Life and Death-1

Drama in Medicine

Enjoy this new update.

The most heartbreaking thing is seeing Dorie look solemn at her five babies. I know they didn't come into this world in the most ideal way but they still have a great chance of living full and healthy lives. I know it's hard for her to see all five of them in incubators and think anything will get better. It's a hard time for anyone in her situation. "Oh, good. Here you are. Mom and dad are anxious for an update." Addison states to Dr. Bailey as the rest of the team comes in. "Dr. Yang?"

"We've done the initial surgery on Julie's omphalocele. A primary closure was attempted but there was a pulmonary compromise so we couldn't contin..."

"Yang, how about we do this in plain English." Dr. Bailey instructs her.

"Oh, um we operated on Julie's external sack of organs and we pushed in as much of the bowel as we could. And we think we can push in the rest with a second operation." Dorie lets out a loud sigh.

"She has to have a second operation?"

"Yeah." Cristina says this like it was no big deal. I nudge her side letting her know she needs to say more. "Oh, well, not for a few days." She finishes.

"Dr. O'Malley?" Addison moves on.

"We put in a shunt in Lucy's brain yesterday. And she's doing very well. We just have to keep monitoring her to make sure that the spinal fluid doesn't back up."

"Benoist."

"Dr. Burke used a catheter to pen Emily's atrial septum last night. Today we're gonna go in and try to reconstruct the left chamber of her heart. We're very helpful." I say to Dorie who looks to the ground.

"Dr. Grey?"

"Charlotte's lungs were a little more underdeveloped than the rest of the quints. So we put a special mask on her to help her breathe, and we're monitoring her closely."

"And that leaves Kate." Addison looks to Izzie and Alex.

"She seems to be pretty healthy. No major issues have been identified..."

"But we're gonna keep her in the isolette. Until she makes it to 4 pounds." Izzie finishes for Alex. Dorie acts like the life has been sucked out of her which it has and I feel for her and wish our news was something that would brighten her day and not make her worry more.

"You hear that, honey? Kate's doing really well."

"I'll be in my room." Tom is rightfully worried about his wife and her mental state but no one understands what Dorie is going through except for her. We have to support her and remind her that things will be okay.

"Dr. Montgomery..."

"Tom, she's just had, five babies. Her hormones are all over the place. She'll come around." Dr. Montgomery-Shepherd assures him.

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Dr. Bailey leads us out of the Quints room and gives off orders for our assignments for the day. "Grey keep an eye on the mother of the Quints. Make sure her hormones don't get the best of her." Dr. Bailey tells Meredith. "And Benoist you have Emily's heart surgery with Dr. Burke." She reminds me. Izzie decides this is the best time to throw a fit that she's not being put back on the case to work with Dorie and the babies.

"Why am I not being put on the case? I have the second closest relationship to them after Gen and..."

"Hey, Stevens. I don't know what you're so angry about, but I don't care, and you better keep it to yourself. On top of every other patient we have under our care, we have Quints to worry about, understood?" Izzie hangs her head down and closes her eyes in annoyance with Dr. Bailey. "Look, these are preemies, people. They were supposed to have spent another eight weeks in the womb. Just like interns, they're not ready for the real world." Dr. Bailey's pager goes off. "Oh, it's the pit. Yang come with me."

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I scrub in for surgery with Dr. Burke going through every step in my mind. "The first step in the Norwood is the cardiopulmonary bypass."

"With the H.L.H.S. what else do you get. Besides hyperplasia of the ventricle?" Dr. Burke quizzes me.

"Stenosis or atresia of the mitral and aortic valves." I say with confidence.

"Why are we using the RV-PA conduit instead of the modified Blalock-Taussig shunt?"

"It limits diastolic runoff." I say and he nods impressed.

"Well, you've done your homework."

"I was on call last night and watching babies gave me some time to study."

"Well, no matter what the books say, I guarantee you, you have never seen a heart this small."

"Oh, you'd be surprised." I smirk at Dr. Burke.

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The surgery went well and now I head over to check on my Quint hoping to give Dorie some more good news to brighten her day. I'm surprised to see Alex sitting their taking notes over something. "Hi." I say and he looks up at me and weakly smiles.

"I thought you weren't talking to me."

"Just cause I was disappointed in your choices doesn't mean I hate you." I say taking the seat next to him.

"Why, everyone else does?"

"Well, I'm not everyone else. We're friends Alex. You're the only one I've shared 

"Aren't there girl rules about you all hating me?"

"You're my friend too Alex. I'm not leaving you."

"You don't have to do that Gen."

"No, I want to do it."

"I almost killed a guy yesterday."

"Accidents happen."

"You don't have to defend me I..."

"Alex you're harder on yourself than anyone I know. It's okay to say you made a mistake."

"Easy for you to say you didn't kill a patient."

"But I will." He looked at me like I was crazy. "We're doctors and on top of that, we're wanting to be surgeons. It would be insane to say we wouldn't have a patient die on us. Things happen we're all human. Some things can't be prevented. We can only learn from them and try to be better."

"I'm just trying to find anything I can to help him."

"Okay, well what are we looking for?" I take one of the textbooks from his pile.

"Uh, anything on central pontine myelinolysis."

"Sounds easy enough." I joke just as Izzie walks in the room. She sees us and has a look of disgust on her face.

"Unbelievable."

"Izzie!" I call out but she keeps running away not wanting to listen to anything I had to say.

"Are you going to go after her?"

"Why would I do that when we have research to do before I have rounds."

"You're bad with girl code."

"I've lived with enough sisters to know chasing after a girl when they are upset can make the situation worse before it can get better."

"You can talk to Izzie. I'll be fine here..."

"Izzie is my friend and roommate but you're also my friend Alex. I don't have to choose sides in this argument. You did a shitty thing that no one should do but...that doesn't make you a bad person."

One of the quints died with nothing we could do to save her. After everything we did to fight for her life had another thing planned. All of this time I've fallen in love with medicine there are still parts of it that make me question why I'm putting myself through all of this.