Never giving up on you - Completed.

1.

Caity

Stanford University Medical Center

Stanford, California

June 2015

'Morning!,' I said to my coworker Amanda while walking into the ward, cupping my fresh mug of coffee with my hands. Amanda gave me an exhausted but relieved look that I recognized so well. Nightshifts were killing, and the best part of it was when your dayshift coworkers came in to take over and you could go home to sleep.

'Oh Caity, I'm so glad you're here. I've printed your worklist already, let me transmit the patient's real quick so I can go home.' I nodded and took my worklist from her, vaguely scanning the names on it. Amanda motioned me in the small meeting space behind the nurse station and I sat myself down and opened a computer with a swipe of my hospital ID-card.

'How was your night?,' I asked.

'Disastrous. The old man in room 412 died, and room 414 has been delirious all night and took out his IV and catheter. Was a bloody mess, that was.' Amanda rubbed her red shot eyes and pulled my coffee towards her to take a sip.

'Mr. Johnson died? Ahw, that poor man! Was there any family around when he passed?'

'No...' I watched Amanda shrug and take another sip, and I focused on the computer to ignore the small aching in my heart. Mr. Johnson had been an elderly man, who had lost his wife a while ago after seventy one years of marriage. They never had had any children; only a far-away niece tried to take care of them. Mrs. Johnson died from cancer, and Mr. Johnson had been admitted to our cardiac ward a few weeks ago with progressive, congestive heart failure. Because of his age complications were almost inevitable, no matter how hard we tried, and with the heavy pneumonia he had gotten, his heart now seemed to have taken it's toll on the old man.

'That news makes me sad, I liked that man so much.'

'Everyone did. He was a very lovable ninety six year old.'

'Yeah...' My eyes scanned my inbox, cluttered with new emails after having three days off.

'Oh well, that young man in room 420 made nightshift a little more enjoyable.' Amanda shifted in her chair and stretched, yawning. 'Can I transmit? Please?'

'Sure.' I focused my gaze on her again and she started to update me on the five patients that would be under my care today. I scribbled some notes on my worklist, things I had to do for each patient during the day. Only when we ended at room 420, my eyes caught a familiar name on the paper in front of me, and my heart skipped a few beats while my brain was trying to absorb the information.

'So, Mr. Carlile at 420... He is something. If I was like, ten years younger and single, I would have asked him out on a date. Goodness, he is quite charming, you know?'

'I know...,' I muttered, not too pleased with having him here again, and although I already knew the answer, I asked my question anyway. 'Why is he here?'

'He has Marfan Syndrome, and he needed to get a new aortic valve, since his own got dysfunctional because of his disease. He's had some sort of same operation around five years ago, but that was because he got a prosthetical aortic stem. You remember him? Anyway, he came over from the ICU late at night yesterday, but he's doing well. Hasn't slept all night, but he's stable.' Amanda yawned again and looked at me. 'Are you alright?'

'I am fine. Just tired. Hailey kept me up all night, she's ill with the flu and just threw up all the time.'

'Ahw! Who's taking care of her now?'

'My mom. She'll be okay, but I'll be needing a coffee IV today, I guess.' Amanda chuckled and handed me back my mug.

'Well, I'm going home. Have a nice day today.'