Only Once

Chapter 9

The room was plain, clean, not a single piece of dust or dirt to be found inside the room. That's the way operating rooms had to be: clean. It had only been a little over an hour since Scott had arrived at the hospital and he had been moved to the operating room as soon as one had become available.
Anaesthesia was pumping through Scott's veins, making sure he'd stay asleep and out of pain during the surgery. He was going to be operated on in two vital places: the heart and brain. The hospital's best cardiologist and a highly trained neurology surgeon would be taking the lead on the surgery.
If one bad thing happened in either of the areas they would be operating on, it would be all over. Either Scott would be left with a heart not beating or a brain with no functioning.

Isabelle brushed the woman's hair from her face.
"Don't worry, he's going into surgery now. You should go home and get some rest, it's late."
Karen nodded hesitantly.
"I'll be back in the morning."
Isabelle nodded, "I understand."
The two women hugged briefly, and Karen left.
Sighing, Isabelle made her way to one of the on-call rooms. The hospital wasn't too busy at the moment, however Isabelle knew the calm would only last for a couple more hours at most. It was well into the early morning and most of the patients were sleeping, the only ones up seemed to be the actual doctors.
She knocked on the door belonging to one of the rooms, when no one responded, she was relieved. Had Isabelle not knocked, who knows what she could have seen on the other side of the door. She had learned that lesson within the first week of her internship, knock before going in to an on-call room.
Examining the room, she noticed it was empty. Relief filled her as she sat down on one of the small bunk beds. They weren't very comfortable, the frames were equipped with thin mattresses and even thinner sheets.
Kicking off her shoes, she relaxed back onto the bed. Earlier, she had sent Michael a quick text that she would not be making it back home tonight. Isabelle had explained what had happened and said she felt better staying at the hospital in case her help was needed.
Her heart felt like it was sinking every time she thought of Scott. From everything she knew about him, she knew he was a good man and should not have gotten into the accident.
She pulled the flimsy sheet to her chest and crossed her arms in front of her, twirling her engagement ring with her fingers. It calmed her a bit, but not much. Shutting her eyes, she tried to sleep. Isabelle knew it would be better to rest for the day ahead rather than worry about Scott all night, but it seemed impossible to actually do.
Turning on her side, she stared at the wall. She pulled the covers tight against her body, hoping the tighter she held them, the more likely she was to disappear.
None of this was supposed to happen.

The doctors worked sufficiently on Scott and no complications had arouse so far. His brain was almost done being operated on, his heart was coming along a little slower.
He had been put on a bypass machine as his heart was being worked on, his blood was being circulated through his lungs and body as the doctors worked on his aorta. The doctors were working on putting the graft to help cover the tear.
Both his injuries were serious, not only was there a tear in his aorta but his brain had been suffering from a subdural hematoma. Each injury on its own was life threatening, however both were now under control. The bleeding outside of his brain had been stopped and his skull was being carefully replaced and wrapped.
"Heart rate slowing down."
"Yes, that's normal," the cardiologist responded.
"No, look, BP is under 90/60."
That caught the surgeon's attention, blood pressure below that range was trouble.
"Give it a minute, it should go back up," he said unsure of himself.
"Greg," the neurosurgeon pressed.
The room froze as the heart rate monitor began to beat rapidly, signally something was going seriously wrong. Scott's heart rate was rapidly going down, he was crashing.
"Everyone out!" The surgeon, Greg, yelled.
"Grab me some paddles, charge to 10."
Greg was handed two handheld paddles that resembled flat spatulas. He placed them on either side of Scott's heart.
"Clear!"
The entire room froze as a shock was sent directly through Scott's heart. Nothing happened, so the doctor had them charge to a slightly higher level.
"Clear!"
Greg sighed, frustrated when the heart rate barely increased.
"Fuck," he mumbled to himself. "I'm going to massage the heart or we're going to lose him."

Isabelle felt pressure against her back, an arm rapped around her waist. She stirred, sure she imagined it. Lips pressed to her shoulder and she was startled out of her sleep.
"Hey," a familiar voice soothed her as she shot up. He brushed back her hair, and they laid back down together.
"I thought you might want someone with you, even though you weren't coming home." He rubbed her side, attempting a soothing motion.
"Thank you," she breathed. Michael held her close and she knew it exactly what she needed.
"What time is it?"
"Almost 4." Isabelle sighed into him, she had only gotten a few hours of sleep. Luckily, she still had a few more hours to rest.
"I'm scared," she whispered, almost too low for him to hear.
Michael squeezed her to him, "me too."