Had to Be You (Pub 6)

26 - Family ties

Max returned to New Haven unsettled. Every time he saw Olivia, he upset her. Why did she still think she wanted him? Their interactions proved his point that he would only hurt her. Half the time he didn't know what he had or hadn't done. He was pretty sure he was an all around idiot who did better with life wearing scrubs inside the walls of a hospital.

Reporting for an overnight shift was what he needed, but unfortunately, Sunday afternoons were quiet. When Trisha greeted him, she looked exhausted. As chief resident, the burden of his absence fell to her.

Just before she was scheduled to leave they were both paged to the emergency department. Immediately, he knew the tone was different, harried.

An attending looked at them. "Multiple car pile up on 95. Start in room six."

He rushed to the assigned room to see a young girl about four. She was hooked up and her vitals didn't look good. "What do we have?"

"Head and abdominal injuries. We need you to confirm."

He stepped in, but allowed Trish to examine her first as she rattled off her observations, he quickly confirmed. "Get her upstairs, we need to go in. Where are the parents?"

"Another room. Somewhere."

"Find them! I'd like consent."

Meanwhile, his phone was buzzing with two other rooms. He stepped into one and Trish went to the other. He faced a teen also with a question of internal injuries. Orthopedics handled broken bones, cardiothoracic - the heart, neuro handled head and spine traumas, the general surgeon handled most of the torso between the lungs and the reproductive organs. He had two patients needing surgery and one more room. Trish looked up when he entered.

"Observation for now?" He confirmed and found the nurse to ask about consent.

"Dad, just went up to an OR. We haven't reached Mom."

"I'm going in."

Trish would scrub in for the older patient. It took time for the patients to be prepped. Another surgical team was scrubbing in. "Do you have dad?" A nurse nodded. "I have his four-year-old daughter. Let me know how it goes."

"Same. I'm going in." The surgeon left and his team followed.

Max turned to Trish. "You ready? I'll come check on you when I can."

"I got it." In five months, she would complete her residency and be on her own.

The pediatric surgeon on-call as well as every other specialty had already been called. Lots of ruined Sunday dinners meant nothing to the accident victims. Max's life would be dictated by one emergency after another. It was as if fate and road hazards had proved his point.

Time stood still in the OR. It could be a twenty-minute procedure or five hours. The little one had a damaged spleen and some bruise organs.

Periodically, he asked for updates on the dad, and Trisha's patient. He left his patient in the hands of his physician's assistant, a fourth-year resident, and the anesthesiologist when he stepped out to confirm Trisha stopped the teen's internal bleeding. Both patients would recover from their internal injuries. His little girl would have to be watched for complications.

The nurse said, "Mom's here."

"I need word on Dad!" His tone was impatient, but he didn't care. He didn't want to walk out to face a mother without knowing if her husband would recover.

The nurse hung up the phone. "He has ortho and neuro. He's stable."

That didn't tell him anything, but at least he knew what he was facing. He stepped into the waiting room and a frantic woman looked up. His first thought was she looked about Livvy's age. After confirming her identity, he introduced himself and explained her daughter's condition.