On Call | Grey's Anatomy // Book 3 // COMPLETED

21 | Shock

When exposed to trauma, the body deploys its own defense system. From the first second the brain receives the signal that a catastrophe has happened...the blood rushes to the organs that need help the most. Blood floods into the muscles, the lungs, the heart, the brain. The brain makes a decision for the rest of the body...either face the danger or run away. It's a mechanism designed to protect the body from harm...from knowing that what has happened might be irreparable. We call it...shock.

Grabbing a gown, people had started to flood into the hospital for this big trauma. I had just dealt with a big trauma all night and now I was going into another one. Walking over, Meredith parted ways with a woman and grabbed a gown as well. "Who was that?" Callie asked.

"Uh, new nanny, hopefully," Meredith answered.

Callie gasped as we joined the large crowd, "You got a nanny?"

"I had to. Derek left." Meredith told us.

Both Callie and my faces fell. "What?" I asked.

"We don't have numbers yet...be prepared for as many as twenty casualties, many of them kids." Owen announced.

"What happened?" Meredith asked as doctors around us started to murmur.

"A woman drove off a bridge with her two kids in the car." Owen answered, "Witnesses are saying that the woman started speeding, she rammed a bunch of vehicles, and then took a sharp right off the bridge into the water. Police believe this was intentional."

Stephanie folded her arms, "Oh, my God."

"With her kids?" I asked.

"Let's cooperate with the police and do our jobs, okay?" Owen told everyone before the crowd broke up.

Callie huffed, "God, is she one of those crazy moms who tries to drown her kids?"

Meredith shrugged, "Maybe she needed a nanny."

Running outside, I met up with Owen to take the first victim. "What do we got?" Owen asked the paramedic.

"Ten-year-old female, Mia James." the paramedic answered, "GCS of fourteen but was unconscious at the scene. Deep facial lac. Little brother and mom are right behind us."

Leaning down, Owen shone a light into the little girl's eyes to check responsiveness. "Mia, I'm Dr. Hunt. Can you hear me?"

"Where's my mom?" the little girl cried, obviously scared, "Is she okay?"

"We'll find out as soon as we can." I assured her, "Let's get her inside."

Once inside, Owen and I handed Mia off to another doctor for the time being while we made sure everything else in the E.R. was fine. "Hunt. Driver's in bad shape. We're taking her up. I'm gonna alert the O.R." Meredith walked over.

"I-I'm looking for my wife and kids." a man told us as he approached the desk, "Uh, uh, Brooke James. Uh, kids are Mia and-"

"Parker, right?" Owen finished.

The man nodded, "They said some woman hit their car and drove off the bridge?"

"Mr. James, your wife is on her way to surgery. Your kids are being treated." Owen informed him, "Your wife was the driver. She...drove off the bridge."

"What?" the man asked, "Oh, no. That's crazy. No, she wouldn't do that. That's crazy."

"Mr. James, can you come with us?" a police officer walked over.

Mr. James pushed him back, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Excuse me. She wouldn't do that. She'd never do that. It's a lie!"

Finally, the police managed to get Mr. James to follow them away from all of the chaos. 

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Groaning, I handed my tablet to the woman at the desk after discharging a patient. "Forrest, bed two needs to be taken care of!" April shouted at me from across the room.

All day she had been barking orders at everyone she saw, and quite frankly, I was about to bark back. "Bed two-" someone walked up beside me.

"I know!" I snapped, turning to see Owen. "Oh, God. Sorry, Chief. April's just been on my nerves today."

"Well, cut her some slack." Owen sighed, "She's having a rough time lately."

I scoffed, "It doesn't justify being an ass to everyone."

"Her baby has a rare and possibly fatal disease," Owen whispered, trusting me with this news.

My hand went over my mouth as I gasped. "Oh, my God. I'm a terrible person. That-that's...wow."

"Yeah, just...don't tell her I told you."

"Her secret is safe with me," I assured him.

Just then, the doors to the ambulance bay flew open and the paramedics rushed in with a woman on the stretcher. "Twenty-five year old female involved in a MVC. Large truck struck the side of her vehicle at an intersection. Victim is sixteen weeks pregnant."

My eyes scanned the woman's body as Owen rushed over. Everything that had just happened had happened before, except it was me on the stretcher. My head started to spin as Owen turned to me. "Forrest, let's go!"

"Yeah, got it." I helped rush the woman into trauma room three, however, we weren't in there for very long before we had to make a B-line for an O.R. The baby was in distress and the mom was losing too much blood.

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"I need more laps right now!" I ordered as I shoved my hands into the body to try and find the bleeder.

Arizona had taken the baby out only a few minutes before and headed to another O.R., so now I was here all by myself trying not to lose it as I worked on the mother.

Then, just like that, she flatlined.

"Paddles!" I took a deep breath to calm down. Reaching inside, I placed the paddles on either side of the heart since I had not time to wait for a cardio surgeon. Sending the shock through the heart, I looked back up the monitor, but still no change.

I tried again, and again, and again, but this woman was too far gone. "I think it's time." one of the scrub nurses told me as I sent one last shock to the heart.

Putting the paddles down, I stepped away from the table. "Time of death, twenty-one nineteen."

Ripping my scrubs and gloves off, I marched into the scrub room and threw my things into the waste bin. Washing my hands, I exited and headed towards Arizona's O.R.

Just as I got to the door, Arizona walked out. "The baby?" I asked, trying to remain hopeful.

"There was too much damage." she shook her head, "I'm sorry. I'm going to go see if any family has arrived. How is the mother?"

"I-I lost her." I sighed as I turned and took off. My legs just kept walking until I got to the E.R.

"Forrest, I-" Owen started, but his voice faded as I just pushed past him and walked out through the ambulance bay doors.

Once outside, I walked to the far side of the lot and sat down on the bench. Tearing my scrub cap from my head, I buried my face in my hands and screamed. The hands muffled enough of the sound, but it still got some attention as I could hear someone walking over.

The person sat down beside me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "I shouldn't be crying." I drew my hands away from my face and looked to Owen, "It's-it's stupid."

"It's not stupid." he told me, "You went through something terrible, and honestly, I don't really think you ever dealt with it. You can't just bottle up all of these emotions, and I've seen you do it too much. After your mother died you just flew to San Francisco and took your boards. You were in a plane crash and you never stepped back like the others did. You lost a baby and you just pushed through it. You're an excellent trauma surgeon, a fighter, but sometimes you need to step back."

"I can't." I wiped the tears from my cheeks, "I need to just work. I need to just...save lives. It gives me a purpose. That's why I even decided to be a surgeon in the first place. So my life would have meaning, I mean, you have to understand that. You were in the army."

Owen nodded, "Yes, and I had PTSD which I never dealt with until Cristina helped me. Ellie, you need someone to help you."


When shock wears off...when the body can accept that a trauma has happened...when it can let down its defenses...it's a scary moment. It's vulnerable. The shock response had protected us...and it just might have saved us.