BTS ONE SHOTS

Dr. Park (4)

Chapter 4

It’s a bad day.

Jimin, as a second-year resident, is assigned to man the Emergency room on nights that he goes on duty. Last night was, simply put, hell. The emergency room was a war zone. They had two dead-on-arrival patients that they failed to revive, leading to the families to accuse the staff, especially Jimin, of incompetence despite them doing everything by the book and trying hard to save them. Then there’s the usual patients who decided to come in at the ungodly hour of morning even though their concerns do not exactly fall under the category of an emergency and thus are more appropriate to be seen in the OPD but still demanded to be served, adding to Jimin’s toxicity.

Jimin admitted so much patients, half of them warranting ICU admission, that the senior resident assigned there cursed him for giving them so much work as if it's his fault that those patients got sick and decided to go to the hospital during their tour of duty. The second-year resident knows that it’s just the stress talking so he shouldn’t feel hurt by the words thrown at him but still he couldn’t help but cry. He spent a good amount of time crying while taking a shower once he was relieved from his post. He didn’t even had time to take his breakfast before he had to rush to join Dr. Lim for their morning rounds.

Then, most probably due to hunger and exhaustion, Jimin mixed up the lab results of two of Dr. Lim’s patients. He was quick to rectify his error but not before Dr. Kim has decided to personally double check with the laboratory department because he immediately caught on that the results do not reflect the patients’ conditions. If he hadn't, then they might have managed the patients differently and that could have led to a morbidity, worse a mortality. Namjoon promptly yelled at Jimin for being careless and making a rookie mistake. To Jimin’s disappointment, after weeks of trying to impress Dr. Kim Namjoon, he managed to get himself on the senior fellow’s bad side with one small slip. Thankfully Dr. Kim reprimanded him privately so Jimin was spared from being humiliated in front of the hospital staff.

But what made Jimin feel worse was when Dr. Lim himself felt the need to personally scold him. The consultant did it gently as always. He just wanted to emphasize that because he and the fellows are often busy, most of the time they rely on the resident’s updates. So, it’s crucial not to make any mistakes on their reports since it can lead to grave consequences. The resident understood and apologized profusely, promising that it will not happen again. The consultant assured Jimin that he’s not mad and that these things happen but still it should be a reminder that he should always be careful and that the incident should not be repeated. How Dr. Lim patiently and kindly handled the situation added to Jimin’s guilt. He probably would have felt better if the consultant just yelled at him just like Namjoon did.
  
So yeah, it was a very bad day. He spent the rest of the day sulking, not even bothering to smile nor laugh when Dr. Jung tried to tell corny jokes to help lighten the mood. He didn’t feel any better even after Dr. Kim reminded him that he still is the best resident that rotated with them so far and that he shouldn’t take everything personally. In Jimin’s mind, maybe what the relatives of the patients that expired last night were correct- he is incompetent and should not be trusted to handle patient’s lives.

***

“Hey, Dr. Park! Jimin, hey!”, Dr. Jung ran fast to catch up with the young doctor leaving the hospital premises.

“Dr. Jung?”, Jimin blinked as he waited for the doctor to reach him, not expecting for the fellow to run after him.

“Hi! Wow, you walk very fast. I was calling you but you didn’t seem to hear me.”, Hoseok exclaimed once he was in front of the resident.

"Can I help you, Dr. Jung? Did I forget to do something? I updated all the charts and double checked them to make sure I didn't miss anything. There are no more mixed ups, I swear!", Jimin nervously defended himself, expecting another scolding despite being sure that he didn't make any more mistakes after the morning mishap.