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trickphotography2 · 1 month

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The Perfect Match

Every third week in March, fourth year medical students find out where they'll be going for their residency. A quick 2.2K word one-shot of Jake's girlfriend going through that process.

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The nervous energy in the auditorium was almost overwhelming as the clock ticked closer to 11:50AM. All across the US, fourth-year medical students gathered in ceremonies like this, ready to find out where they would be headed in just a few months to begin their residency. It had been a long week - on Monday, everyone received an email letting them know if a residency program had selected them. For those who got one, it was a waiting game to see where they would be moving. Those who hadn't been selected went through the nerve-wracking SOAP process, hoping to secure a job after graduation. With the number of medical graduates increasing faster than residency positions, it wasn't always a guarantee.

You, however, already knew where you were going and what specialty you would be practicing. For months last year, you'd flown across the country, interviewing with residency programs at different installations and civilian hospitals—backups in case you didn’t match with a base hospital and had to compete for a civilian spot. And a perk of matching through the military was getting notified of your posting in mid-December, while civilians had to wait until the third week of March.

On December 15th, you received that wonderful email alerting you that you had matched into Emergency Medicine at Naval Medical Center San Diego. Not only was Emergency Medicine a competitive specialty, but the location meant that you would finally be able to be close to your long-distance boyfriend, Jake, after seven long years.

A chance encounter over Spring Break freshman year led to late-night calls when he returned to Annapolis and you to College Park. For four years, you lived 35 minutes apart in Maryland, stealing as much time as possible together over the weekends. And after graduation, you had a long conversation about your future.

Jake had been clear from the beginning that he wanted to be a pilot, just as you had been firm about attending medical school. He supported you as you struggled through Organic and Biochemistry and tutored you in Physics. He would try not to laugh as you traced his skin, naming the muscles, bones, and systems as you reviewed for anatomy. Care packages showed up at your apartment when you spent as much time as you could getting clinical hours, volunteering in a research lab, and studying for the MCAT. Jake knew how important getting your CV ready was and tried not to complain too much when your weekends spent together were mainly catching up on chores or sleep.

Senior year, you were offered a spot at Florida State University College of Medicine. Jake had been notified in his junior year that he had been accepted into the flight program.

After graduation, you and Jake packed up your things and drove to Florida together. He had a few weeks until he had to report to Pensacola, just a 3-hour drive down I-10 from where you would be in Tallahassee. The apartment you got was right across the street from the med school, a small one-bedroom, but you knew you wouldn’t spend much time there anyway. It would be a place to eat and sleep, but most of your time would be spent on campus or driving to Jake’s in Pensacola. He would only be there for a few months until transitioning to the next base, and you wanted to spend as much time together as possible.

Unlike other medical schools, FSU required students to start in the summer to complete the Anatomy course. Over the short term, students would complete a full-body dissection. The smell of formaldehyde became commonplace, and the TAs warned you to wear shoes and scrubs you wouldn’t hate to throw away in August.

They were right.

It was a rough transition to med school, but it was manageable. And you loved it. Your professors ensured you treated the cadavers with the utmost respect while gently encouraging competition by announcing a dissection team winning each week. The faculty brought you to a rural community to learn about rural medicine, sharing food and stories with those less fortunate. The physician assistant students joined on the trip, and you learned about an inter-professional day that you’d be expected to participate in later - role-playing a case with MD, PA, pharmacy, and social work students.

And while you were working toward your dream, Jake was getting closer to his. Nights were spent catching up, and he was so excited to tell you about his flight training. He promised to get his civilian pilot license as soon as possible and rent a plane to take you up in the air. On the rare weekend you didn’t need to spend in the anatomy lab cramming for an exam, you drove to his place late Friday night and headed back to Tally on Sunday morning.

In August, Jake requested time off to come and see you celebrate finishing your first semester. Seated in the audience, he watched as your faculty member helped you don your first white coat, and you recited the Hippocratic oath. The one-week vacation before Fall term started wasn’t long enough, but you enjoyed waking up in Jake’s bed and going to the beach.

Joining the military had never been in your future, but the longer you spent around Jake and his friends, the more commissioning in the Navy seemed attractive. A medical officer recruiter spoke at the college, and you signed your paperwork. After spending a few weeks working in a clinic during the summer after the first year, you headed to Rhode Island to complete Officer Training. Jake called you as soon as you graduated, welcoming you into the service with only some light teasing about outranking you. As an Ensign, you would be forced to salute your Lieutenant boyfriend when you saw him.

It was harder to see each other when he graduated from flight school and was stationed in California, but you managed to get by with phone calls and vacations. Toward the end of your second year, Jake was sent on deployment as you studied for the Step 1 exam - testing your foundational knowledge and one of the most intimidating exams you faced. The school gave you dedicated study time, and you took advantage of his offer to study at his apartment in Lemoore. His buddy, Coyote, met you at the airport and drove you to Jake’s apartment. A bouquet of flowers was sitting on the counter, and you stared at them as you mentally ran through Anki decks to quiz yourself.

Jake came home the last week you were there. Fully recovered from the 8-hour exam, you greeted him with all the other family members on the flight line. It was the first time you saw him in his jet, and you made sure he knew how much you appreciated the sight. But too soon, you had to return to Florida and pack up your apartment in Tally to move to Pensacola for your last two years of medical school. On your last night in Lemoore, Jake took you out dancing and promised he would request leave to visit soon.

Between your rotations and his shitty schedule as a junior officer, it was hard to see one another. At the end of your third year, you hit a rocky spot and talked about breaking up. But cooler heads prevailed, and you promised to do your best to match into a residency near him. He agreed to try and get orders to be closer to you once you graduated.

Jake had been your first call on December 15th. Sobbing, you told him you’d join him in San Diego, where he’d been stationed for the last four months.

The last-minute plane tickets had been expensive, but it had been so worth it to spend Christmas with him, making plans to move your stuff across the country, and finally be together. He’d held your hand as you pulled your name from the NBME Match Database, officially alerting the civilian hospitals you’d interviewed at that you were no longer hoping to match with them.

So, while your friends waited anxiously to open their envelopes, you felt a sense of calm. In nine short weeks, you would be back in this auditorium wearing your dress whites under your cap and gown. After getting your diploma, your new orders would be published, and you would be promoted to Lieutenant. And after? Jake was scheduled to return from a deployment in a month and requested leave to help you pack up your apartment and start the cross-country road trip.

Eight years of hard work would culminate in moving in with the man you loved. Who could support you in person as you went through the hell of residency and got used to being a full-time Naval officer.

The Dean crossed the stage and welcomed everyone. As the clock struck noon, she encouraged everyone to open their envelopes.

Tearing it open, you stared at the words confirming your future - Emergency Medicine, Naval Medical Center San Diego.

Jake.

Cheers broke out, and you turned to hug your friends as they screamed with happiness or smiled to hide disappointment on not getting their top choice.

The ceremony began with each regional campus called up to allow the students to announce their match.

You hadn’t planned on going on stage. The trip back to Tally had only been to see your favorite staff members and to support your friends as they found out where they would be moving. They had brought their family members, partners, and kids to share in the moment. You had come alone, preferring your family to go to graduation instead. But your friends dragged you into the line and handed your name card to the smiling staff.

“Hi,” you said, leaning into the microphone after the Regional Campus Dean introduced you. “I just wanted to say thank you to all of my friends and family. Without you, I wouldn’t have made it through all of this. I matched in Emergency Medicine and will be moving across country to be with my boyfriend, who kept me sane throughout all of this. And I’ll be at Naval Medical Center San Diego

The crowd cheered louder than they had for any of your classmates. Blushing, you lifted your hand and waved, stepping back and quickly walking toward the Campus Dean to shake his hand. But as you neared, he smiled and took a step back.

You froze.

Jake grinned.

Wearing his dress whites, he quickly strode toward you, pulling you into his arms. “What are you doing here?” you demanded, blinking away tears.

“Wasn’t gonna miss your Match Day, darlin’,” he replied.

“You’re supposed to be on the carrier!”

“Might have lied about that.” There wasn’t a trace of regret on his face. “You worked so hard for this, and I wanted to surprise you. My beautiful, smart, adrenaline junky doctor girlfriend.”

“Not yet - won’t be a doctor for another few weeks.”

“You’ve got it in the bag. But I figured since you’re already trading in a couple of ranks - med student and Ensign…” Taking your left hand, he reached into his pocket and lowered himself to one knee.

Vaguely, you heard the crowd get louder, but you couldn’t tear your gaze away from Jake as he held out a diamond ring.

“I thought maybe we could change girlfriend to wife. Will you marry me?”

Unable to speak, you nodded quickly. Jake leapt to his feet and kissed you, smiling against your mouth.

The next few minutes were a blur. You hugged the Deans while Jake shook their hands, and your parents met you off stage - Jake had called to let them in on his plan. His parents texted him after watching the proposal on the school’s livestream. After promising to meet up after the ceremony, Jake joined you in the student section while your parents returned to their seats. Your friends hugged you, whispering excitedly as you showed them your engagement ring.

And later, after a celebratory dinner with your family and drinks at the beer garden with your classmates, you tumbled into bed with Jake. You could taste the beer on his tongue as he licked into your mouth, and you grinned when your ring caught the light and shimmered.

“Lieutenant and Lieutenant Seresin,” Jake chuckled, catching your hand and kissing your ring. “Sounds kinda nice.”

“Mmmm,” you hummed. “My diploma will be issued in two months, Seresin. Then I’m applying for my medical license and getting all my onboarding paperwork done for NMCSD. I might have to go by my last name for a bit… but I kinda like how it sounds with Lieutenant…”

“It does sound nice,” he agreed. “You sayin’ I’ve got 2 months to get it official, or are you telling me you wanna keep your last name?”

“Dunno,” you shrugged. “I’ve spent the last four years thinking I’d practice under my own name.”

“How do you feel about hyphenating?”

Your eyebrows shot up, “You’d be okay with that?”

“Darlin', you did the hard work, and it’s your name. As long as I can call you Doctor Seresin at home, I don’t care.”

In the middle of May, you stood at attention on stage in your whites, having quickly changed out of your cap and gown. The medical recruiter, a local chief petty officer, had been called onto the stage to publish your orders. Forcing yourself not to smile, you pressed your lips together as he read out your name — your new, hyphenated last name and all.

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Notes: I used to work in a medical school, and went through three years of working on Match Day. It was one of my favorite events because of the level of excitement. (And yes, we did have a proposal one year.) But it can also be a really hard day - as state above, the number of residency spots is lower than the number of people who graduate. Every year, people go through the SOAP process and don't match. Which means they have to find something to do for a year, and then start the process over again.

Definitely didn't plan on writing this - I think in about an hour? - but I watched a class I worked with Match today and it kicked up a lot of feelings. I had the pleasure of watching young students grow into doctors, and play some small part in that.

As always, thank you to @mamachasesmayhem for encouraging me to write this, and for giving feedback.

#hangman fic #hangman x reader #jake seresin x reader #Jake Seresin #jake hangman seresin #top gun #top gun fanfiction #top gun x female reader

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reasonsforhope · 3 months

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"Bria Peacock chose a career in medicine because the Black Georgia native saw the dire health needs in her community — including access to abortion care.

Her commitment to becoming a maternal health care provider was sparked early on when she witnessed the discrimination and judgment leveled against her older sister, who became a mother as a teen. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Peacock was already in her residency program in California, and her thoughts turned back to women like her sister.

“I knew that the people — my people, my community back home — was going to be affected in a dramatic way, because they’re in the South and because they’re Black,” she said.

But even though Peacock attended the Medical College of Georgia, she’s doing her obstetrics and gynecology residency at the University of California-San Francisco, where she has gotten comprehensive training in abortion care.

