Addison Shepherd

The flight

"Help, please. Is there a doctor on board?" Addison looks at Derek and mouths 'Three... Two... One...' They raise there hands. "Hi, how can we help?" Addison says calmly to a stewardess. " Thank god. Please follow me." The stewardess says with panic in her voice. Addison looks at Derek as they both leave their seats to follow the stewardess. They're escorted to the back of the plane and find a pregnant woman laying on her back with beads if sweat running down her face. Derek looks at Addison and whispers in her ear 'baggsey not me' then goes back to his seat. With a disappointed look on her face Addison kneels next to the woman. "Hi, I'm Dr. Addison Shepherd, I'm a neonatal surgeon at Seattle grace hospital. What's your name?" Addison says in a calm tone while applying hand sanitiser. "Madeline." The woman replies. "I'm 38 weeks pregnant. My contractions are about 4 minutes apart and last for around 6 minutes." A contraction starts. "Ok then Madeline after this contraction, if it's alright with you I would like to examine you to see how dilated you are. Is that ok?" The woman nods her head in agreement. The contraction finishes. " Ok Madeline, I'm going to start now you'll feel my hand it might be a little cold. Do you know what your having?" Addison says as she starts the exam. "It's a girl." She reply's with a smile on her face.

"You can sit up now Madeline." Addison says while removing her latex gloves. "Your about 8cm dilated so it looks you're having this baby on the board." Addison stands up to stop the pins and needles from kneeling on the cold, vinyl-coated floor of the aircraft. "When you feel the need to push, you let me know, ok?" Addison says as she washes her hands in the sink of the compact toilet on the Boeing 747-8.

Addison leave the mother to go talk to Derek. When she gets back to their seats she finds Derek asleep. "Derek?...Derek?" She says kicking his leg. "Derek, there's something wrong with the baby. It has a mass on its neck, it can't be born vaginally. She needs a c-section. And the baby will need immediate intervention, the mass could be compressing the airway." Addison says with fear in her voice. "How dilated is she?" Derek asks. "9cm, maybe more" Addison reply's "She, she needs a c-section now!" A wave of fear runs over Dereks face. "Ok, it's ok. I'll go talk to the pilot and see when we can land. It's ok."

Derek gets up to go talk to the pilot but gets stopped by a stewardess before he reaches the door. "Excuse me sir you can't go through there." The stewardess says sticking out an arm to block Dereks path. "I know but I need to talk to the pilot. I'm a doctor, my wife is the OB helping with the labouring mother. There's a complication that needs emergency surgery. I NEED to talk to the pilot. Is there any way I can get through there?" Derek says with panic in his voice. The stewardess picks up the phone and calls the pilot. "Hey, sorry to bother you, there's a doctor out here asking to talk to you, should I put him through?... Ok thanks!" She puts the phone down. "Hey hey hey, I need to talk to them, get them back on the line." Derek says aggressively. The stewardess turns to Derek with a blank look on her face. "No, I'm sorry sir I can't get them back right now, I need you to go back to your seat." The stewardess reply's, "You can talk to the captain later." Derek sighs, and calms him self. "I need to talk to the pilot, there is a complication with the woman in labor. She needs an emergency c-section and when the baby is out it could need emergency intervention. So can you please, get the pilot back on the phone so I can get my patients to a hospital before this becomes fatal for the both of them." Derek says calmly. "I'm sorry sir. You must have misunderstood. When I said you can't talk to the pilot right now what I meant was, we're about to go through a large patch of turbulence. I will relay you message when it is safe to do so. Please, go back to your seat." The stewardess says while gesturing towards Dereks seat.

Addison and Derek return to their seats. "What are we going to do?" Addison say to Derek with fear plastered across her face."We need to get the baby out but the mass makes a vaginal birth impossible." Derek stares at the seat in front of him then closes his eyes, rests his head on the hard leather head rest and relaxes his entire body making himself comfortable. Addison slaps his leg with the back of her hand startling him. "HoW cAn YoU sLeEp WhIlE a ChIlD iS DyEiNg AnD wE cOuLd SaVe ThEm?" Addison whispers to Derek with a furious tone in her voice. Derek sits up, grabs Addisons shaking hands and says calmly "right now in this very minute there is nothing either of us can do for that baby and that's not our fault. If we were in a hospital then we could save that baby but were not. If we perform an emergency c-section on this plane the mother and baby are at risk. Let's wait for the turbulence to stop then we will reassess the situation. Ok?"  Addison nods her head and leans back in her seat.