Grey's Anatomy One Shots and Imagines

Alex Karev- Bedside Manner (c)

"It's really not going to be as bad as you think," you smiled at the child, having squatted down so you could be at the same level as them. "I'll be with you the whole time; I promise and then when you wake up your mummy and daddy will be waiting by your bedside."

The little girl looked concerned still.

"Will it hurt?" She whispered into her teddy bear.

"The actual surgery won't, you'll be asleep, and we'll be taking care of you. Afterwards it might hurt a little bit, but it won't hurt as badly as it does now," you smiled softly.

She nodded her little head as you stood up straight again.

"We will be back in a couple of hours to prep her for her surgery," you said to her parents. "Once again I apologise for my intern."

You wished your patient well before heading out to the hallway, pointing at your intern and telling him to follow you to an empty patient room.

"Dr Karev," you frowned. "Do not ever question me like that again in front of a patient, especially a young terrified child."

Alex looked confused by you shouting at him, you generally being calm and nice, rarely ever raising your voice.

"You weren't being honest with the patient," he retorted. "You can't protect them from the truth."

"I wasn't lying to a patient; I was making sure she learnt the information in a way she would understand and that wouldn't scar her. She is five years old; she doesn't need to know the possibility that she may die on the table today. All she needs to know that there are some risks, but we will be there to protect her and make things better. We sacrifice the normal spiel when it comes to someone so vulnerable. I do not care that we then have to repeat it in medical terms to her parents, I will not hurt one of my patients for the sake of time," you hissed. "She's scared and I will do everything to make her feel better. If you think I won't bandage up that teddy bear so that she's not alone, then you are wrong. It may not be my job, but she needs to feel safe."

He paused. No one had ever taken such a perspective in front of him before and it was something that he personally couldn't understand.

"How are you able to be so personal with the patients?" He asked.

You shrugged your shoulders. "Some surgeons cope better just seeing a body on the table and knowing what they've got to do. I need the fight of knowing this is a little girl with a family and people who love her to get me through. I'm not just here to cut her open and then pass her onto the nurses. She's my responsibility whilst she's my patient and if that means I have to go grab some ice cream for post-surgery or spend an hour before hand singing their favourite songs, I'm going to do it to make sure they are okay mentally."

For the first time you saw a gentle smile appear on his face, almost admiring how you spoke.

"As a kid I had to be in and out of hospitals all the time, I had several surgeries and the part I feared most was going into a room where this scary adult was that I knew would be operating on me but I didn't know them. I didn't need to know their life story, but I felt a hell of a lot better when I got to know them before my surgery and got to see them afterwards. I needed a surgeon that is like I am today, and it surprises me how few there are that take the time to care for their patients off of the operating table," you sighed.

"I'm sorry for crossing the line," he huffed. "I admire your bedside manner and you are a good surgeon; you just have a different perspective."

"A different perspective isn't a bad thing. You just need to look at the situation through someone else's view sometimes to make things clearer."

~*~

Written by Charlotte.

Tumblr Request.