“I knew as a trainee that’s what I needed,” said Peacock, who plans to return to her home state after her residency.

Ever since the Supreme Court decision, California has worked to become a sanctuary for people from states where abortion is restricted. In doing so, it joins 14 other states, including Colorado, New Mexico, and Massachusetts. Now, it’s addressing the fraught issue of abortion training for medical residents, which most doctors believe is crucial to comprehensive OB-GYN training.

A law enacted in September [2023] makes it easier for out-of-state trainees to get up to 90 days of in-person training under the supervision of a California-licensed doctor. The law eliminated the requirement for a training license and also permitted training at programs such as Planned Parenthood that are affiliated with accredited medical schools.

“By allowing physician residents to come to California, where there are more opportunities for abortion training, and by allowing them to be reimbursed for this work, we’re sending a message that abortion care is health care and an essential part of physician training,” said Lisa Folberg, CEO of the California Academy of Family Physicians, which supported the bill.

The question of how to provide complete OB-GYN training promises to become more urgent as the effects of abortion bans on medical education becomes clear: 18 states restrict or ban abortion to the point of effectively stripping 20% of OB-GYN medical residents of the opportunity to get abortion training, according to the Ryan Residency Training Program in Abortion and Family Planning. That’s 1,354 residents this year out of 5,962 OB-GYN residents nationwide.

The restrictions in some cases aim to reach beyond state borders, spooking medical students and residents who fear hostility from anti-abortion groups and right-wing legislators...

Pamela Merritt, executive director of Medical Students for Choice, pointed to a Kansas law that requires repayment of state medical school scholarships — with 15% interest — if residents perform abortions or work in clinics that perform them, except in cases of rape, incest, or a medical emergency.

Doctors point out that abortion training is not just about ending pregnancies. Peacock recalled a patient who started hemorrhaging badly shortly after a healthy delivery. Peacock and her team at UCSF performed a dilation and curettage — a procedure commonly used to terminate pregnancy.

“If we did not have that skill set, and the patient continued to bleed, it could have been life-taking,” said Peacock, chief OB-GYN resident at UCSF...

Peacock, for her part, is adamant about returning to Georgia, where abortions are banned after six weeks. “I’m still going to provide abortions, whether that’s in Georgia or I need to fly to a different state and work in abortion clinics for a week out of the month,” she said. “It would definitely be a big part of my work.”"

-via The 19th, January 2, 2024

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the-ace-with-spades · 11 months

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I have the urge to write a seven-season-long medical drama, so here is a concept for Top Gun Hospital AU with ER hate-to-love hangster AU that no one asked for.

as a warning: this is a bit incohesive and silly

All the aviators are doctors and all the WSOs are nurses. With the exception of Bradley (but there’s an explanation for it).

Mav — cardiothoracic surgeon; Ice — former neurosurgeon and Chief of Surgery, current Head of Patient and Medical Services (so, entirely admin). I imagine they have the same kind of relationship as House and Cuddy in this, including Ice keeping an entire legal team for Mav’s unconventional practice methods. They've met during med school and had been rivals up until they both finished general surgery residency. Slider is an OR nurse turned anesthesia nurse. Goose was an ER nurse and met Mav during his rotation as a med student and died after an incident in the ER during Mav’s residency (that was the moment he switched from emergency medicine to surgery).

Phoenix — emergency, but she managed the impossible (like Mav) and switched from obgyn residency after the first year (only chose obgyn in the first place because of her mom, a renowned obgyn in Oregon), she's still really passionate about the obgyn field but didn't enjoy the work enough to do it for the rest of her life; Javy — general surgery; Payback — emergency with sub-spec in pediatrics; Friz — respiratory medicine; Omaha — oncology; Yale — ortho surgery.

Bob — a former OBGYN nurse, left because of a toxic work environment, working in the ER six months now, Phoenix's favorite nurse now, duh; Fanboy — started in peds oncology, had to switch because it was too hard on him mentally and is now peds emergency; Halo — started as a palliative care nurse, switched to oncology after a few years; Harvard — OR nurse, switched from general team to ortho

Hangman is the new trauma surgeon starting in their ER. Born and raised on a ranch, was expected to take over the ranch but never wanted to. Thankfully, he had too perfect grades to not send him to college — his parents wanted him to be a vet, which obviously didn’t happen, so he could stay close to the family business. He moved to California for his MD. He has terrible bedside manners with patients and patients’ family, but is surprisingly decent with kids, has lost respect for nurses sometime during his first residency year, and had a terrible case of Ego hit him during his trauma surg fellowship.

Now, about Rooster:

Bradley got into a pre-med program, Mav (who had set up Bradley’s college fund) said he’s not going to pay for it since he doesn’t want Bradley to be a doctor (long hours, lack of work-life balance, burnout, high stress, etc. It was more complicated because Mav still has the Goose trauma). So they had the fallout, Bradley moved out and deferred college to find a way to pay for it and, wanting to gather hospital experience, started working as a CNA in Peds ICU at a children’s hospital which accidentally was having a new CNA intake at the time. He liked it, actually loved it, and started hesitating whether he should continue with pre-med and be like Mav or go for nursing, like his dad. Year after, he got an offer from the hospital that said hey, we’ll fund some of your BSN as long as you work for us while you study and then work for us for another four years after getting your license. So he became a nurse, got certified as peds nurse after working two years in PICU and after another three, switched to the Pediatric Rapid Response Team, where he stayed for another two years before getting a spot as a senior nurse in adult/peds ER in a different hospital.

His relation to Mav and Ice only came to light a few months after the hiring process, as Bradley didn’t even know they worked there when he applied and it’s still a hash-hash topic in the ER. He’s been in the ER for almost three years now and has become an unofficial second-in-command as one of the few with substantial experience.

I imagine he’s definitely one the best nurses you could have as a patient — he’s honest but in an empathetic way, he’s worked in the most demanding environments with the most complex patients (ICU and RRT), he’s skilled and experienced in most procedures. Because he is one of the few male nurses, he’s the one dealing with inappropriate patients, aggressive patients, patients that need restraint, frequent flyers, etc. and he genuinely doesn’t mind — he is the perfect mix of calm and firm that makes him very reliable in most difficult situations. He is absolutely most reassuring and guiding with new stuff, be it new nurses or med students that don’t know what’s happening, and he doesn’t judge. It does help, too, that he was partially raised by two very cocksure surgeons and therefore knows how to deal with doctors that turned a bit too arrogant.

Before I go to the hangster part of this shit, I want y’all to know it all started because I found this Rooster-coded scrubs:

I imagine that he buys most of his scrubs since the work-issued scrubs don’t fit well on men (most unisex ones are very much just female fit stamped with unisex label) and peds nurses can have lots of cute ones so the kids feel less nervous around them

Also, this is a warning that yes, Bradley is trans in this scenario, too, because I said so. It's relevant to a few scenes, I think?? and there's tw for transphobic OC

Now, a bunch of scenarios I can see for this AU:

On the first day at his new workplace, Jake makes a reputation for himself. He confuses Nat, in her hospital-issued scrubs and with her doctor tag clearly on display, for a nurse and literally talks over her in front of a patient. Same thing happens with Billy because he’s Filipino and there is a large number of Filipino nurses everywhere and he’s stereotyping. Then he makes another patient’s parents agitated. This is when he meets Bradley — he takes over to talk to the parents and calm them down before it can escalate, basically shushing Jake out of the room. Jake doesn’t clock he’s a nurse at first — he’s a big, very fit, very well-built, very handsome dude with a questionable mustache who looks comical in a pastel pink scrub top with a teddy bear pattern and a matching headband on his forehead, but also the sheer shock of how different to all the nurses he looks gives Jake a pause — so he doesn’t say anything even if it pisses him off a nurse just forced him out of the room.

It starts innocently with Bradley though — Bradley comes up and asks, “Jake, can you put the narcotics order into the system for Lily?” and Jake scoffs and corrects, “Doctor,” tapping his full tag with Dr. Jacob Seresin.

Bradley, as the nurse’s tag says, raises an eyebrow and says, “Doctor Jake, can you put the narcotics order for Lily?” Natasha, standing behind him, snorts. Jake doesn’t even have the time to tell him off because he’s already gone when his brain processes.

Natasha drops off a patient on him — a taxi driver who had a stroke while driving and had been in a car accident, that had been thrombolysed but might need emergency surgery because of a suspected GI bleed. He’s stable, so they're going to check if he can be admitted to neurosurg and wait for his turn there or if Jake will need to take over before that.

Bradley hands him a tablet the minute he walks into the room.

“What’s that?”

“Results,” he supplies before going back to setting up an oxygen cylinder at the bottom of the bed.

“I didn’t order that,” he notes. The blood and urine panels are what he would order with suspected operable GI bleed but he’s barely looked at the patient’s case before he walked in there.

“I did,” Bradley tells him as he switches the oxygen from the wall socket to the tank supply. “Faster this way.”

“No,” Jake says, blood boiling. “You do exactly what I tell you to do and only that.”

Natasha raises her eyebrows, high on her forehead. Bradley doesn’t hesitate — waves on Bob from behind the glass wall and they both grab each side of the bed.

“I supposed you want to put the CT order yourself then,” Bradley says as Bob takes the small back monitor and attaches it to the frame. He steps on the bed brake and rolls out the bed, straight into Jake and Nat, fast enough that he moves out of the way on instinct. “Better do it fast because it’s free now and I’m going.” *

“Did you see that? Who the heck does he think he is?” Jake asks Nat.

“Better put that CT scan order,” is all Natasha replies as she walks away.

It’s Reuben’s patient, an eleven years old boy with blunt trauma, and Jake makes a verbal order to Bradshaw, who is the boy’s nurse. “I understand but I think that—” and Jake goes, “If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.”

The whole room gets quiet and everyone looks to him — Reuben, Mickey, and the technician are wide-eyed.

Bradley just says, “Alright,” in a perfectly leveled voice and leaves the room.

Mickey is not making eye contact as he quips under his nose, on his way out of the room, “You do realize he basically runs this ER, right? You’re making your life a lot harder.”

Jake orders IV fluids for one of his patients which is also in Rooster’s section that day and he bleeps the order info to Rooster. Fifteen minutes later he sees that it hasn’t been filled and is like, hah, I knew there is a reason I hate that guy. Finds him when he passes Jake in the corridor and is like, “I want you to start the IV for room 7. Now,” and Rooster just tells him, “No, do it yourself or find someone else.”

They have a little back and forth as Jake follows him down the corridor which ends with another, “No.”

There’s still no charge nurse in the ER (she’s on medical leave that will most likely end with her leaving employment, from what Jake gathers) so he makes a datix and the ER nurse manager (Warlock) following up is apprehensive because obviously, he knows Bradley, and hears about what actually happened — Bradley was getting an igel for a toddler from the peds side and deemed it more important than starting a bag of saline to bust someone's blood pressure.

Jake feels like an idiot.

Jake and Reuben are charting next to each other and Reuben gets bleeped his patient’s lab results. Jake, who is also waiting for lab results, complains about how he sent a pod to the lab before Reuben. Reuben just gives him a look and says, “Yeah, that’s because I asked Bradley to put my request in.”

And Jake is like, “What does he have to do with anything?”

Reuben looks at him like he’s dumb and says, “He has more sway with the lab,” and walks away with his tablet.

Javy is doing a consult for Nat and stops to chat to Jake (they know each other from residency days) and Bradley comes by and says, “Maggie’s becoming hypotensive again,” and Javy observes as Jake looks at the nurse that came, gives him a very long, very detailed look and licks his lips.

He manages to think Oh before Jake asks, “Maggie?”

The nurse looks seconds from rolling his eyes. “Mrs. Lawrence? Room 5?”

“That's Margaret.”

“She prefers Maggie.”

