Orb of Obscurity

2- Snowed In

"Emergency, floor 5. General surgery." I ran towards the entrance waiting for the patient to arrive.

"A construction site worker, he fell down seven floors and got impaled by a rod. We left the rod in to stop further bleeding. His vitals are dropping rapidly and..." The worker from the ambulance informed me. I took the bloody scene in. The rod was atleast 4 feet long and a huge chunk of cement was on one end too. It was admirable that the person was still alive.

"Did you page Dr. Kim?" I asked the intern next to me.

"Yes doctor, he is on his way."

"Doctor, the patient is going into shock." The nurse said frantically.

"We can't even perform CPR without taking this out. Neither can we perform a surgery on our own." I said, grabbing the hair on the back of my head desperately. "Let's try taking the rod out. Get the gauze ready." I pulled on gloves, and got ready to pull the rod out of the poor man.

A nurse got on the other side and nodded. We pulled it out in one go and I could have sworn to God that I had never seen so much blood flow out of a man like a fountain. I began stuffing the gauze into his wound as the intern began performing CPR. The heart rate plummeted within seconds. It was a mess when the line on the ECG went flat.

"No....no.." My eyes went wide and my throat went dry. I started walking backwards, my mind unable to accept the situation. An alarm rang, scaring the wits out of me. Huh?

A dream. I shook my head, waking up in cold sweat. That was a really bad nightmare.

I woke up and found myself in my scrubs on my bunk, in my room. Things were tossed all over the place in a freaking mess and I swore to God I was going to snap Min Jun's neck into two, the next time I saw him. And, was that..... my snack box? I saw the empty packets of my long gone and now digested snacks strewn over the open books on the table. This idiot didn't even bother to turn the lamp off. I sighed.

I got off my bunk , and checked my phone for the message.
"Emergency, please report to the ER immediately."

Well there goes another night's sleep. I yawned on my way to the bathroom and brushed my teeth as fast as I could. I pulled out the clip holding my hair and it unraveled all the way down to my hips. One thing I took pride in, my naturally curly jet black locks. I rolled them up in a bun. I didn't bother changing into fresh scrubs. I washed my face, and stepped out of the bathroom, snatched my stethoscope off the table and started sprinting to the ER.

On my way, I saw Mare and flashed her a smile. She waved back and kept talking to the nurse.

Maren was another international student like me at college. We were students pursuing our masters' degree in Korea. It was hard enough getting into college and life wasn't any easier here either. Consider your soul written off to the devil once you enter the medical field. Sleepless nights and an all-time fatigued body come free with the course. Fun.

As these thoughts coursed through my head, I entered the ER. I met an overly excited nurse telling me that a patient just came in with severe abdominal pain. I could barely make out what she was saying, when my savior stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. Ji- hyun. My knight in shining armor. One of the nurses who has been with all the patients I've had ever since I started working here . I chuckled.

"Calm down and give her the vitals properly." He said to the girl.
"I am sorry doctor, I just started working and I guess I became too excited" she said.
I walked towards the patient looking back to tell her, "I have seen you work for the past few days and you have been doing a great job. Just tone down the enthusiasm and you're good," I smiled. She giggled and thanked me with shiny eyes. Junior kids were always fun to be with.

I saw the patient moaning in pain and asked him to focus on what I was saying.
"Sir, could you please tell me what exactly happened?"

" I slipped and fell down while working on the ladder and the ladder with the tool box fell over me. My stomach hurts real bad, I can't put up with it, please do something..."

I asked the nurse to bring in an ultrasound machine. Meanwhile I palpated his stomach to check where the issue was. He screamed out in pain at a certain point, and I figured that it could be a spleen injury. My thoughts were confirmed by the ultrasound. Hemoperitoneum, a bad one too. And.......that meant surgery.

"Page Mr. Kim and inform him about the patient. Tell him that he needs to go into surgery and get one of the ORs ready please."
The nurse scurried away and I reassured the patient, asking him to relax saying that he would be taken care of. I asked the patient's attender to sign the necessary documents and left them in the care of Ji hyun.

I ran off to get ready for the surgery. As it was a Sunday, only us, the students were available in the hospital. So the workload was bearable until the emergency cases flooded in.

--------------
I washed my hands as I walked out of the theater.
"Well done Saura. Keep up the good work.
"Thank you sir." I bowed my head down .
"Keep working well and you will get a good job soon. How are you? Health wise?"
"I am fine sir. Thank you."
"Okay then, see you later."
"Have a good day sir!" I bowed to him on his way out.

I was Asian, so I didn't find the culture in Korea any different from how it is in my home country. I liked it here. The people, the place and my never ending addiction to k-dramas brought me here. I know it's funny that I mentioned dramas but I learned about Korea through dramas, so kudos to it.

I went on my way to do routine rounds, checking up on patients in the ward. The trainee from before was following me with a notepad.

"Keep giving him phenytoin every 12 hours."
"Increase the dose by 500mg."
"Don't forget to get his reports from the lab and page me immediately once you receive them."

I kept giving instructions and finally, I was done!

My legs were killing me and I could have fallen asleep on the floor that very instant. It was 11 at night and there was very little staff available.

Ji hyun smiled at me .
"You did well today too. Are you alright? You look like you are about to faint."
"I am." I sniffled. "Some days I just wonder why I torture myself this way."
He laughed, shaking his head.
"You chose it willingly, didn't you?"
I glared at him and he laughed again.

Ji hyun was that handsome guy who was just too handsome, making you think that a guy like him would certainly have a girlfriend and you had no chance. In reality he was just a sweetheart, taking care of everyone and being always perfect boyfriend material. He was the perfect person to be a nurse, and he was one of my best friends too.

Yup, I was as single as I could ever be. Let's just say that I was afraid of being in a relationship and I had trust issues. Being in a foreign country wasn't helping either and keeping up with the language was hard. It had been two and a half years..... almost three since I came here. So I'd settled down quite a bit and with the job that I was doing, dating was a topic that I had thrown out of the window ages ago.

Let's get the introduction out of the way first. Hello! I'm Saura Roy! Buckle up for my storytime!

------------------------------------------------------------------

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

First chapter done🤩