-Chapter Seven-
Leave it to Romano
Susan passes me by, shaking her head with incredulity "Tsk, this is unbelievable."
"What?" I catch up with her.
"Steve Flint just asked me out."
"Steve Flint from radiology?"
"The one and the only. He is so dull!" she exclaims and then does a perfect imitation of the radiologist's professional yet boring voice "Radius and ulna all appear normal. Density in the lower extremity consistent with a foreign body."
"A bullet! That's what it is called!" I burst into laughter. "I have this guy, bleeding to death, waiting to get into an OR and he's taking bloody ages to tell me he has a bullet in his arm!"
"You haven't heard the worst yet. Old Kyason from cardiology asked me out once! I told Flint yes, though. I guess I was bored and didn't have better plans."
"He might turn out to be an interesting lad. Give him the benefit of the doubt at least. And call me next time you're desperate: a girls night-out sounds fun."
"I will, Elizabeth."
"Ok, see you around."
I go up to the surgical floor and I bump into Robert.
"Hi Lizzie!"
"Hi Robert, what are you doing here?"
"I was here for my physical therapy and Morgenstein stuck me babysitting clumsy second-year residents! Do I look like a mother hen to you, Lizzie? He's the new guy on the block, filling in for me as Chief of staff as Anspaugh decides what to do with me and he takes me for a dry nurse!"
"I understood he had that position before you, Robert."
"I wonder why on earth he didn't stay in his cabin up north on the lakes enjoying his retirement. Anyway, you look like you've just gotten off shift, Lizzie."
" I have, Robert. Gotta go take some info on kindergarten because I gotta have to enroll Ella soon."
"If you wanna my opinion, Lizzie, kindergartens are just places full of germs and infective children diseases. I wouldn't wanna poor little Ella in one of those hellish pre-schools."
"Well, it is not like I have any other choice, Robert. Ella can't stay in daycare forever and I am not exactly a stay home mom, in case you haven't noticed."
"They call it progress but it really isn't. Where have gone all those women, those angels of the heart, who stayed home, did the chores and churned out a dozen brats, huh? My mom did that."
"And you are the fruit of that sacrifice? I should thank my absent mother, then."
Romano goes on unperturbed "Of course I don't have eleven brother. I am an only child."
"Thank God for that! One Romano is certainly enough for this world already!"
"I beg to differ, Lizzie. I was just thinking of donating my sperm, you know."
"You having troubles getting laid, Robert?"
"No, just feeling altruistic towards mankind I guess. Maybe cloning would be a better option, though. I don't have any guarantee on the mother's side of the genetic divide, you know."
"Cloning is a gray zone of medical ethics, Robert. You should know better than that, not only because you are a doctor, but just anyone in the field, just simply being a medic you-"
"Tsk, tsk, Lizzie." He shakes his finger in a no gesture. "Calling me a medic you make a 'dick' out of 'me'!"
He zings me, leaving me there, speechless.
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"Hey, watch it Malik!" I say as I dodge just in time to avoid decapitation via Frisbee. Wait, no, that was a bedpan. "What's with flying projectiles in the hallways? I'm sure Kerry would find something against it in the regs."
"Don't tell her, party-pooper!" Carter yells after me, running after the makeshift Frisbee "Go back to surgery, where you belong!"
"Sometimes I think Robert's right and this is just a mental asylum. Can't understand why I like it down here." I say to myself as I watch the young doctor and the black nurse run down the hallway throwing the bedpan to each other.
"Because under your serious surgeon's façade you're a funny girl, Elizabeth." Susan tells me as she blocks me with her arm, saving me from another speedy unidentified object. Chuny swooshes after it on roller blades.
"Thank you, Susan. I just didn't know hall monitor was a part of the job description."
"Hall monitor, warden for the mentally unsound, bearer of bad news--it all kind of comes with the job," Susan explains.
"Run for your life!" I cry as Jerry decides to join the fun and throws a bedpan as well. I duck inside the lounge, closely followed by Susan.
The loud crush of glasses being broken reach us even there.