And it goes on, with Jake standing there rigid, puffing up his chest and cocking his hip out. “Did you start the fluids?”

“Finshed already.”

“Start another bag.”

The nurse looks unimpressed and instead of confirming says, slowly, like he’s talking to a child, “Her fluid balance is positive. She’s usually on pressors.” Jake’s face gets red and he goes, “Then put an order for her.”

It’s kind of funny to observe and to be fair, the nurse does give Jake a minute to go over what he said, leaning his elbow on the counter, eyebrows raised, before he points out, in that damn slow, unimpressed tone, “I can't put orders for things like pressors."

He hands Jake the closest tablet and starts walking away.

Jake calls after him. "What, you're not even going to draft it for me?"

He doesn't even turn around and Javy is silently shaking from the laughter he's holding in, "I thought I wasn't allowed to do that, doctor."

Mav comes down to the ER to talk to Rooster on a slower day — about how they’re about to sponsor a new CRNA for the cardiothoracic surg unit and maybe he could put a good word for their development team for Bradley and yada yada.

It happens like that: Mav comes down, Bradley is charting next to the monitors station, Jake is going over a scan on the opposite side when The Dr. Mitchell himself comes down and stops next to Bradley. He gives Bradley and his pink Paw Patrol scrubs a look and clears his throat a couple of times before Bradley raises his gaze toward him, turning away a second later and ignoring him again.

Jake is freaking out — this is The Dr. Mitchell and one of the reasons Jake wanted to work in this exact hospital, along with the rumored to-be-announced cardiothoracic surg fellowship under Dr. Mitchell he had his eyes on. He’s been thinking about how to make contact with Dr. Mitchell since he started in the ER and here he is, telling unresponsive Bradshaw, “I heard you’re looking to go back for your Master’s in the near future.” Bradshaw doesn’t say anything and Dr. Mitchell adds, “We have a CRNA development spot for—” and Bradley tells him, not turning away from the screen, “I’m not an OR nurse,” and then taps his card on the computer’s reader to log out and walks away.

Dr. Mitchell is a fucking legend, a VIP of this hospital, so Jake just stands there, contemplating how the heck Bradshaw could do that and hears him mumbling under his breath, “Really slick, Mav,” and jumps on the opportunity to say, “I’ll be talking to his supervisor about this, his attitude is unacceptable, Dr. Mitchell.”

And Dr. Mitchell turns to him, raises an eyebrow and asks, “Excuse me?”

“The nurse you were talking to. He might be senior in here but his attitude’s been horrible and I’ll personally step in. This won’t happen again.”

Dr. Mitchell gives him a look before slowly saying, “I suggest you mind your own business, Dr. Seresin,” and walks away.

Nat is silently laughing a few feet away and Jake asks her what’s so funny. His heart dead-ass stops when she says, “You do know Dr. Mitchell is Bradley’s dad, right? They might not be on the best of terms but that’s still his son.” And Jake has the urge to bang his head on the keyboard in front of him.

TW for transphobia.

There’s a new nurse practitioner to be (graduated, about to get her cert) that's rumored to be a candidate for the charge nurse position. Izzy. She’s quite young for that, younger than Bradley for sure, must have barely worked in the clinical area before going for her Master’s. Jake doesn’t know if it’s on purpose but the nurse manager and Bradley keep on putting her in his section.

She’s—well, she’s a bit too in his face. She agrees with everything Jake says and doesn’t roll his eyes at him, which is boring, and she’s, for an NP, not that knowledgeable. She doesn’t argue with him, which is a change, and Jake starts to hate it after about five hours. Her voice is saccharine sweet, she keeps on standing a bit too close to him at all times, and she’s decent with patients, but she keeps on asking him about the smallest of things.

Jake’s section is less busy, usually, since he deals primarily with trauma in the ER, but she never bounces off to help others when she is free, like Bradley did. She’s clinging to his section, a little bit, and he doesn’t get why. It’s not like he is any nicer to her than to Bradley or any other nurse.

She is busy taking bloods and Bradley finds him when he has a second alone, finally, and enlightens him about why.

“If you don’t believe me, you can just ask any other nurse. Everyone noticed.”

“If you really think that then why do you keep putting her in my sections?”

“I don’t. She’s senior as an NP, she’s taken over allocation from me now.”

Jake’s mind only focuses on one detail. “You were allocating yourself to my sections?”

“Only because no one wants to work with you and because I’m actually certified in trauma.” That makes sense. It’s not like Bradley would work with him voluntarily. “Look, all I’m saying, you watch out — you fool around with her and then reject her and she’s going to HR. I know the type.”

“The type?”

“You know, the girl that thought she’ll become a nurse, snag a rich doctor and never work again? Well, it’s not always women, there are guys who do that too, but in this case, she’s very much the type.”

“And you think she’s trying to—snag me?”

“She’s certainly not going after the residents that are getting paid twelve bucks an hour or Reuben who is married,” he points out. Which, again, fair, even if he didn’t know Reuben is married prior to this strange conversation.

Jake stares at him, processing, until he blurts out, “I’m gay.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Bradley says after a second, eyes barely noticeably a bit wider, before he walks away.

“Was he bothering you, doctor?”

She calls him doctor, always, and it honestly makes him grit his teeth. Now even more. He’s got a bad feeling about it.

It gets confirmed later when Jake is taking care of a six-year-old girl who had fallen down the stairs. She’s dehydrated and Izzy’s just tried to put a cannula on her three times before Jake told her to grab the bedside ultrasound and not make the girl cry even more.

Bradley passes by the room and Jake’s learned that he can’t leave a distressed child alone, so he comes in and gets the parents and the girl relaxed. He’s about to go in and tell him to leave it alone until Izzy brings the ultrasound when Nat grabs him by the arm and tells him, “He was in a Rapid Response Team, I’m pretty sure he can put a cannula in blind. Just let him do it.”

And he does let him. Watches, expecting the girl to burst into tears at any moment but she never does. Bradley’s literally been in the room for less than ten minutes and it’s all back to calmness.

Izzy comes back with the ultrasound. It should not have taken her so long to grab it. “What is he doing there? That's my patient.”

"He said he can put the IV line without the ultrasound.” Well, Nat said so. Jake can’t believe he’s saying but, “He’s a peds nurse, he’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure the girl's parents wouldn’t want him anywhere near her.”

This sets alarm bells in Jake’s head. “What do you mean?”

"People like him shouldn't be around kids," she says, to his horror. She leans in, way closer than needed, and conspiringly whispers, "Dr. Seresin, haven't you known that he is, you know, a she in disguise?"

He’s dumbstruck. "I'm sorry?"

"He's actually a woman, just pretending to be a man because he's mentally—You're the doctor, I'm sure you know better than I how the brains of people like them work. He shouldn't be around that girl, is what I'm saying. I certainly wouldn't like him around my child, if I had one."

Jake didn’t know this about Bradley but he understands what she means, even with how awful she is about it. This, however, should not be a piece of information thrown around in public if Bradley didn't wish to disclose it, and certainly not in such a manner. "And how do you know that, exactly?"

"Nurses share a locker room, it's not hard to notice how she, you know, mutilated herself."

Jake doesn’t say anything out loud but mentally he is preparing datix report in his head. He catches the ER’s nurse manager before he goes home, too, because that’s some shit he doesn’t stand for. He might be an asshole but he’s not a bigot.

Next time he comes to work, Bradley is back in his section and Izzy is no longer employed.

“Thanks,” Bradley says, when they’re at the station, next to each other, in a relatively slow moment. “If I went on my own, we’d have a weeks-long investigation that would probably end with her or me moving to a different unit.”

“She said this shit to your face?”

“Kept calling me she in front of patients,” Bradley admits after a moment. “I think most of them thought they misheard but—I knew.”

“Well, good riddance then.”

Bradley snorts, but he’s looking down at the tablet in his hands, smiling, and wow, the apples of his cheeks are so round and his eyes so bright and Jake can't breathe for a second.

---

(there might be a second part coming because I meant seven-season-long medical drama literally-- including Jake realizing he's an idiot, Mavdad drama, Jake having his hands inside Bradley (in the literal, surgical sense) and jealousy that could rival the McDreamy/Dr. Grey drama)

#this is unrealistic b/c its a med soap drama-like #not the actual chaos of er-like #as in med nonsense to be precise #also I don't know how american ers work #ive talked to a trauma surgeon twice in my life so sorry #i’ve mostly written it while trying to stay awake in the break room at 2am or to not fall asleep on the bus home #still having cluster headaches btw we're just too short-staffed to not go to work even if I have to sit out for an hour in the break room #bradley rooster bradshaw #jake hangman seresin #hangster #icemav mention #tgm #tgm au #trans bradley rooster bradshaw #<< im going to fill that tag even if it takes me years #op #charlie writes #hangster hospital au

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bearsinpotatosacks · 10 months

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I'm thinking that TOS Bones was either a surgeon (based on how he's shown doing surgery in a few episodes like Journey to Babel) or was a country doctor (which he says often) but was the type from such a rural town that he just knows everything. Need a vet? Dr McCoy. Need a paediatrician? Dr McCoy. Need literally anything but a GP/family medic? Well it's Dr McCoy or death buddy because it's a rural town and the nearest hospital is too far away even in the future. Just got the vibes that this is a rural mountain town, also this explains his accent because people from Georgia, or at least Atlanta, don't tend to have southern accents like Bones does. So either Bones had to adapt to Starfleet life or, because he's shown to not know Academy culture, he went through a sort of training program like OCS in the Navy (yes I'm using my Top Gun knowledge) which caught him up on other types of medicine necessary for the job.

For AOS Bones I don't think he was either of these, because I don't remember him talking about being a country doctor or seeing him in any particular surgical scenarios. What I can see him as is an A&E/ER doctor. He mentions doing emergency c-sections on pregnant gorn, and from what ER has taught me, being an ER resident while having a daughter and working wife can kill your marriage (Bones and Mark Greene's stories are kinda similar like that with their meeting wife early on, both having intense jobs and becoming bitter with her eventually cheating). Also, this would mean he was more accustomed to Starfleet life and instead of retraining in the Academy perhaps did a fellowship in Xenomedicine considering how much more diverse the AOS crew is than the TOS crew

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liaromancewriter · 5 months

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Control What You Can Control

Premise: Ethan has second thoughts about a new phase in his life.

Book: Open Heart (post series) Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Cassie Valentine) Rating/Category: Teen. Fluff Words: 1,100

A/N: Late submission for @choicesflashfics week 58, prompt 2. I'm also using week 59, prompt 3.

The summer sun was high in the sky, its sharp rays shining through the treated glass ceiling. Where the city streets battled sweltering temperatures, the hospital atrium was a cool and bright hub of activity. Patients, visitors, nurses and doctors glided around each other like actors on a stage.

From his vantage point on the seventh-floor gallery, Ethan Ramsey watched the familiar scene unfold below. There was a time when he’d stand at the windows of his old office and gaze down at the emergency drop-off area. Sometimes, it was the only time he had to himself in the day to just think.

There was a simplicity to his life he missed now that he was chief of medicine. He missed working with patients most of all, solving the puzzle of what brought them to the hospital, that moment when a diagnosis just clicked.

Now, it was all over, he sighed morosely, tightly gripping the edge of the steel handrail. And he wished he could go back and do it all over again.

“You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders, Chief. Having second thoughts about the wedding?”

Ethan rolled his eyes at the glib comment from Tobias Carrick, his former nemesis slash colleague slash occasional friend slash permanent pain in the ass.

“No, just contemplating how much lighter life would be without your unsolicited commentary,” Ethan shot back sarcastically.

He scowled at the other man over his shoulder. “It's like mental weightlifting, really, and more intense than any wedding jitters.”

“Who’s having wedding jitters?” Cassie Valentine asked absently, eyes on her phone as she joined them.

