Violet
"CT, stat," I ordered the nurse on the other side of the table. He quickly walked over to the table, taking the patient with him and did as he was asked. I left the room momentarily to wash my hands and put my gloves on.
They had brought in a patient with a gunshot wound. Heaven knows how he had gotten it, but I needed to get the bullet out as soon as I could.
I returned to the operating room and examined the organ that was penetrated. His kidney had a bullet wound; whoever had done this might've had their focus set probably a couple organs lower, but they clearly missed the target. Possibly a crime of passion, but that wasn't for me to determine. I was here to save this man's life, not to play judge and jury.
He had come in for surgery from the ER and I was confused when I saw a familiar face. It had been years since I had last seen him.
I quietly completed the task at hand before letting my mind wander to how a bullet had gotten shot into his kidney. There could've been a thousand possibilities, and only he knew how it happened.
I adjusted the light above me as I removed the bullet in absolute silence and closed the incision. I nodded at my fellow doctors and walked out of the room to wash my hands and remove the gloves. The nurses would clean him up; they were always so diligent and helpful.
"Nice work Dr. Veowsalot." Dr. Tony Anderson, one of my colleagues, said as I made my way out of the operating room. "I would've used a smaller syringe to anesthetize him, but aside from that, your procedural technique was spotless."
"Thanks Tony." I smiled warmly as we walked out.
"So, I'll see you tonight?" He made me feel giddy as I melted just looking at him.
"I wouldn't miss it for the world." I smiled as we turned a corner and he kissed my cheek.
"See you." He winked, walking off the floor and toward the ICU. I continued heading toward my desk.
"Dr. V." A resident nodded in recognition as I smiled. I had just completed my residency and the respect level had risen exponentially from the hospital staff. It was as though this new title somehow made me a queen, and not just a girl with a lot of medical school debt.
I walked around the unit to one of the computers and began typing and searching the records of my patient. I wanted to see him when he woke up. It had been far too long. I wondered what had happened to him.
He had been this elusive person since he moved away halfway through our junior year of high school. I wondered what brought him to my new town and why he was injured. I had moved two states away after graduation and now here I was, about two cities from the town of Rosemond.
My pager started to ring, which meant they needed me. I looked at it, contemplating ignoring the call. They'd just call again if I did.
"Veowsalot." I said as the doctor on the other end told me what I needed to do and what surgical unit I had to go on.
There was a code blue, a medical emergency, and they needed as many people there as possible. I quickly rushed to the elevator and climbed to the eighth floor of the Barrier Medical Hospital. The patient was seemingly having a myocardial infarction while the patient's family had been pushed outside the room. The other medical professionals did their best to save a life.
I stood outside, waiting to see if they needed me; the room was crowded enough as is.
"It'll be okay." I said to the family. The daughters were in tears and the father was hugging them. I was worried for their mother in there; women typically were less likely to have heart attacks, especially those in their early thirties.
Inside the room, they called for a general surgeon. I walked into the room, nodding goodbye to the family.
"Patient has agonal breathing, it could be due to cardiac arrest or a myocardial infarction. We aren't sure yet, but we think she may have been poisoned. Her blood was a strange consistency. We need more time." One of the doctors yelled as I made my way toward the table as the woman began to seize.
"She's flatlining."Another doctor said as she stared at the monitor above the patients bed, I could see her breathing rate had drastically declined. I wasn't sure what I could do to help her. This wasn't exactly my forte.
I stepped aside as I kept my eyes trained on the monitor as the other doctors worked diligently to save her life.
Her heart rate went back to normal as her O2 levels slowly declined. I was worried about what to tell the family. If her O2 levels kept declining, regardless of what we do for her, she was going to die. I needed a miracle to save her, but for now, her heart rate was back to normal and she would be fine for at least a few more hours.
"How is she?" The father asked as he spotted me exiting the room. I nodded in encouragement, I didn't want to deliver the news.
"She's going to be okay, for now. Her oxygen levels are really low. We've put her on a ventilator to hopefully maintain the oxygen levels, but if those numbers continue to decline." I stopped, "let's hope for the best. And if you need anything, the nurses are happy to help." I walked away and back toward my desk to finish inputting the data from the earlier surgery. I felt useless and upset that I couldn't have helped the family more.
My phone began to ring and I looked down to see my mom was calling me. She hadn't been the same since her boyfriend died six years ago.
"Hey, mom, I'm at work. Can I call you back tonight?" I asked as her cheery voice filled my ears.
"Actually, sweetheart, are you able to visit anytime soon. Your friend Aaron, from high-school, stopped by earlier. I missed that guy. Did you know he's a detective now?" She asked and my heart practically flew out of my chest at the sound of his name.
"Um, could I talk to you later about this. I can't visit tonight, Tony and I have a date scheduled tonight, but I'll give you a call tomorrow morning."
"Tony? Oh right, Dr. Anderson. I didn't know you were seeing him. How is he?"
"Good." I said, feeling giddy. This wasn't the time for conversation, I had lots of work to do and data to input.
"Look mom, I'm kind of busy and I don't have a lot of time to talk. I'll call you tomorrow before my shift begins. I'm not working this weekend so I can stop by." I said before hanging up. Mom never called me at work, it was a nice surprise though.
"Mia," I called for one of the nurses, "what was the name of that patient with the gunshot wound earlier?"
"Tyler Wallace." It all clicked now. Tyler, I hardly remembered him, I wondered how everyone had been. It had been so long.
I inputted as much data as I could, performed two more surgeries and put the data in for those as well. It had been nearly 9 hours since Tyler's surgery, he might've been awake by now. I decided to stop by his room before I left my thirty-two hour shift to get ready for my hot date and sleep two hours in preparation for tomorrow's twenty-four hour shift. Then I would have the entire weekend off.
After checking up on Tyler, who was still fast asleep, I checked out of the hospital and headed toward my car. I had an old, used car that was not very pretty to look at, but it did the job of getting me from point A to point B.
As I walked through the darkness, I couldn't help but feel like someone was watching me. I turned around several times, searching the area.
Maybe I was just being paranoid, sleep-deprivation mixed with intense stress for hours did have that effect on people. I ignored the feeling as I climbed into my car and started the engine.
I backed away slowly, afraid for no reason other than the gut feeling as I scanned the area.
And then I saw it. The side of a face, hidden in a shadow of an alleyway with a small light illuminating it. I had hoped to never see that face again; now I understood my gut feeling.
I had every right to be afraid.
**
@Veronicasoli