"Jerry!" Kerry barks.
"Sorry, chief!"
I laugh. "Sometimes I think a slow night is more dangerous than a multiple trauma."
"You betcha."
I retreat to my duller yet safer sanctuary, the OR, to perform a TIPS procedure that will keep me busy for most of my shift. There's some kind of surgical convention in Philadelphia and most of the surgical staff is there. I am the only attending left along with a couple of residents, an intern and three med students who can't do much else than hold a retractor. It means I have a six-people work to do, but I can't complain because I volunteered not to go to stay with Ella. With Robert gone I was swamped already.
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I stare at Luka, who in turn, is staring at Abby. Hey, I feel like I'm stealing Carter's place. It's his job to frown over the Croat doc wearing his eyes out on the pretty nurse. I guess I understand how crappy he felt then. Jealousy is the worst form of that disease called love. Hey, I'm not in love with Luka! Kind of. I have a big crush on him, so? Luka looks at me quizzically before returning his stare to his crosswords. God bless slow days.
"Uhm, you look pretty absorbed into that crosswords, Luka." I say to make some conversation, just to hear that sexy accent of his. Oh God, I'm already so pathetic. He looks at me with his wonderful eyes and I am a goner.
"I learnt most of my English out of these things. Seven letters word for jerk."
"What letter does it begin with?"
"A."
"Asshole." I reply innocently. From behind his crosswords Luka raises a well-trained eyebrow at me.
"No, that's agitate." He scribbles dutifully the letters down, filling the empty spaces. He's smiling though.
Then he stares off into space and I think I lost him for a moment. I wave my hand right in front of his nose and he doesn't even do as much as blink. I don't know where he is, but I can tell that place is miles from here.
"Luka. Luka? .Earth to Luka."
Startled, Luka shakes his head and looks up. I am standing at the window to the drug lockup, my elbows propped up against the ledge and my hands cupped over my mouth, and I can't help staring at him curiously.
"Rough night?" I say, hoping to sound kind and caring, not nosy and annoying.
Luka lifts his head from where it was resting against the lip of a shelf. There is a faint indentation where the shelf used to be, "Just tired," he lies.
"It's more convincing if you make eye contact," I say blandly, catching his stare on a well-known brunette. He was -still is- in Abby-land.
His face blank, he looks up at me. "What is?"
"Lying."
"Sorry."
"Don't be. Wasn't my place to ask."
"Uhm, listen, Susan. I saw you and Abby got closer lately and I was wondering if you know what's wrong with her. She has this dark face and she's been avoiding me since a couple of days ago. Couldn't corner her yet."
"I don't know if it's to do with this, but I walked in on her and Carter fighting. It wasn't nice. He was angry because she hadn't told him about her getting back to med school."
"I know, we had been talking about it for a while. I even offered to be her mentor and it really threw me off that she took the offer up. Hope Carter isn't mad at her because of that."
"He's a jealous fool but I don't think that's the point. Think he's a hard time in accepting Abby's growing more independent, that's all."
"Thank you, Susan. It was really bugging me."
"I could tell. You still care a lot about her?" I hope he doesn't catch the sad note that escapes my lips.
"Yeah, we've been together for a year. I just want her to be happy and if Carter makes her happy, so be it."
Chuny interrupts us. "Trauma coming in. ETA's three minutes."
We step out in the hallway where Romano is scornfully chasing a young Chinese girl. "Miss Leung go back to that suture room stat! You need to practice your single-handed sutures if you wanna make a decent surgeon! Miss Leung! Miss Leung!"
He flashes an annoyed grin at us "Can't believe I'm babysitting a pouty little girl who hardly looks old enough to have a M. D.! Miss Leung!" he bumps into a large woman "Hurgh! Is this damn place always this crowded?"
"Only when you bestow us with your kind presence!" I yell after him.
Luka and I go outside in the ambulance bay. The ambulance pulls up soon after. Zadro unloads a gurney with a bleeding man on it, who's screaming in pain.