“Your fiancé,” Tobias smirked. “His sigh was ponderous enough to sink the Titanic. Might want to check if you can get your deposits back.”

Cassie’s gaze zigzagged between them before her green eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Tobias, are you riling Ethan up for no reason?”

“How could you ask me that?” Tobias feigned offense.

Ethan grinned when Cassie stared Tobias down, using her haughtiest and most severe expression. It was one he’d seen her use only when someone or something truly vexed her and reminded him of why people called the Valentines American royalty.

For once, Ethan was glad not to be on the receiving end of it.

Tobias held his palms up in a universal gesture for peace, but Ethan could see him sweating bullets. Served him right, he thought. Ethan grinned wickedly as the other man made some excuse and rushed off.

“Are you having second thoughts about the wedding?”

Ethan silently groaned at Cassie’s question. He looked away from his perusal of Carrick’s retreating back to find her watching him. She was more curious than concerned, and he figured that was a good sign.

“Not about the wedding, no,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I was just reflecting on this past year, everything that’s happened.”

Cassie peered into his eyes, and he knew she could read him like an open book. “You’re having second thoughts about your job.”

“Maybe.” Ethan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m enjoying the challenge, finally having the power to change things from within. And god knows the residency program needs an upgrade. But…”

“You miss seeing patients, doing research,” she finished astutely.

“Yes,” Ethan admitted, leaning against the railing. “Oh, what the hell.” He crossed his arms defiantly. “I sometimes, very rarely, mind you,” he warned, “miss teaching interns too.”

Cassie burst into laughter, her eyes twinkling as she threw her head back in an uninhibited display of amusement. Her laugh was loud and contagious, making everyone’s head turn in curiosity.

“You miss interns,” Cassie gasped out the words, still chuckling. “That’s like the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!”

Her shoulders shook, and tears leaked from the corner of her eyes.

“It’s not that funny,” Ethan grumbled, somewhat annoyed by her reaction.

He shook his head and turned to walk away, but Cassie held up a hand to stop him.

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely, lips upturned in a smile. “I shouldn’t have laughed. But, I’m trying to reconcile the man I met in intern year with the one standing before me.”

“That was then. This is now. People change,” Ethan muttered.

When Cassie threw him a disbelieving look, he unfolded his arms and rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. I don’t actually miss interns.”

“Thank god.” Cassie leaned into him. “You had me going there for a second.” She slipped one arm around his back. “Seriously, though. My grandfather always taught us if we don’t like how something is, change it.”

“This is the same grandfather that threatened to cut you off when you applied to med school instead of joining the family business?” Ethan asked skeptically.

“Yes, but,” she said, waving her hand dismissively, “he’s right more often than he’s wrong. My point is, Ethan, it’s up to you to find a way to make the job your own.”

“What does that even mean?” he said, confused. The job was the job. He knew that going in.

“Take shifts in the community clinic, take over the care of your former patients, undertake a research study.” Cassie listed things off on her fingers. “You can be the chief of medicine and a doctor. Balance your workload by hiring a medical director to do the things you don’t enjoy or won’t have time for.”

Cassie pressed on when he remained silent. “Naveen chose you because you’re what Edenbrook needs, not because you’ll do the job like anyone else would.”

Ethan turned over her words in his head, thinking through the ramifications of changing things. It could be done, of course. There was at least one hospital that he knew of that did what Cassie was proposing. Maybe there were more?

“I need to think about this,” he said eventually. “That’s good advice, though.”

“Don’t sound so shocked,” Cassie laughed. “I’m the head of Edenbrook’s famed diagnostics team, after all, and pretty remarkable at diagnosing what’s wrong.”

“And so modest, too,” Ethan quipped, placing a swift kiss across her lips. “Thank you.”

“Someone brilliant once told me, ‘Control what you can control.’ Well, this is something you can control,” Cassie added when he smiled at hearing the familiar words.

He folded her in his embrace. “Brilliant, you said?”

“Handsome, too,” Cassie smirked. “Alas, his tongue can be acerbic, and he refuses to do dance challenges with me on TikTok.” She snickered. “But, I love him anyway.”

He lowered his head, lips hovering above hers, tantalizingly close. “Then it’s a good thing he loves you too.”

And then he kissed her.

-------------

All Fics & Edits: @bluebelle08 @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @headoverheelsforramsey @lucy-268 @jerzwriter @lady-calypso @mainstreetreader @peonierose @potionsprefect @queencarb @quixoticdreamer16 @rookiemartin @socalwriterbee @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

Submissions: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Ethan & Cassie only: @cariantha @custaroonie @youlookappropriate @zealouscanonindeer

#open heart #ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #open heart choices #open heart fanfics #open heart fanfiction #choices fanfics #choices fanfiction #choices open heart #choices fic writers creations #cfwc fics of the week #ethan ramsey x cassie valentine

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faentasy-paesta · 2 months

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Donations Masterlist

MASTERLIST PART 2. MASTERLIST PART 3 LINKED IN PT 2

So basically I tried to create a masterlist of donation links for mainly Palestinian Families/Aid Organizations, but it was very messy/unorganized. I want to try again by reposting the all of links here. I’ll try to keep this as updated as possible. This masterlist will also include links and resources for other crises around the world (Sudan, Congo, etc. ). When I get time, I’ll create seperate masterlists for those causes but they will reside here for now. Please donate if you can, otherwise reblog/share widely.

Linktree: This is my personal linktree. Please take the time to check it out and scroll down to the fundraisers I haven’t gotten around to cross posting yet. It takes a long time so this won’t be completely updated for a while.

Original Masterlist: I tried my best to put all the links from there to here but just in case, please check this as well. This masterpost will still be the most consistently updated.

Organizations:

Care for Gaza: Paypal for Care for Gaza (@/CareForGaza), an on the ground aid organization for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza. Recently, they posted QR codes (QR 2) (QR 3), on twitter/x)5 and encouraged people to send $ through crypto. Care for Gaza’s has gofundme as well

UNRWA: They’re the primary source of aid for Palestinian Refugees and they’re expected to be forced out of service by the end of THIS MONTH. THAT IS LITERALLY NEXT WEEK. PLEASE DONATE. CALL YOUR REPS TO REINSTATE UNRWA FUNDING.

Direct Aid for Gaza: This is a paypal link for the organization of Direct Aid for Gaza (@/GazaDirectAid on twitter/x). They also have a QR code for crypto donations here. and here. and here

Amnesty International: Human Rights Watch organization. Donations made will go towards protecting human rights

gazaesims.com: Shows how to get esims to provide internet and cellular service to those in Gaza right now

Pious Proejcts: Provides feminine hygiene kits to those all over the Gaza area. Mensturating people are using tent scraps as makeshift pads currently so please donate to this organization if you can to at least help relieve the hardship of mensturating during a genocide.

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: Relief fund for Palestinian Children.

Funds for Gaza: This is a linktree with Fundraisers for People in Gaza. They regularly rotate the list so that families don’t get lost at the bottom

K Stone: Aid company in Gaza collecting donations to collect winter clothing, tents, sanitary napkins, healthcare packages, and such to give out to displaced Familes in Gaza.

Operation Olive Branch: This is a spreadsheet with families seeking donations to evacuate Gaza, please scroll to the bottom of the list while looking for families to donate to! You can also recommend families/gofundmes to be added to the spreadsheet

Sudan Tarada Initiative: This is an initiative in Canada started by Husham Hantoush to deliver basic needs such as food and medicine to Displaced People residing in the city of Sinnar, Sudan. Funds will go towards local charities and centers in Sudan to provide these basic human needs.

Help Gaza Children: Initiative started in order to help children in Gaza by providing them with clothing and food. To get more information, their website is https://helpgazachildren.notion.site/

World Food Program: What more is there to know? Donate If You Can And/Or Share.

Rodhiyat’s Emergency Gaza Appeal: Fundraiser for care packages for Women in Gaza

War Child: Doante to Children in Congo (DRC)

Amal for Women (website): Organization in Sudan that is seeking to collect funds to provide food and other necessities to displaced Sudanese Women this upcoming Ramadan. Direct, On the ground support. Their GoFundMe. Other Payment Options. Venmo (Amal4Women)

Families:

Securing the Journey to a Safe Haven - Help Banan and her daughter evacuate Gaza reunite with her husband in Egypt

Help Me and My Family Escape from Gaza War - Thaer Inshasi

Tamer and Samer Skaik of Animals Friends Shelter - Get their families out of Gaza (Donate to support them and their shelter in Gaza)

Help Ameer and his family rebuild in Egypt

Help Omar get cancer medication for his mother in North Gaza

Empowering My Family's Journey to Safety - Muath Abualqumboz, Hanna Raheb

Help Mohammed Zack and his family evacuate Gaza

Help Hazem and his family get out of Gaza

Help Abdalhadi Bashir secure his family during the crisis

Help Ahmed's Family evacuate Gaza - Hasan Yasin,

Help Mustafa Abdullah evacuate his family out of Gaza

Help Kareem and his family get food, clothing, diapers, etc.,

Help Yara and Farag evacuate themselves and their families out of Gaza

Help Zianelbedin Mogharabi support himself and family and raise funds for educational abroad

Help the Zaqout family evacuate Gaza

Help Malaka Shwaikh evacuate her family out of Gaza

Help Reema and her Family evacuate Gaza

Help Hanan and her family evacuate Gaza

Help Abeer J Qannan and his family evacuate Gaza

Help Hasan Suleiman get the medical attention/surgery he needs - Organized by Abrar Ahmed

Help a family in Rafah build a tent

Help Jamal’s Family evacuate Gaza

Support Abdallah of Salam Animal Care (@/RescueCare on twt/x) (GoFundMe)

Help a Handicapped Child evacuate Gaza

Help Mahmoud rebuild his Artisanal Bakery

Help Zinh and her family rebuild their house in Gaza

Help Evacuate Maryam and her family out of Gaza

Help a family in Gaza get basic essentials (eg. food)

Help Mahmoud and his family evacuate Gaza

Help Mumen Aburaida protect his family in Gaza + his paypal

Help Ibrahim Ashour Evacute his family out of Gaza

Help Lama and her family evacuate Gaza

Help Hala Shaheen evacuate her family from Gaza

Donate to support Mo and his animal shelter in Gaza (His GoFundMe) (@/helpcatsmsallam on twitter/x)

Help Mohammed Mosa support and protect his Family in Gaza (@/SARAMoh69489245 on twitter/x)

Help Mohammed Khaled evacuate his Family from Gaza

Help Shayma and her family relocate to safety

Help Sara Eleyan evacuate her family out of Gaza

Help Dana evacuate her family out of Gaza and reunite with them

Help evacuate 4-year-old Ronza and her family out of Gaza, and reunite them with Ronza’s father

Help Assad Herzallah’s family rebuild their home

Help 10-year-old Abdullah Al-Saghir and his family rebuild their lives

Help Canadian Abdel-Rahman Kouta and his family evacuate Gaza

Help Farah Hasan Hashem and her family evacuate Gaza

Help Omar and his Family evacuate Gaza

Help Hammoud Al Zaharneh and his family evacuate Gaza

Help the Busimba Family resettle in America after fleeing Congo

Help a Sudanese Family recover and rebuild after fleeing the crisis in Sudan

Help a Palestinian Family with young children evacuate Gaza

Help Amer Almashharawi and his family evacuate Gaza

Help Aya Alhaddad and her Fiance evacuate Gaza

Help Hala Shaheen evacuate her family out of Gaza

Help Journalist Madiji Al-Batch evacuate Gaza to recieve cancer treatment in Egypt

Help a family impacted by the Sudanese War pay rent

Help Nour and her Family evacuate Gaza

Help Lamees Abu Salim evacuate Gaza and get the medical care she needs

Help a Palestinian in the UK evacuate her child out of Gaza and reunite with her

Help Eman Abdel Rahman and his family rebuild their home in Sudan

Help Support Moe Kouta And His Family, Including Young Children And A Newborn, In Gaza

Other

More links to donate to Palestine I (twitter/x)

How to detect scammers + charties to donate to for Palestine and Sudan (twitter/x)

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shelbystales · 2 years

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Best Aid - Part One

Modern Tommy Shelby x Reader - Masterlist

Summary:you are a young doctor in Birmingham. After a crazy incident, Thomas Shelby shows up at your hospital. You don't know much about the man everyone seems to fear, but you definitely will.

