(1994) "One thing you should know if you want to play surgeon with the big boys is that you need to remember that it's you and you only, you hear me? You can't be cutting with that nice bullshit and holding a scalpel like a pussy. Get in there and c...
"Cleo Roberts! 16 years old, suffered from a minor laceration to the head. GS wound to the abdomen. BP 120/90. "
The words of the paramedics drowned in and out as a group of people huddled around the gurney.
My soul seemed deviated from my physical body as everything seemed so disconnected...
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"Send her to Trauma One! Someone page Jackson!"
The room was filled with the shouting of commands and swift arms moving to my aid. Eventually, I was blinded by the bright spotlight that shone in my face. It was as if I was found in the desert and parched from sheer exhaustion.
Not a single muscle in my body has the strength to fight off my new abductors.
"Alright, shoot in 10 of morphine, hello, Cleo, can you hear me?" A voice asked.
A nurse yells out, "BP is rising!"
"Okay, give her 10mg of acebutolol. She might be in a state of shock from the trauma."
My head motionlessly moved as I heard the voice once more. "Hey, we are going to do the best we can, okay? You're safe here. Dante, damn, turn her onto the side. Let's order a CT scan, CBC, and go to the blood bank and get me four units. Alright, I need a chest tube! I don't want to crack her open unless I have to." the voice commanded.
"Where's my...dad?" I mumble faintly while my eyes were still blinded by the intensity of the spotlight.
Once they turn me to the side, I got a quick glimpse of the other trauma room as they were working on my father in the other room.
"Notify the OR, get us a room."
The voice answers, "Okay, there's exit wound laterally at L2. We are working on him in the other room okay? He's going to be alright. Focus on me. Hey, Cleo? Can you feel this?" I felt a sharp prick against my leg as I yelp.
Another voice answers, "She's not paralyzed. The bullet must've missed the spinal cord."
"She's BRADYING DOWN!"
My eyes slowly closed before my face met up with a hand gently slapping against my cheek.