"Forty-four-year-old male, injured at work, a colleague accidentally cut off almost his whole leg. With a saw I think, judging from the ragged borders of the amputation. Four units of O-neg already administered on the field. We shot him up with as much morphine as possible."
The man looks unhealthily pale, so he must have lost a helluva blood. "Coming through!"
We rushes him into Trauma Two "Abby, we need as much O-neg as you can find. He's losing color too fast. And get a surgeon here, stat. It's not like we can do much for him. They've got to stop the bleeding and sew the leg up if they can. Better make it a vascular surgeon."
"You can't be too demanding today, Luka. There's some sort of medical lecture in Philadelphia, Corday is the only one attending available and she's doing a TIPS alone. We have paged her for five consults already and she will be busy for other three hours at least."
"Damn!" I swear "Fifteen mgs of morphine, IV push!"
"Who else is on?"
"A couple of residents but they're all in the ORs as you can imagine it. I think that that Chinese intern is the only one who has some kind of surgical training around."
"She certainly doesn't know her way around an amputated leg. We need a real surgeon."
"I saw Romano chasing Leung before, though."
"He's not supposed to operate. He's got a bad arm, remember?"
"Well, it looks like he is the best shot for this guy, one-handed or not. Get him, Abby!"
Robert enters the room soon afterwards and Chuny helps him gown. God, he can't even dress alone, I doubt he can operate. When he speaks he confirms my fears "Get Carter and Leung here! No wait, don't get Leung, I doubt she could diagnose a cold if it sneezed on her face let alone reattach a leg. I can't do this alone, though, and I understand Carter had some sort of surgical training."
Carter arrive but mumbles "I dropped out of surgery when I was an intern, I doubt I can be of-"
"Shut up, Carter and take that fucking scalpel!" Romano barks and Carter obeys "You're lucky I am ambidextrous. You'll have to be my right-hand man, quite literally."
Carter nods and steps forward. Romano moves slightly the leg and a spurt of blood splashes on his chest. "Looks like we have a pumper. Oh God, I missed the smell of blood!"
I shiver. This guy is so scary.
"Ok, I'll cut along the hip. It's too screwed up to reattach it, we need to amputate. Carter, you'll cut from the other end. Don't press to much, though, you don't wanna rip through his femoral artery, do you? It's all about precision and a gentle touch, that's what surgery comes down to."
"Yeah, it's all slowly coming back to me, Dr. Romano." Carter says as he incises surprisingly firmly the man's skin.
Romano looks him admired for a few seconds before he gets to business himself. "You have a surprisingly firm hand, Dr. Carter, and incise just nicely. Do me a single-handed stitch and I'll have to say you wasted your talent here in this godforsaken ER."
"Ah!" Carter exclaims triumphantly as he completes the incision "Dr. Benton taught me that on my second day here."
"Why does a surgeon mingle with these pill-pushers, then?"
Pill-pushers. Hurgh! My M. D.'s as good as yours!
"I like it in here, what can I say? Lunatics are funny!"
"I prefer my patients asleep, instead, Dr. Carter."
They work silently for a good half an hour. I go about my business but I check on them often. Romano starts suturing an artery but stops in his tracks. He stares at it intensely and I swear he'd scratch his bald head in doubt if he wasn't sterile.
"Is there any chance you can get me a vascular surgeon on the intercom? My vascular anatomy notions are a bit rusty and I wouldn't wanna tie up the wrong arteries."
"I am afraid Dr. Corday is the only other surgeon on. She's doing a TIPS."
"We'll connect that intercom with that OR. Maybe Lizzie's memory is better than mine."
Elizabeth's voice buzzes through the intercom. "Has Shirley gone mad or are you really reattaching an amputated leg in the ER, Robert?"
"Poor Shirley's fine, Lizzie. All the ORs were booked and the surgeons busy so I had to step in."
"And how on earth are you amputating and sewing that leg up with your bad arm?"
"Dr. Carter is helping me. It's a shame he didn't continue his surgical career. He's actually quite good, I suppose Peter knew his business. Anyway, as much as I love chatting with you, Lizzie, I need your help. What do you remember of the upper leg vascular anatomy?"
