Winning the Lottery

Ch. 5 Hospital

"Dr. Hamilton, Bridget is new, so she may be a little off today."

She rose a brow and looked at him. "Dr. Klein, she looks fine to me."

"But-"

She looked at me, taking a glance at the name on my coat. "Dr. Malone, what is on my agenda for today?"

"You're removing a malignant tumor from a bile duct."

"Exactly. Can anyone tell me what the bile duct does?"

I quickly explained.

She nodded and turned to Nick. "She was the only one to answer that, Dr. Klein. If I were you, I'd be concerned about myself and why I could not answer that one question. Now, let's go check on the patient, shall we?"

We followed her to a patient's room.

The woman looked young. She had dark brown hair and eyes. Her skin was yellow, which wasn't a good sign, especially at her age. I instantly hated that she was so young and so sick. It wasn't fair.

"Dr. Hamilton, hi," she smiled.

"Hi, Erica. Dr. Williams, present."

"Erica Thompson, 36. A malignant tumor 42.7mm in diameter is located in her bile duct, blocking the bile from breaking down nutrients. Today, we'll be removing the tumor and repairing the duct," the man spoke.

I looked at the interns around me. I was the only female in the group. That made me feel even worse about the day.

Erica smiled, "It's a big day."

"That it is," Dr. Hamilton smiled. "Dr. Hudson and Dr. Klein will prep you for your surgery in a bit, okay?"

"Okay."

"Do you have any questions?" I asked.

She seemed to sigh in relief. "Yeah, um, will I be able to eat real food after this? I'm tired of the liquid crap."

I smiled, "If all goes as planned, you should be able to do so."

"Great. Um, this won't kill me, will it?"

All eyes were on me.

"You can't live without a bile duct--here. let me show you." I got my pen and notepad out and went over to her. I drew the bile duct, liver, and pancreas. "Since you don't have a gall bladder, I left that out. Here's what the bile duct does..." I drew a picture, explaining along the way.

She smiled, "Thank you. No one really explained it."

"My pleasure."

"Dr. Hamilton, can she prep me?" Erica asked.

"Of course," Dr. Hamilton nodded. "We'll be back in a bit, okay?"

She nodded.

We left the room.

"Bridget, you can't just ask the patient questions like that!" Nick reprimanded.

"She was terrified. She had questions, so I answered them."

"Bridget-"

"Dr. Malone?" Dr. Hamilton called.

I looked up.

"Well done in there."

"Thank you, Dr. Hamilton," I smiled.

We went to see her other patients, then I went to prep Erica for surgery.

She was nervous, which I felt was probably a good emotion to feel right before surgery. She climbed on the stretcher.

I covered her up and nodded to my team, who helped me wheel her to the elevator.