Grey's Anatomy - No Time To Die

How to Save a Life

"No one deserves to suffer from someone else's problems that have not even been caused by them."

Meredith could feel the tears run down her face, as she was staring at her phone.
"Where is Derek?"
"He's in surgery, you can't tell him—"
"—I know but, I should be the one to tell him."
"We don't know what happened, you should probably wait until—."
Meredith gave Owen a look.
"—I'll make sure he gets the message to find you after."
Meredith nodded before grabbing her phone from the table. She was staring at her daughters' picture, that was on the screen. It felt like Lexie was staring right at her. Meredith took a moment before standing up.
"Where are you going?"
"You're right there is nothing I can do right now to save my child—"
"—but I can help safe someone else's—"
"—so, I'm going to the ER and save some lives."
Meredith looked at Lexie's picture one more time before hanging up the phone. Owen was staring at her and seemed a little hesitant.
"Alright—"
"—but I'm coming with you." Owen added after a small pause.
Meredith nodded before putting her phone back into her pocket. Owen stood up and the two of them went down to the ER.

"I found two more!"
Lexie could hear the footsteps get louder.
"Is there a pulse?" another man said.
Seconds later she felt two fingers being pressed against her neck.
"Yes, but it's weak—"
"—she has lost a lot of blood. We need to get her out of here."
Lexie felt a sense of relief, assuming she was now in the hands of the paramedics. She tried to open her eyes but couldn't do so and before she knew it, everything went back to black.

Upon entering the ER Meredith noticed the chaos. The ambulances kept bringing more patients, whilst the beds were already filled. Doctors and nurses were running around, trying to catch up on their work. Owen rushed over to one of the ambulances. Meredith took a second before following him. The ambulance stopped right in front of them, and the doors swung open.
"She has a gunshot wound in her abdomen—" the parametric said as he unloaded the gurney.
"—she already received a unit of blood in the field but, she's bleeding out as we speak."
"Let's get her to an OR, now!" Owen demanded.
Meredith grabbed the gurney and helped her get inside.
"So, we're going in without any test or scans?"
Owen nodded.
"It's not ideal but we have no other choice. We have to stop the bleeding before it is too late."
Meredith looked at the poor girl's face, which was pale due to all the blood she had already lost. At first glance she didn't notice but taking another close look she knew who their patient was.
"It's Rylan"
Owen gave her a confused look.
"Are you sure?"
Meredith nodded. Rylan had been visiting their house since she was a little girl. She knew what Rylan looked like.
"Should I page another general surgeon for this?"
Meredith shook her head.
"No, I can do it—"
"—let's save her life."

Once inside the OR they immediately noticed Rylan's situation was much worse than they initially thought.
"Page Cardio—"
"—that bullet completely destroyed her aorta." Owen added.
Meredith was looking at the inside of the abdomen when all the sudden it started filling with blood. Without hesitation she started packing Rylan with lab pads, who turned bright red in an instant.
"We need more lab pads." Owen said.
They were working as fast as they could but, no amount of lab pads could stop the bleeding. They were starting to lose the battle against the clock. On top of that the monitor started beeping. Meredith turned her head to see what was going on.
"Dam it—"
"—she's coding."
Meredith started with the chest compressions while Owen continued packing her with lab pads. Stickers were placed on Rylan's chest and her oxygen was replaced by an AMBU bag.
"I'm here—" Maggie said as the nurses were helping her with her gloves.
"—what happened?"
Meredith looked at the monitor once again, Rylan's heart had now stopped beating.
"Push one of epi."
Maggie grabbed the peddles.
"Charge to 200—"
Meredith stepped away from the table, staring at the monitor.
"—clear."
Maggie put the peddles onto Rylan's chest, shocking her. Meredith could see the shock appear on the monitor but, the line went flat right after.
"Charge to 250—"
"—clear!"
Maggie shocked Rylan a second time, without success. Meredith rushed over to the other side of the table, grabbing the peddles from Maggie.
"Charge to 300—"
"—clear."
Meredith was staring at the monitor.
"She's gone."
Meredith shook her head.
"Push another epi and charge to 300—"
"—clear"
Rylan got shocked a fourth time.
"Mer—"
"—she's gone, you have to call it." Maggie said.
Meredith took a deep breath, looking at the clock before turning to Rylan.
"Time of death, 16.22"

"—she has a gunshot wound in her right hip, possible head injury and she appears to be in hypovolemic. She has a weak pulse and is in and out if consciousness." the parametric said.
"Let's get her to a trauma room so we can assess her injuries—"
"—and get some O-neg for a blood transfusion." a man demanded.
Lexie could feel the gurney being pushed. The sliding doors opened and once inside everything became very loud. She heard a lot of people talk but couldn't make out any words. It felt like they were speaking in another language and within seconds everything went quiet once again.