"Just that only the neck one is worse. There's a bloody lot of veins."
"Bloody is the exact adjective, Lizzie. Think a bit harder please."
"Well, there must be the femoral artery, that goes without saying, three smaller ones that go up to the kidneys, a big vein about mid-thigh, two more arteries in the back and a smaller vein behind them. That's it I think. You're lucky I have a photographic memory, Robert. That page of my anatomy volume's pretty clear in my mind."
"Thank you Lizzie. You forgot just one. I wouldn't wanna risk tying up some small vein I had missed."
"God luck. I'll get down there as soon as I can."
"Rocket Romano doesn't need luck!"
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As soon as I can I leave Edson to finish up the TIPS and I rush into Trauma Two. Carter seems very relieved to see me.
"Lizzie! How kind of you to join us!" Robert greets me with a smile but I can tell he's tired. He's not in the best physical shape and this kind of operations can last pretty long. Carter gladly steps aside and I join Robert.
"Care to jump in the fun, Lizzie? Looks like you missed the best part, though."
"I can see you enjoyed yourself. Must be a nice break from your supervising duties."
"My torture, you mean. I'm not cut out for a teaching position. That or all the students of Chicago university aren't cut out for medical training."
"Luckily you'll be back to your old stomping ground soon, Robert."
"It seems that Dr. Romano did that a lot sooner that I had planned to let him, Elizabeth." Anspaugh said. "I've just come back from Philly. I can't leave you alone a minute that you get the hospital into troubles, Robert. You know you're not covered by the hospital insurance to operate for the time being. What if the patient sues?"
"I don't see him complaining." Robert snaps, pointing to the anesthetized man.
"I can take it form here, Robert."
Robert stomps aside and throws the gown and gloves angrily away. "Sure. I'm sorry you missed all the fun, though. You weren't here to have this man bleed to death on you."
He storms outside the trauma room.
"God job, by the way, Robert." Anspaugh's words are lost on him.
Susan passes me by, shaking her head with incredulity "Tsk, this is unbelievable."
"What?" I catch up with her.
"Steve Flint just asked me out."
"Steve Flint from radiology?"
"The one and the only. He is so dull!" she exclaims and then does a perfect imitation of the radiologist's professional yet boring voice "Radius and ulna all appear normal. Density in the lower extremity consistent with a foreign body."
"A bullet! That's what it is called!" I burst into laughter. "I have this guy, bleeding to death, waiting to get into an OR and he's taking bloody ages to tell me he has a bullet in his arm!"
"You haven't heard the worst yet. Old Kyason from cardiology asked me out once! I told Flint yes, though. I guess I was bored and didn't have better plans."
"He might turn out to be an interesting lad. Give him the benefit of the doubt at least. And call me next time you're desperate: a girls night-out sounds fun."
"I will, Elizabeth."
"Ok, see you around."
I go up to the surgical floor and I bump into Robert.
"Hi Lizzie!"
"Hi Robert, what are you doing here?"
"I was here for my physical therapy and Morgenstein stuck me babysitting clumsy second-year residents! Do I look like a mother hen to you, Lizzie? He's the new guy on the block, filling in for me as Chief of staff as Anspaugh decides what to do with me and he takes me for a dry nurse!"
"I understood he had that position before you, Robert."
"I wonder why on earth he didn't stay in his cabin up north on the lakes enjoying his retirement. Anyway, you look like you've just gotten off shift, Lizzie."
" I have, Robert. Gotta go take some info on kindergarten because I gotta have to enroll Ella soon."
"If you wanna my opinion, Lizzie, kindergartens are just places full of germs and infective children diseases. I wouldn't wanna poor little Ella in one of those hellish pre-schools."
"Well, it is not like I have any other choice, Robert. Ella can't stay in daycare forever and I am not exactly a stay home mom, in case you haven't noticed."
"They call it progress but it really isn't. Where have gone all those women, those angels of the heart, who stayed home, did the chores and churned out a dozen brats, huh? My mom did that."
