Always, It's You

Chapter 66

Ashley came out of the OR in the dawn. She managed to remove the metal spike inserted in her skull with her team. It took quite a few hours to do so. The girl's condition was not good. She was sent to post-op but the timing was critical. She was kept in observation for the next seventy-two hours. She sat on the chair in the hallway of surgery blocks unable to stand even for a second.

Dr. Shawn came out from the OR beside.
Ashley stood up and looked at him with eagerness.
He just shook his head from side to side.
Ashley thumped back on the chair and leaned on the backrest. The mother didn't make it.

Ashley got up and went for her office.

"Dr. Saul wrote something about the post-op of the stroke patient," Park Aera came in.
"Can you check this one out? Gosh, his handwriting is pathetic!" She stopped as soon as she saw tears pooling in Ashley's eyes.

"Hey! What happened?"

"She didn't make it," Ashley answered as she wiped away her tears.

"I heard. It's ok, you've made a choice and a right choice. Don't beat yourself over it."

"I can't," Ashley put her head on the desk.

"Hey.......let me walk you through the situation. Tell me, why did you make the choice."

"The girl....she was so young. She had a full life ahead. The mom spent her life and she'd have nothing left if the girl was gone, she'd be just living like a zombie for the rest of her life. But the girl.....she had still a long way to go, a lot to see, a lot to experience."

"Don't bluff yourself with that," Park Aera stopped her. "You are not a philosopher. What you did was not based on emotions, rather on science. What was it?"

"Chances of the survival of the girl were higher. Probably fifty-fifty. The mom was not good, chances of survival were probably thirty percent? If I tried to save the mom, the girl could have died, the mom could have also died in OR which she did. But I choose the girl, cause if the mom died, at least I'd be able to save one. And I  asked Dr. Shawn to operate on the mother in E.R cause it could have done there and Dr. Shawn was good at it. But the girl seriously needed the OR cause operating on her in E.R was practically impossible."

" The mother got into OR twenty minutes later," Park Aera confirmed.
"Surgery started in the E.R right after you left and then she was moved into OR. She died on the table there. Just like you predicted that she wouldn't make it."

"Unnie..."

"It was a hard choice to choose death for the patients. You did what you had to do kid. You did good," Park Aera patted her shoulder. "Now, go home. Everything is cooled down, some patients were transferred to another hospital while you were operating. I'll make sure to call you if anything is needed."

Taehyung called her in the noon, she was still asleep.

"Did I wake you up?" Taehyung said with concern.

"I'd be up anyway by now. How are you?"

"Good. We'll be back in few days."

"Aera unnie caught us. She knows about us," Ashley yawned.

"How? When?" Taehyung panicked.

"She told me yesterday."

"Can we trust her?"

" We can if you care to bribe her with an autograph or something," Ashley smiled.

"Gladly!" Taehyung sighed in relief.
"What happened yesterday? You ran for an emergency."