Turned Upside Down - Grey's Anatomy

Chapter 7 - Theresienwiese

Welcome back!

Disclaimer: All conversations between Meredith and a new character are meant to be in German, but are in English. Every conversation between Meredith and a known character is meant to be in English. I hope I make sense. Enjoy!

Meredith let the warm water run over her hands and arms washing away the soap residue. It was three in the afternoon and Meredith had spent the last six hours in surgery saving a girl's life. A twelve-year-old biker had collided with a city bus on her way to school. The accident occurred when the girl was forced to leave the - by a parked car blocked - bike lane. The girl hadn't been wearing a helmet and had suffered a massive traumatic brain injury and various other life-threatening injuries that needed immediate surgical intervention. The girl had been transferred to the OR right after the trauma CT. A team of highly skilled pediatric surgeons had been working tirelessly to successfully save the young girl's life. The surgery had been complicated and time-consuming. Whenever Meredith had solved one major problem a new one had popped up, complicating the surgery further.

Meredith's stomach growled as she dried her hands with the surgical towel. Now that the surgery was finished and her patient on her way to the PICU, Meredith's bodily needs were making themselves noticed: hunger, thirst, fatigue, body aches. A supposedly easy day at the hospital had turned stressful with just one single phone call.

On Fridays, they never scheduled elective surgeries, to minimize the number of patients staying in the hospital over the weekend. Fridays were administrative days: mostly paperwork, post-op assessments, discharges, department meetings and lecture days. Around two p.m. most attending surgeons would head home for the weekend, leaving the on-call colleagues in charge. She had come in early this morning. Meredith had planned to catch up on all accumulated paperwork before the department meeting and finish her presentations for this weekend.

Her hospital was organizing the annual European neurology conference and she had been asked to contribute. Some of Europe's most renowned neurosurgeons, neurologists and neuroscientists would be attending the conference to discuss the newest cutting edge research, technology and treatment options. Meredith had been asked to teach some classes to some attending med students and residents, attend a panel, present with her research group and speak on the topic of her recent solo publication. Meredith would be the youngest speaker at the conference. All other speakers had decades worth of experience as attending physicians and senior researchers. This year they had partnered with the American Neurology Society, some of which would be attending the conference as well. Some of the American delegations were scheduled to arrive today for a kick-off event, to tour the hospital's neuro department and research facilities and to have some time to discuss some research. Meredith's boss had urged her to attend that event, as a speaker and as a future member of the American neurosurgical community.

But Meredith had other plans for tonight. Since coming back to Munich ten days ago she had been busy with everything she wanted to get done before she had to leave for good. Tonight she would put on her reddish-orange pants with the reflective stripes and the windbreaker, her black protective boots and work the night shift as an emergency physician at the Wiesn.

During the last two weeks in September thousands upon thousands, tourists traveled to the Bavarian city to attend the Oktoberfest. People from all over the world came to enjoy the golden liquid, underestimating or ignoring its strength and drinking way too much way too fast. It was a giant party that was enjoyed by a vast majority of local and foreign people. It also put all emergency personal on high alert. In order to keep the Oktoberfest running smoothly, hundreds of paramedics, police officers, and security personal worked together. All local hospitals were prepared for long nights and emergency physicians were present at the festival area for any medical emergencies.