"And you are the fruit of that sacrifice? I should thank my absent mother, then."
Romano goes on unperturbed "Of course I don't have eleven brother. I am an only child."
"Thank God for that! One Romano is certainly enough for this world already!"
"I beg to differ, Lizzie. I was just thinking of donating my sperm, you know."
"You having troubles getting laid, Robert?"
"No, just feeling altruistic towards mankind I guess. Maybe cloning would be a better option, though. I don't have any guarantee on the mother's side of the genetic divide, you know."
"Cloning is a gray zone of medical ethics, Robert. You should know better than that, not only because you are a doctor, but just anyone in the field, just simply being a medic you-"
"Tsk, tsk, Lizzie." He shakes his finger in a no gesture. "Calling me a medic you make a 'dick' out of 'me'!"
He zings me, leaving me there, speechless.
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"Hey, watch it Malik!" I say as I dodge just in time to avoid decapitation via Frisbee. Wait, no, that was a bedpan. "What's with flying projectiles in the hallways? I'm sure Kerry would find something against it in the regs."
"Don't tell her, party-pooper!" Carter yells after me, running after the makeshift Frisbee "Go back to surgery, where you belong!"
"Sometimes I think Robert's right and this is just a mental asylum. Can't understand why I like it down here." I say to myself as I watch the young doctor and the black nurse run down the hallway throwing the bedpan to each other.
"Because under your serious surgeon's façade you're a funny girl, Elizabeth." Susan tells me as she blocks me with her arm, saving me from another speedy unidentified object. Chuny swooshes after it on roller blades.
"Thank you, Susan. I just didn't know hall monitor was a part of the job description."
"Hall monitor, warden for the mentally unsound, bearer of bad news--it all kind of comes with the job," Susan explains.
"Run for your life!" I cry as Jerry decides to join the fun and throws a bedpan as well. I duck inside the lounge, closely followed by Susan.
The loud crush of glasses being broken reach us even there.
"Jerry!" Kerry barks.
"Sorry, chief!"
I laugh. "Sometimes I think a slow night is more dangerous than a multiple trauma."
"You betcha."
I retreat to my duller yet safer sanctuary, the OR, to perform a TIPS procedure that will keep me busy for most of my shift. There's some kind of surgical convention in Philadelphia and most of the surgical staff is there. I am the only attending left along with a couple of residents, an intern and three med students who can't do much else than hold a retractor. It means I have a six-people work to do, but I can't complain because I volunteered not to go to stay with Ella. With Robert gone I was swamped already.
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I stare at Luka, who in turn, is staring at Abby. Hey, I feel like I'm stealing Carter's place. It's his job to frown over the Croat doc wearing his eyes out on the pretty nurse. I guess I understand how crappy he felt then. Jealousy is the worst form of that disease called love. Hey, I'm not in love with Luka! Kind of. I have a big crush on him, so? Luka looks at me quizzically before returning his stare to his crosswords. God bless slow days.
"Uhm, you look pretty absorbed into that crosswords, Luka." I say to make some conversation, just to hear that sexy accent of his. Oh God, I'm already so pathetic. He looks at me with his wonderful eyes and I am a goner.
"I learnt most of my English out of these things. Seven letters word for jerk."
"What letter does it begin with?"
"A."
"Asshole." I reply innocently. From behind his crosswords Luka raises a well-trained eyebrow at me.
"No, that's agitate." He scribbles dutifully the letters down, filling the empty spaces. He's smiling though.
Then he stares off into space and I think I lost him for a moment. I wave my hand right in front of his nose and he doesn't even do as much as blink. I don't know where he is, but I can tell that place is miles from here.
"Luka. Luka? .Earth to Luka."
Startled, Luka shakes his head and looks up. I am standing at the window to the drug lockup, my elbows propped up against the ledge and my hands cupped over my mouth, and I can't help staring at him curiously.
"Rough night?" I say, hoping to sound kind and caring, not nosy and annoying.
