October 1989
I stood beside Tom in a locker room of surgeons fresh out of medical school. We all wore light blue scrubs, and everyone was talking amongst themselves, excited to continue their medical training.
"You look good in scrubs," I heard behind me. After tying my tennis shoes, I turned to see Tom with a grin on his face.
"Maybe I should change occupations," I chuckled.
Tom and I were assigned something new. There's a surgeon at the Evergreen Hospital that has had multiple patients die on him since he began working there. We were there to investigate why.
We followed the pack of interns through the hospital where more doctors were waiting for them. These doctors were more advanced in their career, and they are called Residents. Above Residents, are Attendings. Attendings wear dark blue scrubs. Interns are the new doctors who just graduated medical school.
"Dr. McQuaid and Dr. Toboggan?" One of the Attendings asked.
"We are right here," Tom said as we pushed our way to the front.
The doctor cleared his throat and told the group, "these are interns from Metro Hospital. They will be training with us because this is a teaching hospital." Then he lowered his voice and said, "you two will be under Dr. Foreman's service. Any questions?"
We both vigorously shook our heads.
"Excellent. Get to work," he said and walked off.
I turned to Tom and asked, "who is Dr. Foreman?"
"Right here," I heard. I turned around to see another doctor in light blue scrubs, surrounded by a group of interns. We introduced ourselves, and he said, "great. You'll be making rounds. Let's go."
We trudged behind the group, and Tom whispered to me, "it's pretty quiet in here."
A couple of interns snapped their heads towards him and scolded, "never say that word in a hospital."
"Why?" Tom asked, oblivious to the stigma attached to it. It's bad luck to say that word in a hospital, because all hell will break loose.
Suddenly, in burst a man screaming on a gurney. The paramedics were efficiently describing the trauma, and the doctors began to frantically surround the man. When they moved, I could see blood coating their latex gloves.
"I think that's why," I said.
"Uh, Dr. Toboggan and Dr. McQuaid, hop on that case. Rest of you, rounds. Let's go." Dr. Foreman said.
We were pushed into a room alone with the screaming man, and Tom nearly gagged at all the blood. He hates the slight of blood, it makes him feel queasy.
"We have to take him to the O.R.," one of the doctors said. He turned to us amongst the panic and asked, "who are you guys?"
"We are Dr. Toboggan and McQuaid, sir," Tom said.
"Well, Toboggan and McQuaid, congratulations. You interns will see the inside of an O.R. Let's roll."
We followed the team up to the operating room, and copied their every move. We washed our hands vigorously, put on gloves, and were instantly put into the operating room. Everything was so sterile and clean, you could eat off the floor.
"That's the doctor we are investigating," Tom whispered to me and nodded toward him.
I leaned to one of the interns next to me and asked, "who is the surgeon?"
He whispered back, "that's Dr. Anderson. He just transferred from a hospital in Oregon."
We all gathered around as the patient was put under anesthesia and the nurses prepared the area for Dr. Anderson. He looked around at everyone and said, "all right. Let's begin. Scalpel."
A nurse handed him a sharp instrument which he used to cut open the patient. Tom got visibly uncomfortable when Dr. Anderson was digging around in the patients gut with sharp instruments. Dr. Anderson would mumble occasionally, but would always describe what he was doing before or as he did it in an effort to teach the interns.
"This is really wedged in there..." Dr. Anderson said. Then, he put up his forceps to show that he was holding a bullet.
"Wow," one intern said.
"Radical," said another.
"So gross," Tom whispered to me.
Dr. Anderson put the bullet in a bowl and asked, "who here can tell me what we do next?"
No one answered so I spoke up, "repair damage done to any organs and blood vessels the impact of the bullet may have damaged."
"Very good, Dr. Toboggan," he said. After a bit he asked another question about the anatomy, which I was able to answer. He seemed impressed and asked, "what are they teaching you at Metro Hospital?"
I smiled under my mask and said, "not as much as I'm learning right now, Doctor."
Tom leaned to me and asked in a low voice, "how did you know all that?"
"You don't think this is my first medical assignment, do you?" I asked. The first couple times, I forced myself to learn and memorize as much as I possibly could just in case I was asked to do something and my cover would not be blown. As a result, I tend to read my medical textbooks in my leisurely time. As well as watching lots of medical dramas.
After a couple of hours, Dr. Anderson looked up at a nearby intern and said, "Dr. Garcia, here," and handed her the metal instrument that was in his hand.
"What's this for?" She asked.
