No Time | Grey's Anatomy // Book 1 // COMPLETED |

44 | Lethal Injury

 As the elevator dinged and the doors opened, I stepped on. After giving Meredith and Owen, who were already on the elevator, a quick nod, Teddy ran on as well. "Morning." Teddy panted from running to catch the elevator.

"Morning." Meredith, Owen, and I replied in unison.

As the doors slid closed, Teddy sighed, "How's Cristina?"

"She's fine," Owen told her.

"She's fishing," Meredith informed us.

Teddy furrowed her brows, "She's fishing? Why?"

"Ask him." Meredith motioned to Owen as the elevator doors opened again and we got off.

The wind blew against my face, causing me to shiver slightly as I stood in the ambulance bay. "Okay, two minutes out," Owen announced as the doors slid open and he joined us. "So, uh...you ever go fishing with Derek?" Owen turned to Meredith.

"I'm a surgical resident." Meredith replied, "When would I have time for that?"

Owen shrugged, "You get a day off now and then."

"I spend my days off here, where she should be..." Meredith said.

Owen sighed, "Meredith-"

"What are your plans for her for tomorrow," Meredith asked, "bowling with Bailey, cooking class?"

As the ambulances drove into the bay, Owen smiled, "I'm not sure, but, uh...bowling with Bailey...that sounds fun."

Meredith gave him a mocking look before we rushed off to the first ambulance. As the paramedic got out, she said, "Trina Paiz, twenty-seven, stable. Only complaint is a lacerated ear. Pretty amazing considering she fell one hundred feet into a ravine. Apparently her husband broke her fall."

"Jason!" the woman, Trina, cried as we unloaded her from the ambulance and rolled the gurney towards to hospital. "Is he okay?" she asked, "Please. He has to be okay. He has to be okay."

Trina started to cry slightly as we got her settled into a room. Once she was ready, Meredith and I entered the room to talk to her. "Okay, Trina, do you know where you are?" Meredith started off with.

"A hospital i-in Seattle." she responded, "I...I don't know the name. I'm not from here. I'm here on my honeymoon. My god, my husband..."

"Dr. Hunt is excellent, so he's in good hands." I assured her, "Do you remember what happened?"

Trina nodded, "We were hiking up this mountain, and we wanted a picture, so we handed our camera to some guy. And...we posed...we kissed. No, we were kissing, and then...the next thing I know, I'm looking up at the sky, and then we're on the ground or...Jason's on the ground, and I'm on top of him, and...please tell me he's not gonna die. He can't die."

"We're going to do everything we can to make sure your husband gets out of here as healthy as possible, as quickly as possible," I told Trina before Meredith and I left to check on the husband.

"Wife is stable. Nervous, but..." Meredith announced as we entered the trauma room that Jason was in.

"She should be." Owen sighed, "His abdomen is distended, and he has a lot of internal bleeding."

"Systolic's 60, Dr. Hunt." one of the male nurses said.

A woman nodded, "Pressure's dropping."

Owen paused for a moment as the monitors started to beep erratically, "Let's get him to an O.R. now. Quickly."

Within seconds we had the bed with Jason on it out of the trauma room and rushing through the halls to the elevator. Before we knew it, the familiar large brown door was being opened and the scrub nurses started to prep Jason. "Grey, Forrest, no time to scrub." Owen ordered, "Gown me."

Nurses came out of nowhere it seemed like, gloving and gowning Owen, Meredith, and I. "See if his type and cross are back yet." Owen said, "In the meantime, get me some F.F.P. and some factor VII up here. Drape him. Good. Okay. Let's go. 10-blade."

As one of the scrub nurses handed Owen the blade, he looked up at us and sighed, "Hope no one is wearing new shoes."

With that, he reached down and sliced into Jason's abdomen. At first, nothing happened, but then blood came gushing out all at once onto the floor. "Laps! Laps!" Meredith ordered as we frantically tried to control the bleeding.

"Grey, I can't see anything," Owen told her.

"I'm suctioning," she replied.

Owen shook his head, "Suction's too slow. Use your hands. Another suction. How's his pressure?"

"79 over 40." someone answered.

Owen sighed, "He's like a bucket full of holes. I'm gonna occlude the aorta at the hiatus till we can get his pressure back up. How many units has he gotten?"

"Three units of O-Neg, one unit A-positive type-specific, and one unit of F.F.P." a man replied.

"Okay." Owen nodded, "Let's get some more packs in there. Let's try and isolate this bleeder until we figure out what we're dealing with. Laps. More. Keep 'em coming. More. Quickly. Faster. I don't want to have to keep asking."

About half an hour later, things weren't going so well for Jason. "His B.P is still 70. With all these lap pads it should be better by now." Meredith said.

"His pelvis and his spleen look clean." I commented, "Has to be his liver."

"Try a pringle maneuver." Owen told us, "Let's see if we can stop this bleeding."

Meredith nodded, "Okay."

"Keep going." Owen directed, "Okay."

Meredith reached into Jason's abdomen, but then looked up to us and shook her head. "Damn it. Damn it." Owen retorted, "That's what I was afraid of. His vena cava is torn." he looked to Meredith, "You can let go."

As Owen reached in himself, a puzzling look appeared on his face. "Dr. Hunt, what are we doing? I asked.

Owen sighed, "This is...this is a lethal injury."

"He's on his honeymoon." Meredith almost screamed.

"Pressure's still dropping. 60 0ver forty." the same man from before announced.

Panicked, we both turned to Owen. "Dr. Hunt, what do we do?" Meredith asked.

As Owen thought, the beeping was the only sound as it echoed through the O.R. "Dr. Hunt?" Meredith asked again, "Dr. Hunt. What's your plan? You have to have a plan. We can't stand here and do nothing while this guy bleeds out. If you don't have a plan, then-"

"Okay, 10-blade." Owen finally decided, "It's a long shot, but if we crack his chest, put in a shunt, and bypass the blood flow trying to get to the heart, It'll give us time to make the repair."

As the beeping continued, Owen looked up to Meredith, "You don't get to talk to me like that in my OR. If you can't keep your problems-our problems- outside, then you should go. Bone saw."

As the saw came to life, the familiar sound of it cutting through bone distracted us from the recently present awkwardness.

"Good. The shunt is in." Owen said, letting out a sigh of relief, "Secure it inferiorly."

"Umbilical tape," I told the nurses.

As it was placed in my hands, one of the nurses responded with, "There you go, doctor."

"Uh, now we're gonna fix the I.V.C." Owen informed us, "I'm gonna lift the liver only enough for you to gain access to the tear."

"You're gonna let me sew?" Meredith asked.

Owen nodded, "Are you questioning my judgment or are you saying thank you?"

"No, I just...thank you," Meredith told him as the nurses prepared the suture supplies.

Owen sighed, "Good. So, one stitch at a time. Slow and steady. Ready?"

Meredith nodded, "Okay. 3-0 prolene, Boki."