Luka lifts his head from where it was resting against the lip of a shelf. There is a faint indentation where the shelf used to be, "Just tired," he lies.
"It's more convincing if you make eye contact," I say blandly, catching his stare on a well-known brunette. He was -still is- in Abby-land.
His face blank, he looks up at me. "What is?"
"Lying."
"Sorry."
"Don't be. Wasn't my place to ask."
"Uhm, listen, Susan. I saw you and Abby got closer lately and I was wondering if you know what's wrong with her. She has this dark face and she's been avoiding me since a couple of days ago. Couldn't corner her yet."
"I don't know if it's to do with this, but I walked in on her and Carter fighting. It wasn't nice. He was angry because she hadn't told him about her getting back to med school."
"I know, we had been talking about it for a while. I even offered to be her mentor and it really threw me off that she took the offer up. Hope Carter isn't mad at her because of that."
"He's a jealous fool but I don't think that's the point. Think he's a hard time in accepting Abby's growing more independent, that's all."
"Thank you, Susan. It was really bugging me."
"I could tell. You still care a lot about her?" I hope he doesn't catch the sad note that escapes my lips.
"Yeah, we've been together for a year. I just want her to be happy and if Carter makes her happy, so be it."
Chuny interrupts us. "Trauma coming in. ETA's three minutes."
We step out in the hallway where Romano is scornfully chasing a young Chinese girl. "Miss Leung go back to that suture room stat! You need to practice your single-handed sutures if you wanna make a decent surgeon! Miss Leung! Miss Leung!"
He flashes an annoyed grin at us "Can't believe I'm babysitting a pouty little girl who hardly looks old enough to have a M. D.! Miss Leung!" he bumps into a large woman "Hurgh! Is this damn place always this crowded?"
"Only when you bestow us with your kind presence!" I yell after him.
Luka and I go outside in the ambulance bay. The ambulance pulls up soon after. Zadro unloads a gurney with a bleeding man on it, who's screaming in pain.
"Forty-four-year-old male, injured at work, a colleague accidentally cut off almost his whole leg. With a saw I think, judging from the ragged borders of the amputation. Four units of O-neg already administered on the field. We shot him up with as much morphine as possible."
The man looks unhealthily pale, so he must have lost a helluva blood. "Coming through!"
We rushes him into Trauma Two "Abby, we need as much O-neg as you can find. He's losing color too fast. And get a surgeon here, stat. It's not like we can do much for him. They've got to stop the bleeding and sew the leg up if they can. Better make it a vascular surgeon."
"You can't be too demanding today, Luka. There's some sort of medical lecture in Philadelphia, Corday is the only one attending available and she's doing a TIPS alone. We have paged her for five consults already and she will be busy for other three hours at least."
"Damn!" I swear "Fifteen mgs of morphine, IV push!"
"Who else is on?"
"A couple of residents but they're all in the ORs as you can imagine it. I think that that Chinese intern is the only one who has some kind of surgical training around."
"She certainly doesn't know her way around an amputated leg. We need a real surgeon."
"I saw Romano chasing Leung before, though."
"He's not supposed to operate. He's got a bad arm, remember?"
"Well, it looks like he is the best shot for this guy, one-handed or not. Get him, Abby!"
Robert enters the room soon afterwards and Chuny helps him gown. God, he can't even dress alone, I doubt he can operate. When he speaks he confirms my fears "Get Carter and Leung here! No wait, don't get Leung, I doubt she could diagnose a cold if it sneezed on her face let alone reattach a leg. I can't do this alone, though, and I understand Carter had some sort of surgical training."
Carter arrive but mumbles "I dropped out of surgery when I was an intern, I doubt I can be of-"
"Shut up, Carter and take that fucking scalpel!" Romano barks and Carter obeys "You're lucky I am ambidextrous. You'll have to be my right-hand man, quite literally."
Carter nods and steps forward. Romano moves slightly the leg and a spurt of blood splashes on his chest. "Looks like we have a pumper. Oh God, I missed the smell of blood!"
I shiver. This guy is so scary.
