Dr.Singh assigned the second most serious case to Gen, which drew an impatient huff from Goran, and mutters of favoritism she pretended not to hear.Dr.Visek’s attitude probably contributed to why Dr.Singh preferred Gen as the resident he trusted; in the past he’d even murmured about putting her name up for senior resident next year.
She stuffed in the last of her sandwich and swallowed it quickly as she rushed to the toilet.These kinds of incidents meant they’d likely be working solidly through the next few hours, so it was best to deal with every contingency now.
Over the next hour she treated a man’s near-severed arm, and supervised her intern, Francis, who was working on a child’s lacerations, while Dr.Visek worked on a sweet-faced older woman with internal bleeding.Working in the ED meant collaboration, assessing, directing, working in tandem with the other trauma teams.Rooms one, two, and three were filled with teams working to keep the victims alive.
She’d just sent the arm victim to OR when Dr.Visek called, “Quick!I need help in here!This one’s coding!”
Gen stripped off her gloves, tugging on new ones as she rushed inside trauma two.“What’s happened?”
Dr.Visek looked hapless as ever as the team rushed about.“She was fine, talking one minute, complaining about her legs, then she just went into cardiac arrest.”
The woman already had a breathing mask on, and Marcie was in boss-mode, directing the others to their roles like Goran should’ve done.And while Gen didn’t want to overstep, if she didn’t step in, then this woman might die.
“You need to start compressions,” she said to Goran.
But when he didn’t move, she elbowed him out of the way.
“Here.”She started chest compressions on the woman, then they had to use the defibrillator to shock the poor lady’s heart to respond.“Clear.”
This happened another time.Two.Her arms were getting sore, while Dr.Visek stood there, looking helpless.“Go get Dr.Singh.”
Dr.Visek shook his head.“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“This woman—”
“Geraldine,” Melanie, another ED nurse, murmured.
“Geraldine is going to die if you don’t do something now.”
“This is my patient, not yours.”
“Then you should be the one doing something!”she snapped.
The code team continued, Dr.Singh unable to come due to his own emergency, so when another ten minutes passed with still no response she eventually had to call it.“Time of death, 14:07.”Another glance around showed Goran had left.“Where is Dr.Visek?”
“Bay four,” Melanie said.
Gen clenched her hands.What kind of resident left their patient like this?
She stripped off her gloves and entered the bay, where—sure enough—Goran was intubating an asthmatic patient.She bit back her first response.She wouldn’t reprimand him in front of others, but he was still supposed to be in charge of poor Geraldine’s case.
Finally he finished and she was able to speak to him.“Excuse me Dr.Visek, but you are needed to complete your previous case.”
“Can’t you see I’m busy here?”
She gave a tight smile of apology to the asthmatic woman, catching the RN’s rolled eyes.Yep, Dr.Visek’s attitude stank.
“I’m really sorry but we need a quick chat.You need to write up what happened and speak to the husband.”
“No.”
No?Okay then.That left only one option.
She returned to locate Dr.Singh then reported what had happened.
As expected he sighed.“That’s unacceptable.You’re saying he left a patient as they were coding?”
“He stood there while I stepped in and performed compressions.And now he is refusing to write up what happened.”