Warning: Swearing, surgery, mention of blood, violence

A/N: i don't know if i will continue this... comment and interact, tell me what you think! it means a looot thank you very much

English is my second language so I apologize in advance for the grammar mistakes.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

It was already mid-morning. You looked at your watch for the tenth time in less than a minute. Your shift seemed to last forever. Which was very strange since it was a full moon night, and it was common for doctors and nurses to joke that on a full moon things got so crazy that a werewolf could easily walk through the door.

"coffee?" Jeremy, one of the nurses on duty with you asked.

"Yes, please! Things are so slow," you complained, and he laughed

"You're the only one who complains about that," he said, handing you the horribly strong coffee

"Jesus, are you trying to kill me?" you asked, giving the coffee back to him while making a face "this is poison, not coffee," he laughed

"The stronger, the better," he said, and you shook your head in disapproval.

"He definitely doesn't know how to make coffee. haven't you learned yet, y/n?" Lauren, a nurse for years at this hospital, spoke, leaning on the counter in front of you.

"yeah, lack of sleep makes you forget stuff," you said

"Go rest. we hold the ends here," she suggested, and you smiled considering her proposal.

You were new to the hospital, new to medicine in general. you had just finished your residency program in London and because of your mother's failing health, you decided to return to Birmingham and help your brothers and sisters to take care of her.

It had been less than two months since you had been accepted as an emergency and surgery doctor. being a rookie, all the night shifts on weekends were yours. at the end of that shift, it will be 36 hours since you haven't entered your house and you would still have to do the day shift before you go.

Looking around you saw how empty the emergency room was. two people arrived earlier, a teenager with an alcoholic coma and a child with rotavirus. two classics.

"Well, I think I'll accept this proposal and I'll take a nap. Call me as soon as someone walks through that door" you said getting up.

"Sure thing," they said.

Jeremy propped his feet up on the counter and grabbed his cell phone to watch something and Lauren rolled her eyes sitting next to him and opening her book.

You've decided to get the patient's parameters before going to bed. Make sure they were stable.

both of them seemed fine, while you wrote down the parameters in your tablet's system the doors to the emergency center opened

"I need some bloody fucking help here!" a man with a mustache and a strong accent yelled.

You left your tablet on an empty bed and ran outside. Jeremy ran after you pushing a stretcher.

Outside you came face to face with a black BMW X3 and inside it, in the back seat, a man was unconscious. You got partially into the car trying to have the best access to analyze the man

"What happened?" you asked one of the two men who were with him.

"Just bloody fix him, alright?" the other man spoke nervously

from the quick analysis, you assumed he had taken a beating, but you didn't know the extent of the damage. on the stethoscope, the lung and heart appeared clean and functioning normally. His heart rate was a little faster than normal, perhaps because of the bleeding

"Hey, can you hear me?" you asked the man in an attempt to get attention, trying to gauge where he was on the Glasglow coma scale.

With your flashlight, you quickly assessed his neurological status and noticed that the pupils were not reactive. He was a 3, with no eye response, no motor response, and no verbal response.

"Okay, let's get him inside and straight to CT," you said getting out of the car and hanging your stethoscope around your neck again. Jeremy moved to put him on the stretcher "the pupils are not responsive. lungs clear. heart beating fast, but it could be due to the bleeding" you were talking to Lauren, who had the tablet in her hand filling out his form "what is your name?" you asked the two men.

"Arthur, this is John," the man who came through the door shouting said "that's our brother Tommy" you nodded.

"I need you to pass your social data to her," you said indicating to Lauren, and walked into the hospital, Jeremy already in front of you.

In CT you saw intense bleeding caused by trauma, causing compression of the third cranial nerve and the upper brain stem. hence the pupils and the loss of consciousness. Now you were worried, the bleeding was extensive and looked bad.

"Ok, we need to act fast. Prep an OR. We don't know how long he's been like this" you said leaving the cabin and going to get ready for surgery.

you are not a neurosurgeon, but intracranial pressure reduction is a simple procedure and necessary until a real evaluation by the neurologist.

The surgery went well. the blood inside the skull was drained, relieving the pressure and you directed him to the ICU, for better follow-up.

After him, cases didn't stop coming in and you didn't stop for a minute.

you looked at the clock on your wrist as you bandaged a man who had been stabbed in the arm, you were glad that it was already eight o'clock and the number of staff was returning to normal so you could take thirty minutes just to lie down and put your legs up.

"We survived another apocalypse," Jeremy said stopping beside you and you smiled

"yeah, lucky us," you said tiredly

"Weeell, good luck in here. I'm going home to my husband!" he said

"thank you, I've never been so jealous of you," you said jokingly and he walked away with a huge smile.

The residents arrived and you gave them the night's cases. you encouraged them to think logically and critically. dividing them into groups so that each one stayed with a patient, studying the case and what could have been done differently while new cases did not emerge.

Few residents were interested in trauma, and they gradually dispersed to other areas throughout the day, but when they arrived they always looked for trauma because it was the only busy place in the hospital.

Two residents stuck with you all day, shadowing you. Their names are Davi and Megan. Both are desperate for knowledge.

"I have a special case for you," you said handing the tablet to them "A beaten man arrives without much information about what happened. What do you do?" you asked, as you walked down the hall

"the Glasgow thing," Davi said and you smiled and nodded

"Score 3 on the Glasgow thing," you said imitating him

"Shit... hm" he stopped thoughtfully "how long was he unconscious?"

"Don't know, he arrived unconscious" you replied "his brothers did not give much information"

"CT scan or X-ray" Megan added and he nodded supporting her answer

"Good. You see extensive intracranial bleeding" you said

"Surgery," the two said together and you nodded opening the door in front of you

"Look who's awake," you said smiling.

The blacked out man from the night before was now looking and talking to his brothers who were sitting on the small sofa next to the bed.

"How are you feeling?" You asked, standing at the foot of his bed while Megan and David prowled around him and examined him.

"Well... better than I look" he replied looking strangely at his residents.

"They're just checking your parameters" you explained

"Can I smoke?" he asked

"No you can't. Not here" you replied

"Can he drink?" one of the brothers asked

"John, right?" he nodded "no, he can't" you replied

"You just as good as dead, brother," Arthur said and you frowned.

Megan handed over the tablet to you with all the information. everything was normal.

"Do you have any questions?" you asked your residents

"When can I get out of here?" Thomas asked

"When will he get out?" you asked the two next to you

"Depends on your response to post-surgery," Davi said sounding a little unsure, and you nodded "could be in a day or two, or a week"

"I'll stay a day," he said

"hm, we recomment you follow our order and stay for as long as it’s necessary, but you do have your choices" you exhaled "ok, so... No questions to the patient kids?" they were silent, which you thought was strange, but you continued "did you feel any dizziness, shortness of breath, or sudden tiredness?" he shook his head "nausea?" same response "did you try to stand up?" he denied again "good, don't try yet. pee in the potty" you took the potty and put it on the bed "Need anything you press the button. If you feel anything different, press the button. Okay?" he nodded and you left the room

"Is that really Thomas Shelby?" Davi asked, surprising you

"Who?" you asked confused

"You don't know him?" Megan asked "working-class man, now one of the richest around? been on the media before being suspected of multiple crimes" she said as she was telling you a dirty secret

"Shit. You serious?" you asked and she nodded "well, we have to treat everyone the same. despite, all that... we made a vow, right?" they nodded

"I won't go in there alone," Davi said and you smiled "he scares the shit out of me"

"But he's hot," Megan said and you rolled your eyes

"Why don't you guys go scrub in some surgery, hm? we are done here" you said and they walked away.

Lying on the bed in the staff room, you felt exhausted.

Picking up your cell phone you did what anyone would do, googled Thomas Shelby. being surprised and intrigued by what you saw.

--/--

After sleeping for a few hours, you went on with your rounds. Lunch was being served and as you passed by Shelby's room you noticed the food was still outside.

"Why is this here?" you asked the nurse passing by

"No one wants to get in there. He's rude," she answered honestly and walked away.

You rolled your eyes and took a deep breath. picking up the platter with the food and walking into the room. He was alone now and his eyes opened when you walked in.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," you said

"Wasn't sleeping" he replied

"Good, here is some delicious food for you. Try not to puke" you said putting it in front of him and he smiled

"Looks good," he said "why are you bringing me this? Don't you have nurses for this?"

"We do, but people don't seem to want to get in here. For some reason you scare them" you said, looking at the monitor.

"But not you?" he asked

"Well, I just opened your head. What color was your urine?" you asked and he smiled

"Yellow?" he replied uncomfortably

"Too yellow?" you asked enjoying seeing him cringe

"I guess" he replied

"Was it a lot to urine or a little?"

"Normal...?"

"Poop?"

"No" he replied embarrassed taking the food in front of him

"Am I making you uncomfortable?" you joked and he didn't answer "Good" you smiled "The neurologist was here earlier to test you right?"

"he was" he replied "Am I in trouble?"

"No, all looks good. We acted fast so you won’t have any long lasting symptoms. Maybe you will feel some signs of a light concussion for a few days" you replied "no nausea right?"

"No, I feel good. ready for another one" he said

"Yeah...don't," you said and he smiled

"Hey, can you take me outside for a smoke?" he asked

"You shouldn't smoke, but yes I can. Let me just grab the wheelchair" you said leaving the room.

When you came back he had only eaten the jello and the apple

"Not hungry?" you asked stopping with the chair next to him

"Chicken is disgusting," he said and you smiled

"Okay, let's go?"

He nodded and you helped him up. as he stood up his body softened and he looked like he was going to faint, but he leaned on the bed and with your help he sat down in the chair. You took your flashlight and looked into his eyes, both reacted normally.

"What are you feeling?" you asked crouching in front of him

"The things you’ve been insisting on. Nausea and dizziness" he replied and took a deep breath "fuck" he muttered as he rubbed his face

You got some water and a sickness pill and handed it to him. When he said he was better you pushed him out of the room and into the area outside the hospital.

The hospital had a very pleasant green area for patients and visitors. You sat on a concrete bench in front of him and took a deep breath enjoying the outside air as he lit his cigarette.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing what doctors do?" he asked and you smiled

"Well, my pager has been quiet. I think they're taking it easy on me today since its my fourth shift in a row" you replied "and if you were nicer to the nurses they would have brought you here sooner"

"If I was nicer to people I would be here more often" he replied

"Maybe, maybe not... who knows" you shrugged

"You're new here aren't you?" he asked and you nodded "yeah...last time I was here a hairy man took care of me" you laughed

"Well I don't know any hairy man," you said amused

"yeah... He was fired," he said

"Why?" you asked confused

"He... I don't know" he said as if he had changed his mind mid-sentence.

"You do, you just don't want to tell me," you said and he shook his head "ok..." Your pager beeped and you looked at it "oh no. I have to go" looking around you took the first nurse that passed in front of you "he won't do you any harm, just take him to his room when he's done" you said taking her to him "be nice" you warned him and ran away

--/--

As your final act, you only had to pass the shift to the next doctor, telling him about the new patients and everything that had happened. Once that was done you changed into your normal clothes.

