How To Save A Life (Grey's Anatomy)

Chapter Forty-Three

"Hey, who needs me?" I ask Tyler, the nurse, and he nods me over toward trauma two. I thank him before turning. I accidentally bump into a tall man and apologize but he doesn't move out of my way.

"Could you direct me to the Chief's office?" He asks me with a blank face, but the busy ER is distracting as I try to come up with an answer.

"Uh, it's on the..." As I talk, I notice Alex on the other side of the ER holding the scans of an insanely fractured ankle, piquing my interest. "You know what, I'm sure if you ask a nurse they'd be happy to help."

"Oh, uh..." He starts but I've already passed him and walked over to my brother, looking over his shoulder at the scan.

"Dude, that's sick," I mutter, staring at it and he chuckles, pulling it from the light and turning to face me.

"Yeah, and it's mine. You can't get all the ortho cases." He says and I roll my eyes, amused at his defensiveness.

"Fine, I don't need your ankle. I have a trauma to get to." I say, scrunching my nose at him before walking towards the trauma room waiting for me.

"Have fun." He laughs and I give him one last look before pushing through the door. If possible, the volume escalates by ten times as I walk into the room, everyone running around, yelling over each other. In the heart of it all, Jackson works frantically over a patient bleeding out. He looks up to the sound of the door opening.

"I paged cardio, not ortho." He yells over the volume of the room to get his point across but I pull a trauma gown and gloves on anyway, walking over to help. He doesn't seem very pleased that I'm the person to show up, but he doesn't object seeing as the patient is at risk and our personal lives don't matter in this moment.

"Well, you have me. What do we got?" I ask, looking down at the struggling man in a lot of pain. I can barely see his injuries under the blood soaking his skin.

"GSW to the chest─here take this─the guy's lost almost half his blood volume," Jackson explains while handing me the gauze to try and reduce the flow of blood before the attendings get here.

"I-I need to g─" The man starts to stutter, blood dripping from his lips as he talks.

"Sir, I need you to lie down, let us help you," I say to him calmly, his body going limp on the table from blood loss.

"Start another IV. Get an 18-gauge!" Jackson calls out to the staff working around us. Suddenly, the door to the trauma room bursts open, Teddy walking through. "Finally." He hisses under his breath, probably not intending for me to hear him.

"Let's get ready to move him," Teddy says once inside, already knowing the situation and wanting to get the patient to an OR as soon as possible. We work as fast as we can, trying to get him stable enough to transport to an OR, Hunt eventually joining us.

"Karev, put in a chest tube." Hunt orders and I nod, equipment being handed to me by the nurse on cue as I start to work. I can sense the moment Jackson starts staring at me, obviously upset he wasn't chosen to put in the tube since this was his patient first. Without warning, the door bursts open again, forcing me to try and not lose concentration as I cut into an already bleeding man.

"Pete! Oh, my god! Pete!" A woman cries as she stumbles into the room, looking at the man with tears in her eyes.

"Focus, Karev. Extend the incision. A little more pressure." Hunt directs me as I work, trying to avoid my distraction from the woman.

"What happened?" She cries and Pete looks up at her.

"This guy hit me. I stopped my car to give him my insurance card...and he shot me." He explains as the woman cries for him, obviously a girlfriend or wife.