invasion ↠ jackson avery ✓

2

[BELLA LEDFORD]
Seattle, Washington

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Day one of the new job and Bella glowed like a crystal ball, warmed by the bright sunlight. Walking down the halls of the hospital, wearing the signature navy scrubs with her white coat over it that had her name above the pocket, she felt like she could've taken on the entire world. Alone.

The morning seemed to fly by smoothly. Bella had Stephanie Edwards on her service which was exciting. The young intern happened to be interested in neurosurgery so it worked out perfectly.

"Now, have you had the chance to scrub in on an Anterior Cervical Discectomy before?" Bella asked as they scrubbed in together. The patient was already on the table and getting prepped for surgery.

"I've mostly been working through the pit," Edwards revealed while Bella used the brush to go over her nails on each hand. "I haven't had the chance to be on Neuro yet."

"Why is that?"

"Well, it's mostly Dr Ross who gets put on neurosurgeries of any kind. Also, Dr Shepherd hasn't been operating much as of late. He mostly does consults and he recently started teaching us in a class-room environment," the answer made Bella hum. That wasn't surprising.

The conversation didn't continue as they scrubbed in. Bella was counting in her head: thirty brushes over her nails. Ten strokes on each side of each finger. Ten strokes on the palm. Ten strokes on the back of her hand. Mentally, she sectioned her arm into three parts from the wrist to up to two inches above her elbow. Using the ten-stroke method, she completed one side, then moved onto the other.

This process allowed her to calm down. To get her head together. Remember what she was doing. As soon as the scrub room door closed behind her, she was in a different zone. No personal life issues or even professional work problems had any right to be in that space. Only the patient.

In there, Bella exhaled so as to feel in control of her body. This was her first own surgery. Yesterday wasn't supposed to happen. So, she chose to go ahead and say, "Before we begin, there is something I like to do—perhaps it's something you do here, too," she smiled. "So, in every one of my OR's, I call for a 'Time out'," looking around, she found everyone looking at her. "I like to keep my patients awake for this if they can be. This time allows us to make sure we do have the right patient. The right doctors. The right tools. The right procedure in mind."

This wasn't something Bella was taught. This was something Bella did because she had to double check herself. The environment. The people. Mistakes are made too often. And she did not like mistakes.

And so, with the help of one of the doctors, they went through the important questions. Thankfully, everything seemed to be accurate and in place. The process didn't take longer than five minutes which is why Bella felt it to be more than necessary to carry out. She didn't know if the surgeons sitting in the gallery, or even standing inside of the room, did this so maybe she managed to show them something new.