Dr. Anderson then took a scalpel and nicked an artery by the patients heart. My jaw dropped, even though you couldn't see it under the surgical mask. All the interns started looking around at each other, confused and horrified.
"I need you to fix that," he said flatly.
The intern was shaky, "I-I don't know if I can."
"You have to, or the patient will die. And it will be your fault," he replied coldly.
"But I don't know how to."
"No better time to learn."
The interns hands were shaking as she got closer to the patient. She eventually backed away and handed the scalpel to Dr. Anderson and said with a creaky voice, "I can't."
"Then get out of my O.R.," he said firmly.
She walked out quickly, ripping off her protective gown and gloves before the door slammed shut behind her. I realized that he would put the blame of the patient deaths on his interns so he would not get into trouble.
Dr. Anderson looked around the room before he landed on me. He handed the instrument to me and said, "Dr. Toboggan. You fix it."
"Sir, I can't," I said honestly.
"Why not?" He asked, disapprovingly. "Do any of my interns have the balls to save a patient? A man will have a meaningless death because you guys won't step up. And you call yourselves doctors."
"Because I'm not a doctor," I said and dug into my pocket for my badge. "I'm a police officer."
"Me too," Tom said and flashed his.
Dr. Anderson rolled his eyes. He asked, "what the hell is a police officer doing in my operating room?"
"We are investigating a series of deaths under your watch, Dr. Anderson. And we can clearly see it is because you jeapordize your patients and force your unqualified interns to fix your lethal mistakes," Tom said.
"It's how they learn," he replied, looking back down at the patient.
"Step away from the patient, Dr. Anderson," Tom ordered.
Dr. Anderson sighed and stepped back while I said to a nearby intern, "I need you to grab any doctor you can who can finish this surgery."
"Right away, officer," she said and ran out of the room.
Tom walked behind Dr. Anderson and began to read him his rights as he handcuffed his gloved and sanitized hands behind his back. They were beginning to escort him out when the machine connected to the patient began to beep. Dr. Anderson didn't care, he kept walking out with Tom.
"He's crashing," one of the interns said. They all froze.
"You're doctors!" I yelled at them, "do something!"
"We-we don't know what to do. It's our second week," one of the interns said.
I have spent quite a few assignments at medical schools. I found it fascinating, so I always asked Jenko and Fuller to assign them to me but there is not a big demand for them around here. My days there resulted in learning a few things that have become quite helpful. As well as my love for medical dramas. There was an episode of The Doctors where a very similar issue happened with a patient. I took my knowledge from my love of medical shows and my few lessons and my desire to read medical textbooks to figure out what needed to be done.
"We need to stop the bleeding," I said. I absentmindedly ordered for a clip, and one and promptly handed to me. I managed to use the clip to stop the bleeding, and by then the intern I sent had came back with another doctor. The intense beeping stopped, showing that the patient was once again stable.
This doctor had a towel around his hands, and he wore dark blue scrubs. An Attending. He asked, "Dr. Toboggan?"
"It's Officer now," I said and stepped away from the table. He ran to the table to begin assessing the patient. I explained the situation to him and headed for the door.
"Who clipped this?" the new surgeon asked. I turned around and saw that most of the interns were pointing in my direction. He raised his eyebrows at me and asked, "you did this?"
"I did, I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You saved this patients life."
I smiled and left the operating room. I ripped my mask off and walked down the hall with a spring in my step. I finally found Tom, standing in the waiting room waiting for me.
"Where's Dr. Anderson?" I asked when I reached him.
"Already headed downtown," he said, followed by a deep breath.
"Wait, officers," we heard. We turned around to see the chief of the hospital heading toward us. "Officer, what you did in the O.R. was impressive. I'd like to offer you an internship here."
"That's very kind but I think I'd like to stay where I am."
"All right. Have a good night," he said and walked away.
I began walking out of the hospital with Tom and he asked, "what did you do?"
I chuckled, "saved someone's life. No big deal."
He stopped walking and look at me with a smile and a soft shake of his head.
"What?" I asked Tom.
He said, "you amaze me every day."
"You're funny," I chuckled.
"I'm serious."
He put his arm around me as we continued to walk out. I said, "I was incredibly lucky. I remembered the same injury that occurred on one of the shows that I watched so I did what they did on the show. Plus, it made sense with what I've read in medical textbooks."
Tom chuckled and said, "okay. That was pretty lucky."
We headed out of the hospital, satisfied with our win. Our completed job of busting Dr. Anderson had more than likely saved many lives, and that's the whole reason why I am in this line of work.
Inspired by Greys Anatomy!
Next chapter is the team going to a wedding! 🥰
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