"Ok, I'll cut along the hip. It's too screwed up to reattach it, we need to amputate. Carter, you'll cut from the other end. Don't press to much, though, you don't wanna rip through his femoral artery, do you? It's all about precision and a gentle touch, that's what surgery comes down to."
"Yeah, it's all slowly coming back to me, Dr. Romano." Carter says as he incises surprisingly firmly the man's skin.
Romano looks him admired for a few seconds before he gets to business himself. "You have a surprisingly firm hand, Dr. Carter, and incise just nicely. Do me a single-handed stitch and I'll have to say you wasted your talent here in this godforsaken ER."
"Ah!" Carter exclaims triumphantly as he completes the incision "Dr. Benton taught me that on my second day here."
"Why does a surgeon mingle with these pill-pushers, then?"
Pill-pushers. Hurgh! My M. D.'s as good as yours!
"I like it in here, what can I say? Lunatics are funny!"
"I prefer my patients asleep, instead, Dr. Carter."
They work silently for a good half an hour. I go about my business but I check on them often. Romano starts suturing an artery but stops in his tracks. He stares at it intensely and I swear he'd scratch his bald head in doubt if he wasn't sterile.
"Is there any chance you can get me a vascular surgeon on the intercom? My vascular anatomy notions are a bit rusty and I wouldn't wanna tie up the wrong arteries."
"I am afraid Dr. Corday is the only other surgeon on. She's doing a TIPS."
"We'll connect that intercom with that OR. Maybe Lizzie's memory is better than mine."
Elizabeth's voice buzzes through the intercom. "Has Shirley gone mad or are you really reattaching an amputated leg in the ER, Robert?"
"Poor Shirley's fine, Lizzie. All the ORs were booked and the surgeons busy so I had to step in."
"And how on earth are you amputating and sewing that leg up with your bad arm?"
"Dr. Carter is helping me. It's a shame he didn't continue his surgical career. He's actually quite good, I suppose Peter knew his business. Anyway, as much as I love chatting with you, Lizzie, I need your help. What do you remember of the upper leg vascular anatomy?"
"Just that only the neck one is worse. There's a bloody lot of veins."
"Bloody is the exact adjective, Lizzie. Think a bit harder please."
"Well, there must be the femoral artery, that goes without saying, three smaller ones that go up to the kidneys, a big vein about mid-thigh, two more arteries in the back and a smaller vein behind them. That's it I think. You're lucky I have a photographic memory, Robert. That page of my anatomy volume's pretty clear in my mind."
"Thank you Lizzie. You forgot just one. I wouldn't wanna risk tying up some small vein I had missed."
"God luck. I'll get down there as soon as I can."
"Rocket Romano doesn't need luck!"
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As soon as I can I leave Edson to finish up the TIPS and I rush into Trauma Two. Carter seems very relieved to see me.
"Lizzie! How kind of you to join us!" Robert greets me with a smile but I can tell he's tired. He's not in the best physical shape and this kind of operations can last pretty long. Carter gladly steps aside and I join Robert.
"Care to jump in the fun, Lizzie? Looks like you missed the best part, though."
"I can see you enjoyed yourself. Must be a nice break from your supervising duties."
"My torture, you mean. I'm not cut out for a teaching position. That or all the students of Chicago university aren't cut out for medical training."
"Luckily you'll be back to your old stomping ground soon, Robert."
"It seems that Dr. Romano did that a lot sooner that I had planned to let him, Elizabeth." Anspaugh said. "I've just come back from Philly. I can't leave you alone a minute that you get the hospital into troubles, Robert. You know you're not covered by the hospital insurance to operate for the time being. What if the patient sues?"
"I don't see him complaining." Robert snaps, pointing to the anesthetized man.
"I can take it form here, Robert."
Robert stomps aside and throws the gown and gloves angrily away. "Sure. I'm sorry you missed all the fun, though. You weren't here to have this man bleed to death on you."
He storms outside the trauma room.
"God job, by the way, Robert." Anspaugh's words are lost on him.