Chapter Nineteen: Have You Seen Me Lately
*~*~*~*
"Sixty-five year old woman enters the ER in shock. Presents with a pulsatile, expanding abdominal mass." Jackson read off one of his review cards as he, April, and I all stood around the OR board together. "Go."
"Ruptured triple-A." April answered quickly, not taking her eyes off the OR board in front of her as she filled in the information for a procedure later today. "I would take the patient straight to the OR and access the peritoneal cavity through a vertical midline incision."
"Nice." Jackson nodded in approval as Alex and Meredith joined us.
"You guys studying for the oral boards in the middle of the day?" Meredith asked.
"Just another benefit of having a study buddy." April nodded. "You should get one."
"I have one." Meredith reminded us, referring to Cristina. "It's just that my stupid study buddy's too busy trying to save her stupid marriage to actually help me study."
"You know what's better than a study buddy? A study lackey. Check it." Alex smirked before getting the attention of one of his interns. "Hey, you. Brown-haired girl, you're up."
"Uh, trauma incident or a surgical situation?" The intern, Morgan, asked.
"You made your interns come up with study questions?" April scoffed.
"It's actually not that bad of an idea." I muttered, earning a disapproving look from the red head myself.
"Surprise me." Alex told his intern.
"A twelve year old boy fell off his bike, hitting his abdomen against the handlebars. Complains of progressive abdominal pain and is short of breath." Morgan read off the card as she and Alex walked away.
"What is it?" I asked Jackson as his phone went off.
"Sloan. Nine-one-one." Jackson said before hurrying off.
"Hey, if you want, we could-" April began, turning to Meredith.
"I don't need help." Meredith shook her head. "I'm an excellent surgeon. You know it, and I know it. Everybody knows it. I don't have to prove myself to anyone."
"Yeah, except to the American Board of Surgery." April reminded her.
"Yeah, there's them." Meredith sighed before walking away.
"You and I could study, if you want?" April looked at me now, seeming excited by the idea.
"Thanks, but I already have my study buddy." I assured her.
*~*~*~*
"I was paged?" I asked as I made my way into a radiology room, finding Lexie standing in front of the monitors with another woman, Amelia Shepherd.
"Look at this tumor." Amelia pointed at the scans in front of them. I walked over to stand on Amelia's left, Lexie being on her right, and looked at the scans. The patient had a large tumor, an inoperable one, as well as a damaged carotid. "I know it looks hard, but I can remove the tumor and the diseased carotid together. All I have to do is run balloon catheters in through the femoral, place them in precise position, inflate them to stop the blood flow, do two arteriotomies, then feed a heparinized shunt into place, and reestablish blood flow."
"That's all?" Lexie gave a small scoff.
"Oh, an I have to do it in ninety seconds." Amelia added, making me raise my brows at her. "Any more than that, and she strokes out."
YOU ARE READING
Stitches of Survival
Fanfiction"Why are you doing this to yourself? Why hide away from something that makes you happy?" His blue eyes bore into me, practically swimming with confusion. "This is your second chance, you nearly died!" "You're right." My voice was soft as I wrapped m...
