gwen stood at the nurses station looking over a chart. it was late in the evening and the only thing gwen wanted to do was to go home and sleep.
"hey. you're heading home?" callie asks her as she walked up next to her.
"yeah, i just have to discharge my last patient and then i'm finally heading home after a 24h shift." gwen sighs rubbing her eyes.
"i wanted to ask you something. something important." callie says making gwen look at her.
"and what?" gwen asks.
"do you want to be the godmother of my baby?" callie asks with a huge smile.
"yeah. oh, my god, yeah. callie, yeah, it would be an honour to be your babies godmother." gwen smiles.
"okay, great. i'm happy you said yes." callie sighs relieved.
"are you kidding of course i say yes." gwen smiles before walking away.
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gwen was on her way to the attendings lounge to change when meredith approached her.
"dr.shepherd, do you have time for a quick consult?" meredith walks up to gwen.
"i was supposed to be off by six, but... okay. sure." gwen nods taking the scans. "just walk with me. what do you got?"
"okay, 42 year old male, complaining of midsternal chest pain. no cardiac risk factors, no angina, pain doesn't radiate. the ekg looks clean." meredith informs her as gwen looked over the scans. "these are his films, and they're mostly clear, but... i don't know. does the mediastinum look a little wide to you? because i know sometimes that can happen with the portable x-ray."
"you got cardiac enzymes?" gwen ask.
"yes." meredith replies.
"i'll check on mr.richter right now. call radiology." gwen instructs her. "get him for a pa and lateral films, and tell them to rush it, 'cause i'd really like to get out of here."
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gwen stood at the nurses station in her casual clothes ready to leave when meredith approached her.
"excuse me dr.shepherd. mr.richter, mediastinum looks borderline on the pa films. take a look." meredith gave gwen the scans who looked over then quickly.
"you were right." gwen nods walking with meredith down the hall. "get a ct to be safe. i'll stick around to look at results."
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gwen waited for meredith and the scans in the e.r when mark approached her.
"how's your patient with the knife in his head doing?" gwen asks her husband.
"the blade went through his skull, didn't hit any major nerves or arteries. he's gonna be fine." mark replies.
"flesh wound?" gwen gasps.
"yeah." mark nods.
"that's the luckiest guy alive." gwen states.
"you're also pretty lucky, too." mark smirks. "it's past 6.30, and we haven't had our date yet."
"i'm waiting for a patient. i can't leave." gwen shoke her head. "i have to wait for some ct's."
"your patient's ct isn't ready yet?" mark asks.
"no." gwen replies. "so, okay, i mean. maybe i do, right at this precise moment, have one minute, but it's a minute."
"that's perfect. that's all i need." mark smirks taking her hand. "just a minute. i need a minute."
mark took gwen down the hall who giggled loudly. he opened the door to an on call room and pushed her in it.
"we have to do it really quick." gwen says as he pushed her on the bed.
"i'm good at quick." mark smirks kissing her.
he started to take off her shirt when her pager buzzed.
"i have to go. we continue this later at home." gwen assures him before leaving the room.
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gwen got paged down to the radiology because the patient had coded while doing the scans. she ran in into the room to see meredith shocking the patient.
"got a pulse." meredith announces.
"scans are up!" the radiologist informs them through the intercom.
"grey, talk to me." gwen instructs the resident walking over to the computer screens.
"he was coding when i got here. i defribrillated him three times, i gave him three rounds of epi, two of atropine." meredith explains taking of her gloves. "i loaded him up with amiodarone. but he's tachycardic now, he's barely hanging on."
"he needs surgery. book an o.r." gwen instructs her after looking over the scans.
"okay." meredith nods. "i'll get a room prepped and ready."
"no time." gwen dismisses her standing up to walk back to the patient. "his aorta's dissecting as we speak. he needs surgery right now."
"they're saying all the o.r's are booked." one nurse told her as he hold a phone up to his ear.
"well, tell them to bump someone because we're coming up either way." gwen snaps putting her stethoscope in her ears.
"i have an o.r. tell them to bump mine and prep it for and emergency cardio." meredith tells the nurse.
"all right, here we go." gwen wheeled the patient together with meredith and a few nurses down the hall into the elevator.
"let's hold that elevator." meredith shouts before they entered it.