Walking out of the hospital you passed in front of Thomas' room and saw that there was a man inside with him. Looking at your watch, it was almost eight and visiting hours were over.

Opening the door you entered "ey, Visiting hours are over. I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave"

"Who the fuck are you?" the man standing asked rudely

"I'm his doctor," you said not liking the man’s tone

"It's ok, y/n. Just go" Thomas said but you frowned

"The hospital have rules. You can come see him in the morning. If you don't leave now I'll call security," you said and the man laughed

"Don't bother" he said and left the room staring at you as he walked through the door

"Shouldn't have done that" Thomas said

"It's my job. You can't have people here after visiting hours for a reason" you said

"He is not my visitor," he said

"What is he then?" you asked and he looked at the window ignoring your question "fine. just don't do it again" you turned to leave

"Does your house have security?" he asked

"what?" you asked confused looking at him

"That man did this" he pointed at himself "Do your house have security?" he asked and you frowned

"I guess" you replied and he smirked

"You guess?" he asked "My brothers are outside. Ask them to drive you to your home and tell them to check it"

"Is it necessary?" you asked nervously

"Look at me and tell me what you think" he said

"But I did nothing!" you spoke

"Maybe...better safe than sorrow right?" he said and you looked confused at him "just do it"

You left the hospital, deciding to ignore the Shelby request. You did nothing wrong. You had no relation with them. There was no reason for you to be afraid.

To your surprise, Arthur was waiting for you by your car. he smiled as you approached.

"Thomas called," he said, "should we go in our car or yours?"

"How do you know that's my car?" You asked

"It's easy to find out anything about people these days," he said "if you want we can meet you at your house?"

"Do you know where I live?" you asked worried and he nodded "I don't like this. How can I be sure that at the moment I get inside my car you won't kill me?" he laughed

"Listen ey, our brother is worried you will pay for something you had nothing to do with. you just got in the middle of a big dog's fight" he said "he doesn't want you dead, you saved him" you continued in silence, thinking "we will just go there and see if there are cameras and things in your apartment. If you say no we will go anyways... we will only have more trouble getting in"

"Ok," you said feeling without much option "I'll go in my car and you will go in yours"

"Sounds good," he said and walked away

In your apartment building, you let him in. he walked around and broke into the security room

"I'll get evicted after this," you said and he laughed

"No you won't" he replied "Cameras are working," he said after being inside for a few minutes "you should be fine"

"Thanks?" you said "can I ask why? What did I do?"

"Well you saved his life and you told the man who tried to take it that you saved his life... Did you also threaten him with security? how cute" He said

"That doesn't soud so bad" you spoke

"Yeah… but like I said you got in the middle of a big dog fight. Things are heated up right now. Anything can become a motive" he said, and said goodbye to you.

He left and you went up to your apartment, feeling very confused. Could it be the lack of sleep making you hallucinate? before you could take a shower you were sleeping.

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saintsenara · 28 days

Note

there is so much new stuff on your blog that i need to catch up with omg and i swear i will get to it BUT. BUT FIRST. i have a question (which, funnily, is really relevant to my actual offline life rn): if tom riddle was a doctor, what specialty would he practice? [he gives me major neurosurgery vibes] and, more laterally, what do you think makes a good surgeon? as in, what kind of personality types fare the best in a surgical program?

now this is the sort of content i like to see!

while i can certainly see good old dr riddle [bmbch oxon] very much enjoying having a rummage around in a patient's cranium, he strikes me as someone who would prefer specialties on the medical, rather than surgical, spectrum - and, especially, would like specialties which require a lot of sifting through evidence and solving mysteries. he's clearly a puzzle girly [why else would he spend his teenage years coming up with anagrams of his own name?] and so i think he'd very much like the parts of his job which allowed him to spend half his time running a lot of invasive tests on people and the other half skulking in a lab getting an enormous amount of money to run research projects...

so he's applying for:

haematology

aka: staring at blood - which is right up his alley. his particular interest is coagulation disorders in pregnant women - and their contribution to these women dying in childbirth.

histopathology

aka: staring at slices of tissue. he's determined to find out whether or not the soul resides in the liver.

neuropathology

i think we can all picture him presiding over a collection of brains preserved in formalin. one of them is dumbledore's.

forensic pathology

cutting up corpses by order of the state? he's in! his team of graduate students have conned several million out of the wellcome trust and are spending it trying to reanimate their specimens.

forensic psychiatry

because while if you want to be a good psychiatrist you need an iron will and well-developed sense of empathy, if you want to be a bad one you need to be able to gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss. and our tom's got that nailed...

now.

the above flippancy is about to make me look quite bad, because i am also a puzzle girly, and i like medicine precisely for the sort of mystery solving and research paper publishing it enables. but i'm not a mass-murderer, which i feel it's important to clarify...

i'm not a surgeon either - i didn't struggle with the gory bits of the work, i just didn't find any of the surgical specialties i shadowed during my training particularly compelling in re: that element of mystery.

while the reputation they sometimes have - especially on tv - for being scalpel-wielding jocks isn't accurate, it's certainly true that the defining trait you need as a surgeon is total, unshakeable conviction. in all medical specialities outside of emergency medicine you have the option to adopt a wait-and-see approach a lot of the time - but you do not have this option if you've got someone open on the table in front of you. you need to be enormously decisive, capable of tunnel-vision, incredibly good under pressure, and also a little bit arrogant - the only way you can get through the terror of knowing that you're responsible for slicing and dicing someone [particularly in specialties like neonatal surgery or neurosurgery] is to believe unquestioningly that you're going to smash it.

these are probably all traits you already possess - they're certainly something it benefits all doctors to have, in moderation - and they can also be learned and honed through practise, but they're going to be most crucial in surgery because - the vast majority of the time - your issue won't be working out what's wrong with a patient, it'll be pulling off the operation without a hitch.

surgeons still get to do academic work, clinical research and so on, but if you think you want to be a surgeon, you really have to like that slicing and dicing, in-and-out aspect of the work. if you can't see yourself performing thousands upon thousands of the same operation, it's not for you.

#asks answered #tom riddle listened to doctor death religiously change my mind #he's giving medical malpractice #on medicine

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mariacallous · 10 months

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Shira Fishbach, a newly graduated physician, was sitting in an orientation session for her first year of medical residency when her phone started blowing up. It was June 24, 2022, and the US Supreme Court had just handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, nullifying the national right to abortion and turning control back to state governments.

Fishbach was in Michigan, where an abortion ban enacted in 1931 instantly came into effect. That law made administering an abortion a felony punishable by four years in prison, with no exceptions for rape or incest. It was a chilling moment: Her residency is in obstetrics and gynecology, and she viewed mastering abortion procedures as essential to her training.

“I suspected during my application cycle that this could happen, and to receive confirmation of it was devastating,” she recalls. “But I had strategically applied where I thought that, even if I didn't receive the full spectrum, I would at least have the support and the resources to get myself to an institution that would train me.”

Her mind whirled through the possibilities. Would her program help its residents go to an access-protecting state? Could she broker an agreement to go somewhere on her own, arranging weeks of extra housing and obtaining a local medical license and insurance? Would she still earn her salary if she left her program—and how would she fund her life if she did not?

In the end, she didn’t need to leave. That November, Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that made the 1931 law unenforceable, and this April, Governor Gretchen Whitmer repealed the ban. Fishbach didn’t have to abandon the state to learn the full range of ob-gyn care. In fact, her program at the University of Michigan, where she’s now a second-year resident, pivoted to making room for red-state trainees.

But the dizzying reassessment she underwent a year ago provides a glimpse of the challenges that face thousands of new and potential doctors. Almost 45 percent of the 286 accredited ob-gyn programs in the US now operate under revived or new abortion bans, meaning that more than 2,000 residents per year—trainee doctors who have committed to the specialty—may not receive the required training to be licensed. Among students and residents, simmering anger over bans is growing. Long-time faculty fear the result will be a permanent reshaping of American medicine, driving new doctors from red states to escape limitations and legal threats, or to protect their own reproductive options. That would reduce the number of physicians available, not just to provide abortions, but to conduct genetic screenings, care for miscarriages, deliver babies, and handle unpredictable pregnancy risks.

“I worry that we’re going to see an increase in maternal morbidity, differentially, depending on where you live,” says Kate Shaw, a physician and associate chair of ob-gyn education at Stanford Medicine. “And that’s just going to further enhance disparities that already exist.”

Those effects are not yet visible. The pipeline that ushers medical graduates through physician training is about a decade long: four years of school plus three to seven years of residency, sometimes with a two-year, sub-specialty fellowship afterward. Thus actions taken in response to the Dobbs decision—people eschewing red-state schools or choosing to settle in blue states long-term—might take a while to be noticeable.

But in this year, some data has emerged that suggests trends to come. In February, a group of students, residents and faculty surveyed 2,063 licensed and trainee physicians and found that 82 percent want to work or train in states that retain abortion access—and 76 percent would refuse to apply in states that restrict it. (The respondents worked in a mix of specialties; for those whose work would include performing abortions, the proportion intending to work where it remains legal soared above 99 percent.)

Then in April, a study from the Association of American Medical Colleges drawing on the first round of applications to residency programs after Dobbs found that ob-gyn applications in states with abortion restrictions sank by 10 percent compared to the previous year. Applications to all ob-gyn programs dropped by 5 percent. (Nationwide, all applications to residency went down 2 percent from 2021 to 2022.)

Last month, two preliminary pieces of research presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists uncovered more perturbations. In Texas—where the restrictive law SB8 went into effect in September 2021, nine months before Dobbs—a multi-year upward trend in applications to ob-gyn residency slowed after the law passed. And in an unrelated national survey, 77 percent of 494 third- and fourth-year medical students said that abortion restrictions would affect where they applied to residency, while 58 percent said they were unlikely to apply to states with a ban.

That last survey was conducted by Ariana Traub and Kellen “Nell” Mermin-Bunnell, two third-year medical students at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta—which lies within a state with a “fetal heartbeat” law that predates Dobbs and that criminalizes providing an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The law means that students in clinical rotations are unlikely to witness abortions and would not be allowed to discuss the procedure with patients. It also means that, if either of them were to become pregnant while at med school, they would not have that option themselves.

Before they published the survey, the two friends conducted an analysis of how bans would affect medical school curricula, using data collected in the summer of 2022. They predicted that only 29 percent of the more than 129,000 medical students in the US would not be affected by state bans. The survey gave them a chance to sample med students’ feelings about those developments, with the help of faculty members. They also founded a nonprofit, Georgia Healthcare Professionals for Reproductive Justice. “We're in a unique position, as individuals in the health care field but not necessarily medical professionals yet,” Traub says. “We have some freedom. So we felt like we had to use that power to try to make change.”

Ob-gyn formation is caught between opposing forces. Just over half of US states have passed bans or limitations on abortion that go beyond the Roe v. Wade standard of fetal viability. But the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, a nonprofit that sets standards for residency and fellowship programs, has always required that obstetric trainees learn to do abortions, unless they opt out for religious or moral reasons. It reaffirmed that requirement after the Dobbs decision. Failure to provide that training could cause a program to lose accreditation, leaving its graduates ineligible to be licensed.

The conflict between what medicine demands and state laws prevent leaves new and would-be doctors in restrictive states struggling with their inability to follow medical evidence and their own best intentions. “I’m starting to take care of patients for the first time in my life,” says Mermin-Bunnell, Traub’s survey partner. “Seeing a human being in front of you, who needs your help, and not being able to help them or even talk to them about what their options might be—it feels morally wrong.”

That frustration is equally evident among trainees in specialties who might treat a pregnant person, prescribe treatments that could imperil a pregnancy, or care for a pregnancy gone wrong. Those include family and adolescent medicine, anesthesiology, radiology, rheumatology, even dermatology and mental health.

