Flatline ~ Jackson Avery

SEVENTEEN

  I looked at the door of the skills lab and sighed. Hunt was making us do a Trauma-Certification Drill, and I was so not happy. I always wondered why we couldn't perform the drill in the E.R. with actual living, breathing patients. I took a seat at my table of friends. Jackson, April and Alex.

"Am I early? I tried really hard not to be." Mer snuck up behind me.

"That doesn't bode well." Jackson remarked.

"We did the same thing with Bailey when we were interns." I brought out that old memory from five years ago.

"Yeah. Take turns treating a dummy, get an early lunch, then get back to work it's lame." Alex said.

"Charter plane was forced into an emergency landing and collided with a Greyhound bus. Mass casualty situation. Do I need to say it again? Let's move!" Hunt yelled. For a minute we all thought it was real and actually ran for it. "Around thirty victims in the field, some critical, multiple blunt trauma injuries.The door burst open with an attending and many excited residents, but then we all stopped. The ground was littered with many Anne dolls for medical use.

"And I was so looking forward to an early lunch." Jackson joked.

"This is going to suck." Meredith spat. Everyone looked at Hunt, who was trying hard not to smile.

"Welcome to Trauma-Certification. You will work in teams of five. Each team will be responsible for eleven casualties.You may treat your patients using only what you are able to carry in your hands from this ambulance. The evac helicopter is on it's way. If you get your patients on the helicopter, you get certified." He said this as Mostow stuck coloured paper onto our trauma gowns to represent the teams. "Are you ready? Get to work!" We all bolted into the ambulance and grabbed whatever we could find. When I got out of the ambulance with my supplies, I saw three sections, green, red, and blue. My group was blue so I ran over there, to a casualty and assessed his situation. The rest of my team arrived, Alex, April, Mer, and Jackson.

"Ah, so we're all together." I mumbled as I read the card. 'Unconscious, not-breathing, pulseless adult male with multiple fractures in his lower left leg, severed one main artery in his neck, been bleeding for ten minutes." Wait, what? I looked from the card to the patient and saw that his neck had read paint all over it and on the floor. "Oh Jesus Christ!" I yelped. "This guy's dead." I gave the doll the black tag labeled deceased. I stood up from kneeling in a pool of red paint and went onto the next guy, which was the guy between Mer's and Alex's patients. I read the card, but kept getting distracted by April's loud voice.

"...open-book pelvis, large abdominal wound--" She flipped up the shirt. "Jeez! Sucking chest wound with seven broke ribs.This guy's all messed up!" April shook her head.

"Or-" Mer was about to say something.

"Or he's dead." I yelled.

"Oh, right." She ripped a tag and placed it near the dead guy. "Moving on." I continued reading the tag.

"Unconscious, breathing male with a comminuted forearm fracture." I read. "Why don't I ever get anything good?" I whined, stuck a c-collar on him and began treating his arm. Pretty soon, Mer was called away and she was sent to check up on Cristina. I went onto Mer's unfinished patient. "No fair, why does she get to be certified just like that?" Soon, Hunt told us to stop, so we all stood away from our patients.

"Blue team, status report." Hunt requested.

"We arrived on the scene to find eleven casualties, four as priority one, requiring immediate evacuation, five as priority two, allowing for delayed evac, one was priority three, and the last was sadly dead on the scene." April recited, looking proud of her status report.