The Last One

A Story by Skylar

A surgeon is waiting in the ER, a patient comes in. Can he do the surgery?

Another long night in the ER. “Gosh,” I thought, “It’s 2 AM and I still have seen any patients. Staying here until seven sure seemed like forever!

I watched the TV that was on. Nothing of interest was on though. I flipped through the channels lazily, finding nothing. I laid my head back on my chair, staring at the ceiling, praying for something to happen.

My prayers were answered. I heard some commotion outside and some one called to me, “Skylar! We have a patient!” I hopped up and ran to get to the new arrival. Two EMS drivers came in with what looked like a twenty year old man. He had short blonde hair and some tattoos on his arms. He was wearing a white T-Shirt and some old jeans. However, the one thing that drew my attention was the big red spot coming out from his chest.

“Nurse,” I asked, “what happened?”

“Stabbed in the heart.” she replied, “Got in a little tumble with one of his friends.”

“Name and age?” I asked again.

“Name is Chris and age is twenty two.” One of the EMS told me this. I was about right.

“Chris,” I wanted to make sure I consoled him, “everything is going to be fine. I’m Doctor Hoss. I’ll make sure to take care of you.”

He spoke back to me, but I couldn’t really make what he said out. It sounded something between, “It hurts a lot and I want it to go away.” and “It burns so hot and I want you to stop it.”

“I know Chris. Don’t worry; we will make it go away.”

I sort of felt sorry for the poor guy. I am not supposed to feel emotion towards a patient, but I just couldn’t help it. It was just one thing that I could not control. I always felt this way.

A voice disturbed my thoughts. “You guys are in OR 7.” The nurse sounded distressed.

“Thank you.” I told her.

My group of surgeons and nurses as well as me headed to the Operating Room. We moved as fast as we could, since Chris only had so long to live.

“Am I gonna be okay?” asked Chris.

“Of course you are!” replied one of the nurses. “Our Surgeons are some of the best.”

I kind of shuddered at that comment. Inside of me I wasn’t so sure of my abilities as I haven’t done a stab to the heart surgery lately. I knew that I could do it, but the only problem was that I wasn’t 100% positive.

We got to the operating room faster than I thought. Chris was already given some anesthetics so we didn’t need to worry about that part. Everyone was in a hurry. First some people lifted him onto the operating table, and then one of the nurses cut off his shirt, exposing the nasty wound. It wasn’t a big wound, but it was deep and pretty bloody.

“Scalpel.” I called out. One of the nurses handed one to me. “This is going to get pretty messy.” I told them. One of the nurses had placed some absorbency towels around the wound so runoff blood would not splatter everywhere.

I placed the scalpel onto Chris’s body and cut open across the wound. A clean cut was made. “Retractor.” I called out. The nurse handed one to me. I put the retractor into the scalpel cut, pushing against the skin and muscle and opening up his rib cage to reveal his heart.

The hole looked like it was engraved in his heart. It was the only thing I needed to close to make Chris survive. One of the other surgeons was getting together some suture string to close the hole.

He handed me the suture string and needle. I was the most experienced so I was the one who would handle the surgery.

We had to time the knots perfectly or else the heartbeat would be messed up, pushing against the arteries, and blocking oxygen flow. Chris would immediately die if this happened so we had to act quickly.

I tied the first knot successfully. Four more to go. The second knot was tied. Three more. Third knot was placed. Two left. The fourth knot was made. Now for the last one.

It happened all too fast. I went to tie the last knot. Something happened that made me hesitate a second right as I was about to seal the hole. It was too late to stop. I tied the knot almost half a second too late, causing the knot to push back against the beat. The heart plummeted back, messing up the arteries inside of it. Chris flat lined.

I looked down, ashamed of my failure. My reputation as a great doctor was falling down the tubes. All of the other doctors and nurses tried to console me with phrases like, “Its okay.” or, “It does happen sometimes.” It was not okay though. I had just messed up on the last suture and killed a patient.

I walked out of the OR, looking at the clock as I passed. 2:34. Only a little while had passed since Chris came in the door. In only a little while had I messed up bad enough that I killed a patient. It was an accident, but still a deadly accident.

Chris’s parents were here already. I would have to tell them that their son was no more, that he did not survive the surgery. It would be me that should take the blame.

All because of the last one.