“I’m particularly interested in oncology, and I’ve come to realize that you can’t have the full standard of gynecologic oncology care without being able to have access to abortion care,” says Morgan Levy, a fourth-year medical student in Florida who plans to apply to ob-gyn residency. Florida currently bans abortion after 15 weeks; a further ban, down to six weeks, passed in April but has been held up by legal challenges. In three years of med school so far, Levy received one lecture on abortion—in the context of miscarriage—and no clinical exposure to the procedure. “It is a priority for me to make sure that I get trained,” she says.

But landing in a training program that encourages abortion practice is more difficult than it looks. Residency application is an algorithm-driven process in which graduates list their preferred programs, and faculty rank the trainees they want to teach. For years, there have been more applicants than there are spaces—and this year, as in the past, ob-gyn programs filled almost all their slots. What that means, according to faculty members, is that some applicants will end up where they do not want to be.

“Students and trainees do exert their preferences, but they also need to get a training spot,” says Vineet Arora, the dean for medical education at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and lead author on the survey published in February. “Would they forgo a training spot because of Dobbs? That's a tall order, especially in a competitive field. But would they be happy about it? And would they want to stay there long term?”

That is not a hypothetical question. According to the medical-colleges association, more than half of residents stay to practice in the states where they trained. But it’s reasonable to ask whether they would feel that loyalty if they were deprived of training or forced to relocate. “If even a portion of the 80 percent of people who prefer to practice and train in states that don't have abortion bans follow through on those preferences, those states that are putting in abortion bans—which often have workforce shortages already—will be in a worse situation,” Arora says.

An ACOG analysis estimated in 2017 that half of US counties, which are home to 10 million women, have no practicing ob-gyn. When the health care tech firm Doximity examined ob-gyn workloads in 2019, seven of the 10 cities it identified as having the highest workloads lie in what are now very restrictive states. Those shortages are likely to worsen if new doctors relocate to states where they feel safe. The legal and consulting firm Manatt Health predicted in a white paper last fall: “The impact on access to all OB/GYN care in certain geographies could be catastrophic.”

Faculty are struggling to solve the mismatch between licensing requirements and state prohibitions by identifying other ways residents can train. They view it as protecting the integrity of medical practice. “Any ob-gyn has to be able to empty the uterus in an emergency, for abortion, for miscarriage, and for pregnancy complications or significant medical problems,” says Jody Steinauer, who is vice-chair of ob-gyn education at UC San Francisco.

Steinauer directs the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program, a 24-year-old effort to install and reinforce clinical abortion training. Even before Dobbs, that was hard to come by: In 2018, Steinauer and colleagues estimated that only two-thirds of ob-gyn residency programs made it routine, despite accreditation requirements—and that anywhere from 29 to 78 percent of residents couldn’t competently perform different types of abortion when they left training. In 2020, researchers from UCSF and UC Berkeley documented that 57 percent of these programs face limitations set by individual hospitals more extreme than those set by states.

Before Dobbs, the Ryan program brokered individual relocations that let trainees temporarily transfer to other institutions. Now it is working to set up program-to-program agreements instead, because the logistics required to visit for a rotation—the kind of arrangements Fishbach dizzily imagined a year ago—are more complex than most people can manage on their own. And not only on the visiting trainee: Programs already perform delicate calculations of how many trainees they can take given the number of patients coming to their institutions and the number of faculty mentors.

Only a few places have managed to institutionalize “away rotations,” in which they align accreditation milestones, training time, and financing with other institutions. Oregon Health & Science University’s School of Medicine is about to open a formal program that will accept 10 to 12 residents from restrictive states for a month each over a year. Oregon imposes no restrictions on abortion, and both the med school’s existing residents and the university’s philanthropic foundation supported the move.

“I'm very concerned about having a future generation that knows how to provide safe abortion care—because abortion will never go away; becoming illegal only makes it less safe,” says Alyssa Colwill, who oversees the new program and is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. “There are going to be patients that are going to use unsafe methods because there's no other alternative. And providers are going to be placed in scenarios that are heartbreaking, and are devastating to watch.”

The accreditation council now requires programs that cannot train their own residents in abortion to support them in traveling somewhere else. But even at schools that are trying to accommodate as many learners as possible, trainees can attend for only a month—the maximum that fully enrolled programs in safe states can afford. After that, they must go back home, leaving them less-trained than their counterparts. As faculty look forward, they fear a slow spiral of decay in obstetric knowledge.

This isn’t imaginary: Already, research has shown that physicians practicing in red states are less likely to offer appropriate and legal procedures to treat miscarriages. Receiving abortion training, in other words, also improves medical care for pregnancy loss.

“Ultimately, I do not think there is capacity to train every resident who wants training,” says Charisse Loder, a clinical assistant professor of ob-gyn at the University of Michigan Medical School, who directs the program where Fishbach is training. “So we will have ob-gyn residents who are not trained in this care. And I think that is not only unfortunate, but puts patients in a position of being cared for by residents who don't have comprehensive training.”

Doing only short rotations also returns residents to places where their own reproductive health could be put at risk. Future physicians are likely to be older than in previous generations, having been encouraged to get life experience and sample other careers before entering med school. Research on which Levy and Arora collaborated in 2022 shows that more than 11 percent of new physicians had abortions during their training. Because of the length of training, they also may be more likely to use IVF when they are ready to start families—and some reproductive technologies may be criminalized under current abortion bans.

As a fourth and final-year psychiatry resident, Simone Bernstein had thought about abortion restrictions through the lens of her patients’ mental health, as she talked to them about fertility treatment and pregnancy loss. As cofounder of the online platform Inside the Match, she had listened to residents’ reactions to Dobbs (and collaborated on research with Levy and Arora). She had not expected the decision to affect her personally—but she is in Missouri, a state where there is an almost complete ban on abortion. And this spring, she experienced a miscarriage at 13 weeks of pregnancy.

“I was worried whether or not I could even go to the hospital, if my baby still had a heartbeat, which was a conversation that I had to have with my ob-gyn on the phone,” she says. “It didn’t come to that; I caught the baby in my hands at home, hemorrhaging blood everywhere, and the baby had already passed away. But until that moment, I didn't recognize the effects that [abortion restrictions] could have on me.”

This is the reality now: There exist very few places in the US where abortion is uncomplicated. Faculty and their trainees do not expect that to change, except for the worse. Staying in the field, and making sure the next generation is prepared, requires commitment that they will have to sustain for years.

“Part of the reason why I sought advanced training in abortion and contraception is because I think there will be a national ban,” says Abigail Liberty, an ob-gyn and fellow in her sixth postgraduate year at OHSU. “I think it will happen in our lifetime. And I see my role as getting as much expertise and training as I can now and providing care while I can. And then coming out of retirement, when abortion will be legal again, and training the next generation of physicians.”

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vomitdodger · 10 days

Text

Long and thorough article. Choice paragraphs below showing every step of the way is compromised:

“In May 2021, the AMA released its Organizational Strategic Plan to Embed Racial Justice and Advance Health Equity, “dedicated to embedding racial justice” in all medical practice. Among the plans key priorities is one whose implications for medical education and medical school admissions are readily apparent: “Develop structures and processes to consistently center the experiences and ideas of historically marginalized (women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, International Medical Graduates) and minoritized (Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color) physicians.”

The medical profession’s leaders, almost without exception or dissent, now vigorously enforce this new orthodoxy of anti-racism. Most notably, they have designed and implemented a new version of medical education explicitly grounded in ideology rather than scientific excellence. In pursuit of this project, the president of the AAMC (which accredits U.S. medical schools) and the chair of the AAMC’s Council of [Medical School] Deans stated publicly in July 2022: “We believe this topic [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] deserves just as much attention from learners and educators at every stage of their careers as the latest scientific breakthroughs.”

The AAMC’s DEI Competencies, issued in October 2021, details the new required social justice skills that medical students must acquire. In addition, the AAMC has discouraged the use of the rigorous Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) as a filter to help select medical students. Dozens of the 158 allopathic (MD granting) U.S. medical schools have made the MCAT optional. Several medical schools, including the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, have programs to admit students from designated “underrepresented” identity groups without requiring the submission of MCAT scores at all. The MCAT itself has been revised to include social justice questions that are easy to ace because the answers are always the same: structural racism is the cause of any group disparities that disfavor underrepresented groups. But even this re-engineered test shows persistent group disparities in test scores, which means that Asian applicants must score almost 4 times higher than black applicants to have an equal chance of admission.”

The MCAT was the only aspect of the entire application process which demonstrated true aptitude for a science/medical based curriculum. And they’re largely doing away with it.

And it isn’t just medical schools. The indoctrination and dumbing down of standards continues through residency/fellowship and practice. Example: This is how certain hospitals come to the forefront to promote the trans mutilation. Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston being one of the worst.

Emergency Medicine is another example. EM is represented by ACEP:

👆the president of ACEP (black female naturally-not a racist comment-just an observation for a demographic that is less than 5% of emergency medicine physicians) actively OPPOSES that anti-DEI legislation.

And to prevent trolls citing the usual lazy dumb denial of sOuRcE???? for that 5% statistic, here it is:

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hedgewitchgarden · 1 year

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By Julia Kane. April 27, 2023. On an overcast Saturday in March, Serina Fast Horse stands in a ring of freshly planted, 12-foot-tall willow cuttings. Soft white buds are just beginning to emerge from their gray stems.

Easing the tips of the willows toward the center of the circle, Fast Horse holds them in place while another volunteer ties them together with twine.

Fast Horse and about three dozen others have gathered at Shwakuk Wetland, five acres of land situated between a residential neighborhood and a freight warehouse in north Portland, just south of Columbia Edgewater Country Club.

In time, the trees they plant and gently shape will grow into a willow dome—a living structure people can gather around for ceremonies, educational programs or just to enjoy the space.

Shwakuk, which is pronounced “show-kayk” and means little frog in Chinook Wawa, is a unique site co-managed by the local Indigenous community and Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services.

When the city acquired the land in 2016, it was a pumpkin patch.

Since then, the team responsible for stewarding it has worked to restore the wetland. Now it’s used to to cultivate first foods, medicines and basketry plants.

It’s also reconnecting area residents with the land.

Fast Horse, who is Lakota and Blackfeet, serves as a community liaison on the Shwakuk project, bridging the gap between the local Indigenous community and city employees.

Since getting involved with the project, the 28-year-old Portlander has also gone on to found Kimímela Consulting. Her goal is to bring the Indigenous community into environmental decision-making processes at the city and state level.

“When we’re able to come together and uplift Indigenous knowledge—and learn from each other, too, because there are things from western science and ecology that are important for restoration—we can change these systems to be more regenerative,” says Fast Horse.

“Indigenizing” not “de-colonizing”

For Fast Horse, the choice to use the word Indigenize rather than decolonize is intentional.

“When we say Indigenize, it’s centering the Indigenous perspective and being forward-thinking instead of centering colonization and that experience,” she says.

In restoration work, the Indigenous perspective hasn’t often been taken into consideration.

“Our program has always used native plants, but the selection wasn’t necessarily based on the Indigenous communities’ needs or desires,” says Toby Query, a natural resource ecologist with Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services. “It was more about what would survive and what would fulfill our agency’s goals as far as shading the water, wildlife habitat and structure, and so forth.”

At Shawkuk, the Indigenous community put together a list of desired plants, which included first foods, medicines and plants used for traditional crafts.

That list has guided Query and the rest of the team involved in day-to-day restoration work at the site.

So far, they’ve had success at growing tule, a sedge used in basketry and canoe-making, along with yarrow, a medicinal plant, and camas, a plant with an edible, bulb-like root. They’ve also planted yampah, a wild carrot.