"once these doors open, we're gonna have to get him in the o.r as soon as possible." gwen tells meredith who was putting her hair in a bun.
gwen did a bun as well when meredith put on her scrub cap.
"i know." meredith nodded.
"even then, if that aorta tears, we may already be too late." gwen adds taking off her jewellery. "we're not gonna have time to scrub."
"i know, i know." meredith nods as gwen took of her jacket.
then meredith hand gwen some sanitizer after using it for her own hands.
"thanks." gwen took it and rubbed her hands with it.
then the two waited impatient for the elevator doors to open. once they did they rushed the patient into the o.r.
"just pour the betadine straight onto the chest." gwen instructs once they entered the o.r getting gowned. "it doesn't need to be pretty. we need to get in there."
they two surgeons got gowned and gwen got her scrub cap on. then they stood on opposite sides at the patient.
"scalpel." gwen hold out her hand to the nurse.
"cautery." meredith orders as gwen starts to open the chest.
"cauterising now. get in there quickly, grey. time is myocardium." gwen stressed the resident. "all right, saw. get that retractor ready." then gwen started to saw through the rib cage.
"this guy thought he had a bad case of heartburn." meredith says. "he went from that to this in less than 45 minutes."
"that's how these work. how's his pressure?" gwen asks.
"seventies, and dropping." meredith replies.
"retractor!" gwen orders. "every beat of his heart rips this tear a little bit wider."
"how many of these ruptured dissections habe you caught in time to operate?" meredith asks the attending.
"40, maybe 50." gwen answers not looking up from the patient.
"how many have you been able to save?" meredith asks again.
"three." gwen simply replies briefly looking up at her.
they moved fast try to save him.
"oh, no, no, no, dam it. he's bleeding out!" gwen cursed once they opened him fully. "his aorta's wide open. clamp! come on, come on, come on! all right grey, let's try sucker bypass. cannulas!"
"it's not working. there's too much blood." meredith discovers.
"once we get him on bypass, it'll be easier to controll." gwen says.
"heart's fibrillating!" meredith announces as the monitor began to beep rapidly.
"all right. cardiac massage." gwen instructs meredith.
"paddles!" meredith says massaging the heart.
"almost got him cannulated." gwen states still trying to get him on bypass.
"charge to ten." meredith instructs putting the internal paddled around the heart. "clear."
she shocked him but no change.
"damn it. he's bleeding out of his nose and ears." meredith informs them looking over the patients face.
"i've been loading him up with blood, ffp and factor 7, but i can't keep up with the losses." dr.knox informs them.
"foley's full of blood, too." meredith states.
"dic. his cannula sites are oozing." gwen says.
"let's push three of epi. set me up for another shock." meredith instructs.
meredith pushed the epi grabbing the paddles to shock him. "clear."
then the patient flatlined.
"damn it." gwen cursed under her breath.
"well, what can we do?" meredith asks getting panicked. "just tell me what to do."
"nothing. his aorta is in shreds." gwen sighs.
"well, what about...?"
"there is nothing left to do." gwen cuts meredith off. "call it. call it, grey."
"no, i mean-"
"meredith, we got here too late. these are almost impossible to catch." gwen tells her. "there's nothing that we can do. i'm sorry. we need to call it."
meredith looked gwen long in the eyes before looking briefly at the patient. then she looked at the clock.
"time of death, 18.52." meredith sighs with glossy eyes.
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after her surgery gwen stood in front of the icu where all the babies where looking at them.
she looked at the cute babies sucking on their fingers or playing with there feet smiling bridely while doing it.
she was so focused she didn't even noticed mark walking up to her.
"hey, i heard you lost a patient. i'm sorry."
"yeah, thank you." gwen smiles.
"you know, some people would say it's creepy to watch babies." mark chuckles hugging his wife from behind.
"i'm just waiting for the day when our baby is going to be there." gwen smiles.
"soon, baby. soon." mark assures her.
"you know what callie asks me?" gwen ask mark.
"what?" he asks as she turns around to look at him.
"she asks me to be her babies godmother." gwen smiles bridely.
"oh really? that's great. does this mean i'm the godfather?" mark asks as they walked down the hall.
"i don't know." gwen replies taking his hand.
"i don't care. i'll be a father of my own soon." mark smiles.