaking the silence that had overtaken the full room.

"Besides this one," Sage replied.

"yeah, besides this one."