Best Friends Last Forever ✔️

Part 6: New plan

Andrew had been working in his new job as a fellow surgeon for a few weeks now and he loved it more and more with the time. Waking through the doors of the hospital every morning gave him energy and he was excited every time he got home to get in again the following day. One of the things he was excited about above the patients and surgeries was working with Meredith. They were getting better along than he'd ever imagined the day they'd met again and it was amazing to have his best friend back after such an amount of time. Last week Meredith had invited him over to meet her kids and she couldn't hide her happiness about how they were getting along so well that they even had a sleepover with a movie night in the living room and all of them had a lot of fun.

The last few days Meredith and Andrew among Bailey and Maggie had worked on a complicated surgery-plan and were practically in the skills-lab all day to practise. The patient was a 28-year-old male with a huge tumour which almost surrounded the whole liver and was attached to the portal vein. Normally they would do a liver transplant but since UNOS was giving the livers to candidates who had a higher survival rate they didn't have a lot of other possibilities. Even if the patient was just 28 years old, the tumour was spreading really fast and the risk that he would die during the surgery was really high. Since the patient wasn't stable enough to be transferred the surgical team of Grey Sloan would have to fly out to Boston and prepare everything as well as practise the whole surgery multiple times in Seattle.

"Damn it!" Meredith yelled as they yet again weren't able to remove all of the tumour without risking to cut the portal vein. "This is impossible." She said disappointed and looked up to meet Dr. Baileys eyes which were looking right at her with a similar expression. "It is not impossible we just haven't figured out the right way to do it yet." She gave back looking at Maggie, Andrew and back to Meredith.

Andrew could see the helplessness in her eyes when she stepped back and sat down on the desk behind her to think about other options. They were staying in silence, everyone deep in their thoughts, trying to figure out a plan that would actually work when after a couple of minutes Meredith stood back up and came over back to the table slowly while saying: "What if we remove the part of the portal vein that is infected with the tumour fabric and replace it bay something like- like an umbilical cord?".

AN: I have actually no idea if this would work and I don't know if any of those medical facts are correct but they replaced an arm-vein of a new-born with its umbilical cord in an episode soo... =) whatever just enjoy...

"What? You want to remove a piece of the portal vein and replace it by an umbilical cord- like from a new-born?" Maggie asked looking at Meredith like she'd completely lost her mind. "No- that's- that's brilliant! We have to find an umbilical cord from a new-born with the same blood type" Bailey said slowly thinking strained. "What if his body reject the cord?" Andrew asked stunned by the idea but not really convinced by its efficacy. "Then we'll have to put him on bypass and come up with another idea" Meredith said as Bailey remained silent, while looking him in the eyes.

"It's his only chance and its worth a shot... otherwise we won't be able to remove the whole tumour and it will spread again... maybe even faster than the first time" Meredith said quietly looking back at the practise-doll on the table in front of them. "We could cut the vein right here above the tumour and here... on the back of the liver where the fabric ends. We won't have a lot of time before the liver will die off so we have to be fast. I'd say we remove the tumour around the right liver lobe first, then the rest on the smaller left lobe and the vein in the end" she continued pointing down at some points while she spoke.

"Are you really considering that? I mean this is insane!" Maggie said looking from Meredith to Bailey and back. "Like Grey said it's his only chance... DeLuca what do you think?" Bailey said and all three women in front of him looked up waiting for him to either go with Meredith and Bailey or agree with Maggie. "I- " he started a little shocked that his opinion was asked "think it's a good idea... have something like that ever been done before?" he said gaining a death glare from Maggie. "Well... Dr. Sloan replaced a vein of a new born with its umbilical cord when the OB almost ripped of its arm some years ago. It was its own umbilical cord so there wasn't a risk of rejection but even with a random cord there is a chance that he won't reject it." Meredith said looking right at him with a little excitement sparkling in her eyes which made his heart flutter. "Sloan? Like in Mark Sloan the plastic surgeon?" Andrew said surprised. "Do you know the name of this hospital, Dr. DeLuca?" Bailey said as Meredith giggled. "Yeah well- but I don't really know the story behind it" he gave back and saw the immediate change in Mer's expression as she looked down on the floor. Not only him but also Bailey noticed the mood change and thought it'd be the best to change the subject. "Anyways, let's try this. We have to do some research. Dr. Pierce will you be able to be professional about this and accept Dr. Grey's idea as our new plan?" she asked Maggie. "Yes of course" she said with a monotone voice while looking from Bailey to Meredith, to Andrew and back.

"Okay! Well let's get to work then! Grey, DeLuca are you okay with doing a night-shift? Pierce already was on call last night and we don't have much time to work this out. We maybe even have to fly in earlier then thought. It's possible that we have to get there in the next two days" Bailey said and looked at Meredith and Andrew. "Yeah sure" Meredith answered and Andrew nodded. "Good luck then we'll meet here in exact 12 hours except if there's a change in the plan or if you find something important. I'll be on call too so don't hesitate to page me." Bailey said as she walked out of the room with Maggie, leaving Meredith and Andrew in the lab.

"Do you think it'll work?" he asked her concerned. "I hope so" she gave back smiling sadly but with a hint of hope and reassurance in her voice as they started to plan the new procedure. 

TO BE CONTINUED...