Challenging a Cold Heart

Chapter 1: Moth to Flame

Ten years later (present day)

Vincent's POV

"Dr. Thorne..you are needed for surgery in Theatre E01." The surgical theatre nurse told me.

"I will be there soon." I told the girl as I quickly completed the file of the last patient I had visited.

"Theresa, I have to finish the rounds for today from here. I've been called into surgery. Can you ask Dr.Greg to finish the rest of my patients in the ward? Also I am not sure if I could take the appointments for today. If surgery is not over by 2pm today, could you please ask Sara to inform my patients about it?" I asked the nurse accompanying me.

"Yes. Doctor." The nurse said, taking the file I gave back to her. 

I hurried out of the surgical ward towards the theatres. I was scheduled to do rounds for the admitted patients in the surgical ward and today was my outpatient appointments day. But Dr.Vera had at the last moment bailed out of a critical surgery. I frowned at that. I don't understand her. She only wants to take on surgeries that have a high chance of success. Dr. Vera was senior to me by three years and from the moment I had started work in the hospital she had held a grudge towards me for some reason. When it came to surgeries, my seniors preferred me to accompany them. But due to seniority Dr. Vera was always asked first. From those given to her, she rejects ones she believes has a high chance of failure. Hence, I usually end up with patients with very low chance of success.

For her, patients were just a means to improving her success rate as a surgeon. She likes to boast that she has a higher rate of successful surgeries than me. I didn't care. For me, what is most important is to do my level best for my patient who entrusts their life into my hands. Even when everyone gives up on a patient, I fight till the end for the patient. I encourage my patients to not give up. Because of simple human tenacity I've seen miracles in my field of work. Dr.Vera doesn't understand that about humans and she doesn't understand god's mercy for those who don't give up. I believe in that. Hence, when my patient loses their courage I do my best to fight for the patient and pray that the patient makes it. It almost feels like I've given a new life to someone when I manage to somehow pull them back from the brink of death. I think that's the duty of a surgeon. I went to the locker area and quickly changed my clothes to the surgical scrubs and walked into the theatre area.

The moment I walked in, two nurses accompanied me. I went ahead to prepare for surgery while the nurses started explaining the medical history of the patient to me. The patient was a healthy 25 year old male with three gunshot wounds and one gunshot wound to the kidney. There were many senior surgeons already operating on the patient. I was called in to assist my department head in doing the required nephrectomy. The patient had only one kidney and it was a pity that even that kidney had to be removed. Listening to the nurse's report I could tell there was no other choice. I quickly prepared myself and waited as the nurse helped me put the mask on my face before walking in to the surgery. The head surgeon took a break as soon as he saw me and came over to give me a briefing of what had happened so far. I watched the screens on which I saw the live surgery to immerse myself into how the surgery had progressed.

I didn't wait long before starting on the surgery. The doctor had told me the patient was one of the richest men on Earth and asked me to be extra careful. That made me give him a sour look because to me, every patient was just as important as a billionaire. The doctor had just laughed at that. I blanked my mind and focused on my surgery with my senior doctor. It was complicated because the patient's condition was very critical already due to the multiple gunshot wounds. Also there was considerable trauma to his rib cage. So the multiple surgeries performed on him took longer than we anticipated. There were even moments when we thought we had lost the patient. But the patient turned out to be one of the most tenacious fighters and he'd come around. Hence, the surgery finished as a miraculous success.