divulgence // luke hemmings au

40

Gaby was fixing her headphones and made sure she had everything in order as Luke walked in wearing running shoes, athletic shorts and a gray tank top. He grinned and sat down adjusting the microphone and slipping the headphones over his ears.

"Clearly it's been a long time since we sat down and chatted like this. Now it's summer time and a lot has happened since the last time we spoke. How has everything been going for you?"

"I think things are pretty good! I think the last time I sat face to face with you I was telling you how I was graduating nursing school at the time!"

"Oh yeah that's right! You did!" A light bulb went off in Gabys head. "How is your nursing career going?"

"Pretty good. I'm working full time and I really like the change of pace, I work in a big hospital so there's a lot of departments and specialties which I absolutely love." Luke seemed pretty proud as he spoke about his new job. He took one leg and crossed it over the other.

"Ah okay that makes sense! So you what department do you work in currently?"

"I've been in the cardiac nicu!"

"I'm not familiar with that what's that?"

"Well it's like the regular NICU but this is on the cardiac floor and for babies who are experiencing cardiac issues or undergoing cardiac procedures. I personally think it's been very healing for me."

"Healing? In what way?"

"I think it helped me realize how fragile life can be and how things can change really fast. These little ones are so resilient and strong for having to endure so much at a few days or a few weeks old."

"Wait, so what exactly is your role in the cardiac NICU?"

"Nurse stuff but the main focus is usually doing a lot of cardiac monitoring, giving a lot of cardiac meds, doing post surgical care that kind of thing."

"It really sounds like you're in your element." Gaby complimented and Luke started to smile. "Yeah I think I am"

"Now I don't know if this is a sensitive thing to ask but, have you lost any patients since working in the cardiac NICU?" The demeanor of the room began to shift.

Luke's facial expression went from cheery to dreary and it looked like he started to frown. "Actually I have. One. A little baby girl named Lily, she had a rare cardiac condition. She fought for a while until she couldn't anymore."

"Oh Luke, I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay, in the midst of the loss there's been a lot of positives it's absolutely the best feeling when you get to discharge one of the babies to a step down unit or to their families. Seeing the look of pure joy and happiness on the parents faces never get old."

"I really like how much you love your job and helping people. What other departments have you worked in?"

"I've worked in the regular NICU, had a few stents in the ER, but I think the coolest thing I did do I got a certification as a nurse anesthetist."

"That's impressive! Can you explain what exactly that is?"

"It's basically someone who is like anesthesiologist. You work under the jurisdiction of an anesthesiologist, you can conduct mild sedation to full anesthesia with or with an anesthesiologist present. It didn't take me that long to earn the certification because of my medic background."

"So you basically just put people to asleep for operations?"

"In a way yes. I can even perform epidurals if the on call anesthesiologist for labor and delivery was tied up."