Little Shepherd

Chapter Forty-Six

Today has been a relatively slow day. Nothing much has came into the E.R, just your typical broken bones and stomach aches.

I'm walking down the hallway; heading to the attending's lounge, when Alex comes up to me, "Hey, Alex." I smile, as he walks beside me.
"Uh, Mariah. There's something I need to tell you." He frowns, fidgeting uneasily.
"What's up?" I inquire

"You remember Andrew Palacios?" Alex asks
"Yeah. Why?" I inquire
"He's in trauma room 3, it's pretty bad." He says

My eyes widen and my body fills with anger. Without a second thought, I run to trauma room 3. When I get there, Derek, Callie and Bailey are there. "What the hell happened? This is my patient, why didn't anybody page me?" I question

"He's got several contusions and definitely internal bleeding. Pupils are responsive, pulse is threading, but still there. His lung is about to collapse and he may have brain trauma " Bailey informs me
"He should be in surgery, why isn't he in surgery?" I stammer
"He's been too unstable, but we were finally able to stablize him." Derek replies

"Where are his guardians? " I question
"He was left here, Dr. Shepherd." She frowns
"That's bullshit." I huff
"Call CPS." I tell the nurse
"And the police." I add

"He's starting to have respiratory failure, I need to input a chest tube." Callie says
"We don't have any time." I mumble
"Mariah, he needs this or he will die." Derek tells me, looking at me sympathetically.

"Fine, do it. We needed him in the O.R an hour ago." I sigh
Callie places a chest tube inside Andrew and immediately we rush him to an O.R.

-.-
"Well, there's no major brain damage." Derek announces
"I'm going to go then, page me if you need me. " He nods, leaving the O.R.

"There is way too much bleeding." I remark, packing his abdomen to it's extent.
"Did you find the source?" Dr. Bailey questions

"I can't even see. Suction, please." I sigh
She suctions the blood and I am finally able to get a visual. "I found the source, but it looks too big." I tell her

"Couldn't we remove the stomach, wouldn't that help?" She suggests
"Maybe. But he's 8, we need to hold off on that until as late as possible." I mutter

"Hold this, and be careful." I warn
Dr. Bailey hold a piece of his abdominal wall and nicks something in the process.
"Damn it." She curses

Even more blood pools out, "Dr. Shepherd, he's crashing!" The scrub nurse announces
"Shit." I mumble
"I need more blood, page Karev!" I demand
"Yes ma'am." She nods

Alex comes not too long after, "What happend?" He inquires
"I need you to get me blood, B+. As much as you can find." I tut
"Dr. Shepherd-"
"Just get the damn blood, Karev!"

Alex scrambles out of there, doing as I said. "He's losing way too much blood, there's no way he's going to survive." I mumble

"He's in vi-fib!" The nurse exclaims
"Damn it, we have to shock him." I say
"Charge to 100." I order, but get no result.
"Charge to 100 again." I repeat, still getting no result.

"Charge to 200." I tell the nurse, losing all hope in Andrew's survival.
That doesn't help and I realize that it's too late, there was nothing we could possibly do.

The whole room goes silent as Andrew flatlines. "Who's going to call it?" The nurse asks
I look at Dr. Bailey, who shows no intention to do so. "Time of death, 21:38." I mutter

"I got the blood!" Alex exclaims, bursting into the silent O.R.
"Damn it." He huffs, realizing Andrew had died.

I ignore everybody and scrub out. I was so unbelievably pissed, I couldn't be around anybody. "Dr. Shepherd, I am so sorry." Dr. Bailey tells me