Some were born for greatness, destined to succeed and be spectacular. Extraordinary. And then there were those who were made to be mediocre. Those "mediocre" people didn't become surgeons, and most certainly not surgeons at the top notch facilities, such as the general surgeon residency program here at Emory. It was certainly amazing.
It had been just two and a half years since we first started here. Most of us had passed our intern board exams, and were now residents, but there were still things to be learned:
Like never, ever say anything that would discredit your attending. That was incredibly disrespectful, and could threaten your time here at the program.
Honestly, if you just paid attention to the rules and followed them, anyone could succeed here very well. But we were surgeons, we didn't think rules applied to us very often.
"LaCrois, trauma room 2, now" my attending, Dr. Harding, shouted, amidst all of the commotion. Nodding, I took off in that direction without another word obediently, following him.
I was what some would call "a goodie two shoes", in a sense, but I wasn't a kiss up. I just did as I was told, minded my own business and tried to stay out of everyone's way. No one here played "nice"; they were all sharks, and if you decided not to be a shark for even a minute, they would tear you apart.
However, we could all relate. We were put into our little squad groups in the beginning as interns, to make us closer together. I could say that despite the fact I didn't like interacting with people, because then people would start to care and then meddle in your personal affairs, I was close to my intern group, but not close enough to share my background.
They would come to me for help. I was the "trustworthy" one they depended on to help them sort out their affairs. I tried, desperately tried, not to get entangeled within them, but I was sometimes a sucker for the puppydog eyes and tears.
There were 5 of us: Lindsey, Ethan, Candice, Liam, and myself, Audrianna. We all shared a house together, which definitely got a tad bit crazy at times, but it was nice because we would all look out for one another. We had decided it a couple months after the beginning of internship when we were all struggling to settle down here.
"Okay, he's coding!" Dr. Rendler shouted, as everyone hurried around trying to save the patient and analyze his state. There were burns marks all over the patient's body, his left ear seemed to be torn off, and there seemed to be numerous cuts on his forehead. He only looked to be 11-12 years old.
"Someone page Dr. Carter and Dr. Hudson please!" Dr. Rendler shouted.
Dr. Rendler was head of trauma, Dr. Harding (my attending) was head of neuro, Dr Carter was head of peds, and Dr. Hudson was head of Cardio.
After all of the attendings were in the room, deciding on procdures, the patient was quickly rushed to the ER. I looked to Dr. Harding.
"Can I scrub in?" I asked, and he nodded.
"Of course" he replied, smiling. He was an amazing teacher. I was honestly really happy to work with him. I quickly scrubbed in and went to straight to Dr. Harding's side, as I watched as everyone prepared to begin.
"Would you like to do the honors?" Dr. Harding asked, as he handed the drill that takes out the skull bone to me. I nodded, enthusiastically, as I heard some of the other attendings look at me, analyzing my moves. I seemed to be the only resident in the room that would working on the kid.
I took the instrument, and zoned everyone out. It was a thing I did to get into the zone - the only people in the room were Dr. Harding, and myself, and of course the patient. Carefully, but methodically, I cut a circle into the man's scalf and removed the portion of the skull to see the inside of the brain. As presumed, there was blood inside. I stepped to the side, and allowed Dr Harding to have a better look.
I felt eyes on me, however it was different as they felt like only one set of analyzing eyes. I got this feeling a lot, and low and behold, as I turned around, my suspicions of who it was was true: Dr. Hudson.
It was not a lie, he was gorgeous. He really should have been a model. The girls fanned over him, like he was a piece of meat though, which was absolutely disgusting. They always seemed to make a big deal whenever he would look our way, at me, but I would just roll my eyes, and change the subject to their dilemmas. It wasn't that I didn't like his attention and looks he gave me, I did, but I wasn't interested. I was here for work, not for romance and the hopes of some guy sweeping me off my feet. Nope, sorry everyone.
I locked eyes with him, and he smiled at me, winking. I smiled politely back, and returned to watch Dr. Harding work.
"Ow ow, I saw those looks Dr. Hudson gave you!" Candice squealed after surgery, and we were on our way home finally for the night. I rolled my eyes.
"Chinese?" I asked, as we went into the house, and went to our respective bedrooms. Everyone responded in some form, as I called the delivery Chinese place with everyone's usual orders.
As I put down my stuff, organizing it in my room, I closed the door to my bedroom and sighed. It would only be a couple of minutes of silence before..
"I can't believe you did that!" I heard Lindsey shout downstairs. Here we go again.
Lindsey and Liam always fought, as well as Candice and Liam. Ethan was pretty sweet who just seemed to want everything to be fine, but he was quite smart as well. I think he was going to be going into peds (pediatrics). Candice was going to go gyno or peds, we all knew it, while Lindsey was probably going general and Liam was going to most likely go trauma. He was pretty hard core so I could see hiim on that.
Luckily the doorbell rang as I got downstairs, so all I had to do was bring int he chinese, and everything was settled.