Lexie felt a sudden gust of pain in her right hip, waking her up with a start. Gasping for air she noticed they had put an oxygen mask on her. Still unable to move she scanned the room with her eyes. There were doctors all around her. Lexie recognized Dr. Torres. She was examining her hip.
"We need to get that CT scan; I'm not taking the bullet out without one."
"Agreed, however we can't take her up to CT until she is stable. She needs at least two more units of blood to treat her hypovolemic shock." another doctor said.
"That's going to take at least a couple of hours. We cannot wait that long. That bullet destroyed her muscles and she's at risk of some serious infections."
Lexie could tell by the look on the doctors faces that they weren't sure what to do. They were all just standing around her, weighing their options.

Meredith was scrubbing out when Derek entered the room.
"The shooting, it's at Bellevue high school—"
"—have you heard from Lexie?" He said with a shaking voice.
Meredith could see the helplessness in his eyes. As a father he would do everything he could to protect his little girl, but there was nothing that he could do. There was nothing either one of them could do except wait and hope for the best. So, Meredith shook her head.
"I have not."
Derek took a deep breath before nodding. The sliding doors opened, and Owen entered the room. Meredith looked at him, shaking her head. Owen looked a little confused at first but seemed to get the clue. The awkward silence was broken by the sound of the pagers. Meredith watched how her husband grabbed his phone.
"It's the ER—"
Meredith took a deep breath before looking at hers.
"—911."
Derek nodded and they both rushed over to the ER.

Alex was waiting for them outside one of the trauma rooms.
"Lexie has a gunshot wound in her right hip. Surgery is required to take it out and assess the damage done to the muscles and bone—"
Meredith could tell Alex was withholding information. Something was wrong, he was just too afraid to tell them.
"—Alex, what's going on?"
Alex looked over at Derek, who's eyes were starting to water. He took a deep breath before continuing.
"Lexie is in hypovolemic shock, and we cannot operate until she has stabilized."
"Waiting will put her at risk of some serious infections." Derek said.
Alex nodded.
"It's our best option, her heart won't sustain surgery."
Meredith nodded.
"Then we'll wait—"
"—no, we won't" Derek interrupted.
Meredith turned towards her husband.
"Lexie's hip infection will put her at higher risk of becoming septic. The sepsis will cause organ failure if the hypovolemic shock hasn't already—"
"—so, we're doing the surgery" Derek added.
"No—"
Both Alex and Derek were now looking at Meredith.
"—you failed her once and I can't have you fail her twice."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Derek said in disbelieve.
"If you would've just picked her up, like you were supposed to. We wouldn't even be having this conversation."
"Aright that's enough." Alex interrupted.
Meredith took a few deep breath's trying to calm herself down before she'd say something else, she shouldn't have said.
"Lexie will be finished with her blood transfusion within the next 30 minutes. We'll take her up for a CT-scan if she is stable enough and we'll go from there."
Both Derek and Meredith nodded. Alex turned around to open the door to the trauma room.
"You can see her if you'd like."

They followed Alex into the trauma room. There were still quite a few doctors surrounding Lexie. Meredith had seen a lot of patients but, nothing could've prepared her for seeing her own daughter like that. Lexie was hooked up to the machines behind her. Meredith looked at the monitor. Lexie's blood pressure was still low, while her heartbeat was almost back to normal. Meredith approached the bed, grabbing her daughters' hand. Lexie's hand felt cold and clammy and for a split-second Meredith felt like she was holding the hand of a corpse, causing her to let go.
"What's wrong?" Derek said.
Meredith looked at Lexie's pale face as a tear ran down her face. Her mind brought her back to the moment she heard that her sister had died because of the plane crash. Meredith could feel a hand grab hers. She didn't even have to look to see who's hand it was, it was Derek's.
"She will be okay."
Meredith shook her head before pulling her hand away. The tears were burning behind her eyes as she was looking at the two of them. Meredith took a deep breath before walking out of the trauma room.

"Just because you couldn't do anything to change the outcome doesn't mean you get to blame the person who could've done something. I bet that person is already dying of guilt and he doesn't need to deal with yours too."