Always, Lily

▫️Twelve

LILITH

Sometimes I felt that work was torture.

I had been running around all morning, from the ER to the children's ward and back.

This was just after I'd finished taking my rounds so it really was a great hassle to run across multiple departments.

A report filed in earlier today had shown that something was wrong with my patient's records.

The labels for more than three of my patients had been swapped, thus medicine had been administered to the wrong patients.

The result of this was so severe since I had already rushed a patient for an emergency surgery.

I was still trying to monitor the rest and frequently check their progress as I tried to figure out what was happening.

This had never happened before. I was usually careful with the labelling of all my patients. I had clear records for each one of them so I couldn't really understand what all this was.

I even knew most of my patients by name and I always made sure that the nurses were very careful when doing their checkups.

Dr Ashford

Surely more than twenty people had called my name for the past hour, all claiming that something was wrong with a patient.

My mind was a mess right now so when I heard a nurse call my name again, I felt fear creep up on me.

"Dr Ashford, everything has stabilized for now. I'll inform you of any progress after subsequent tests."

I released a small sigh as I watched the nurse leave, the tension I had carried all morning slightly lessening.

I walked back to my office and sat down, not minding the ache of my legs as I scanned through all the patient's files.

What was happening?

I asked myself this question for the sixth time as I cross-examined everything, even from the database.

There was no way I would have made this mistake. It was so overwhelming to see all this happening just after I was back.

I asked for the nurses report every ten minutes and as I leaned my back into my office seat, I felt my whole body ache.

I closed my eyes for just a second and the next second, someone was calling my first name.

I quickly sat up while trying to ignore the odd twist I felt on my right knee.

I was surprised to see Lorenzo already in my office. I passed him a barely there smile as I greeted him.

"You look tired," he looked at my face and then at the files around me.

"It's been a long morning for me," I replied to him, noticing that he hadn't changed yet so that meant he was just reporting for work.

He stared at my face and then noticed the disheveled state of my clothes.

"Did something happen?" He took a step forward, his eyebrows lifting up in worry.

I glanced at the computer screen before me and then weakly replied, "There was a mix up."

I went into details of all that happened and I saw his face change from neutral to surprise then to an emotion I couldn't describe.

"Did you have a backup file?" He asked after my explanation and I quickly reached for the mouse, never having thought of that before.

Lorenzo walked round to where I was seated and he leaned closer to the screen as I explained everything with him.