Instead of spraying herbicide, the restoration team uses vinyl from old billboards to block the sun and kill invasive grasses. Sometimes, they’ll braid invasive grasses around native plants, like yellow dock, horsetail and cattail, so that they stay low to the ground and do not choke out other plants.

“It takes a lot of effort to do it,” says Query, who has spent many hours braiding reed canarygrass alongside workers from Wisdom of the Elders, an Indigenous-led group. “While we were doing it we were enjoying conversation, and it was kind of a healing process.”

Query has implemented many techniques he’s learned from the Indigenous community at the 20 or so sites he stewards across the city.

“It’s really informed what I plant, and how I take care of plants,” he says.

Tending parties, wild tea

Healing is a critical element of Indigenizing restoration work.

In fact, says Fast Horse, “my deepest wish for this work is to bring folks together and to heal our relationships to each other and to the earth.”

At Shwakuk, she’s brought people together by helping organize “tending parties” that attract members of the local Indigenous community, students from Portland State University, city employees and others.

The groups learn about a site, spend a few hours helping with a restoration project and gather for lunch.

Oftentimes, Judy BlueHorse Skelton, an assistant professor at Portland State University who has helped lead the Shwakuk restoration, will make tea for everyone.

She makes the tea using a sprig of Doug fir gathered onsite, and sometimes rosehips, Oregon grape and western redcedar.

“We’re taught that to sip tea together is to become a relative, or to form a relationship,” says BlueHorse Skelton, who is Nez Perce and Cherokee. “It’s also deepening our intimate relationship with the plant world. It’s a big part of Indigenous traditional ecological and cultural knowledge, and it’s embedded in the work that we’re all doing.”

Intern to owner

Restoring Shwakuk was pivotal for Fast Horse, who first got involved with the project as an intern with Environmental Services.

“I was able to be an internal advocate to make sure what the community was saying was being upheld in a really meaningful way,” says Fast Horse. “I would be in these internal meetings, and so that perspective got woven throughout the process.”

In those meetings, the impact that she could have as a community liaison became clear.

From Query’s point of view: “To have somebody that has an Indigenous perspective, but is also willing to be part of the agency side of things, and to be able to walk between those two cultures has been really important.”

Fast Horse began giving presentations about lessons learned from Shwakuk and found that other city agencies and organizations wanted Indigenous input on their projects, too.

Portland has recently become more proactive about reaching out to the Indigenous community. The city hired its first full-time tribal relations director, Laura John, in 2017—a move BlueHorse Skelton says has been “immensely transformative.”

Two years ago, Fast Horse founded her own company, Kimímela Consulting, based in Milwaukie, Ore. She’s continued to act as a liaison between the Indigenous community and various agencies and organizations.

Most of her work has to do with land restoration, but she’s also working with Portland State University to rename a street. The campus’ Native American Student and Community Center is currently located on a street named after President Andrew Jackson, known for enforcing the genocidal Indian Removal Act of 1830.

“She’s been providing a voice and venue for the Indigenous community, including students and folks across all agencies, to get involved—including just the average community member who may not have a voice,” says BlueHorse Skelton.

A reconnected future

According to BlueHorse Skelton, the work that Fast Horse is doing to ensure the Indigenous community is part of decision-making processes is critical.

“When cities look, today, at how to heal, how to begin to restore, how to protect what’s left,” says BlueHorse Skelton, “we have to be part of it.”

She sees Fast Horse as the first of a new, emerging generation of Indigenous leaders in the region.

“As some of us become elders, who carries that work forward?” BlueHorse Skelton asks. “That’s Serina.”

“A lot of times people put us in the past, and that’s a huge misconception,” says Fast Horse. “We’ve always been adaptable people. We’re not trying to revert back to anything, we’re going into the future.

“We’re all interconnected in this physical and spiritual plane. With Indigenous knowledge, we can reconnect to that and live in a way that is more in line with natural systems that are regenerative and life-giving.”

#indigenizing not decolonozing #indigenous wisdom

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11queensupreme11 · 4 months

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hey! i've been following you through tsunami from the last six months and made my way here after the introduction of arsenic blues and i've learned to treat your words as gospel bc ur a literal genius!!!

anyways you've mentioned that (correct me if i'm wrong) you are going the psycharity route through a psychology major. funny enough i've been considering psychiatry for a while as i know that i want to be in the medical field and this route aligns best with my interests.

anyways i was wondering about the route you're taking and any insider tips and tricks (of sorts) that you have. i'm totally dreading med school and the MCAT and essentially the entire academic process. (i would totally consider being a therapist and going more that route but i do want to learn a lot of the emergency aid as a backup and for like practical purposes and also i need that salary in this economy...)

anyways, so what classes do you feel is the best in helping you (or the most interesting lol)? what about the major bc im worried that biochem or something else will give me a lot of unnecessary classes that only may or may not help me on the mcat? how do you manage your time and study in general?

anything helps! (this is going to be so embarrassing if i get some of the facts wrong lol)

i haven't taken the mcat yet or prepped for it, but this man i knew HEAVILY recommended using the kaplan mcat prep books because that helped him the most

this is the link but dont buy it until you're ready to start studying

as for classes, i can't really tell you which classes you take because it all depends in your school. i do suggest to check your college website to see if it has a page with a list of recommended classes needed for med school. if there's no page, then please PLEASE go talk to a guidance counselor/advisor so they could tell you what premed courses to take

i think it'd be easier to major in biology cuz a lot of classes required for the major also fall under the requirements for med school! i just really really really like psychology more, so i decided to major in that. you can do that too, but just be aware you'd be taking classes for your GE requirements, major requirements, AND premed requirements. you most likely won't be able to graduate within the timeframe you want.

when you're picking your classes for the semester tho.... pls don't stack together all your stem courses like i'm doing lol. i'm taking a bio with lecture and lab, an anthro class with lecture and lab, a calculus class, and some psych classes. unless you're absolutely certain that you can handle the stress, i suggest you take a few stem classes and a few non-stem classes to even it out.

(beware that if you do shit in the semester, you'll be put in academic probation 💀)

another thing you should note, there are two types of med school: an md (doctor of medicine) and DO (doctor of osteopathic medicine). do is the "easier" (it's actually not, just easier compared to md) path and not as competitive. psychiatry is both MD and DO friendly which is good, but the issue is that some residency programs are elitist and look down on DOs 🙄

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, FIND CLINICAL EXPERIENCE!!! i can't help you with that because i haven't done any yet 💀

actually i was wrong, this is the most important: GET SCHOLARSHIPS!!!! AND GRANTS!!!! MEDICAL SCHOOL IS PRICY!!!!

#👸🏻| asks

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dooksofearl · 4 months

Text

Do you want to see miracles? You can perform miracles. You can be the miracle.

What we need is 7,000 people to pledge $1 a month to our rescue.

Sounds like a lot? Not really. We have over a thousand follower friends so if each person challenged 6 of their friends to commit to the same promise, we could reach our goal.

What would that accomplish? Our rescue is 100% volunteer based, board members included, so all of the funds go straight to the animals care. We don't have salaries and stuff like that to deal with. Each month the money would go to the budget:

$1753 Vet bills and medical implants for adrenal disease

$76 medicine for hospice care ferrets

$39 special food for hospice care ferrets

$10 feeding syringes

$448 for ferret food

$91 ferret dietary supplements and

$139 Soupie ingredients

$42 pee pads

$245 laundry soap & cleaning supplies, paper towels

$145 OTC meds and supplies for the hospice care ferrets (including lanolin and diaper rash cream)

$192 Pine pellets for litter

$488 Habitat maintenance and cage repair, including new playpens and cages bought as needed.

$144 Bedding and blankets, stuffed animals and enrichment toys, litter boxes

$1342 Traditional bills like utilities and basic operation bills.

$463 Transportation for veterinary appointments, emergency pick ups, and other transportation needs.

$383 office supplies for educational material we produce and supply to exotic pet families for better care

$527 all pet food bank and habitat exchange program

$473 food, produce, and bedding for the non-ferret residents.

How do we accomplish this? You start by going to Give butter and registering your pledge. Our fundraiser page is https://givebutter.com/n5kIGY.

Then share or copy and paste this post to your Facebook, and other social media pages, and tag friends you want to challenge to help. If they were to do the same, we could be performing miracles every day. (Business pages, please share and tag all your followers).

Please be a blessing to these very deserving pets. They need your help. We need your help. Be the miracle.

#cute animals #animal rescue #animals #ferrets #rats and crafts #cats #bunnies #kittens #funfundraiser #be the miracle

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classysassy9791 · 2 years

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They named her Kagome after finding her injured and unconscious on the subway. Suffering from amnesia, she recuperates under the care of a semi-retired surgeon and a fresh young doctor. But when dark and violent flashes of her past come back to haunt her, Kagome begins to wonder if her past was worth remembering. Especially when a man she doesn't recognize quite literally lunges into her life, accusing her of murder.

Fandom: Inuyasha Genre: Drama, Mystery Pairings: InuKag, MirSan Warning: Dark themes throughout

Chapter 1 Word Count: 3,000 Can also be found on AO3

An ear-splitting bang. A gunshot, she was sure. She had been around firearms long enough to know.

Waking up in a world of unfamiliarity felt bizarre. Her consciousness floated through an empty space filled with thick static, accompanied only by her heartbeat pounding in her ears. She remembered rain, beating on the broken paintjob of cars and falling to form puddles on the curbside. It had been stained red, following the path to her feet and finally cascading into the drain sewer.

Rain soaked through her clothes, dripping off the loose strands of hair pulled free from her messy bun. Tears stained her cheeks. She felt her chest tighten, expelling a choked cry.

A cough sputtered from her lips, her throat scratchy and raw as the taste of iron coated her tongue. Her head felt like it had been hit by a freight train, a high-pitched ringing slowly beginning to assault her ears within moments of awakening. Hazel eyes rolled open, focusing on the blur of objects in the distance. Black and red and yellow.

She absently realized it wasn’t really raining.

Get up.

The glossy black asphalt glimmered with flashing lights, cool against her cheek and the only comfort against the searing pain pulsating through her body. A shaky breath. She swallowed thickly, attempting to make sense of something, even if it was just the simplicity of being alive.

As that thought came and went, she felt a fear deep-set in the pit of her stomach, and she somehow knew it had long ago made a home there. Like a well-acquainted old friend.

You need to get up.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she struggled to concentrate on evening out her breaths. In. Out. Focusing quieted her heartbeat, silencing the buzzing of her thoughts to a still drone that didn’t fabricate her unease. A part of her wanted to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut, the primal instinct for survival. Chaos filled her head and her memories were blurry images, the past a fading dream, and nothing to prove if what she remembered was real.

You need to get up or you’ll die.

And she briefly thought, would that be so terrible?

When Miroku Ishida had decided to go into medicine years ago, he had been warned of the grueling hours that would tap his stamina dry. Perseverance brought him here, but looking back now, he knew he had been very naive, not fully grasping what it would take to complete his residency program and finally follow in his late father’s footsteps to become the surgeon they had both dreamed of.

He had just finished up another forty-eight hour shift, ending with harassment from a patient’s family member, and vomit covering his shoulder from a patient with a bowel obstruction. Tired didn’t even begin to define the ache in his feet. As he walked from the hospital to the nearby subway entrance, he fantasized about arriving home, where a cold beer and fresh bed sheets awaited him. He would be off for the next two days to recharge, and he couldn’t be more grateful for it.

While he waited for the train to arrive, he checked his wristwatch and internally groaned. It was nearly one a.m. on a Friday night, so he knew the majority of the train cars would be filled with obnoxiously drunk and rowdy passengers just leaving the bars and clubs. The hospital he worked at sat in the middle of downtown, not far from the red light district, and thus making the emergency room prime grounds for all the nightlife activity that stumbled in until dawn. Normally, he wouldn’t care, but his train ride would be at least forty minutes, and he wasn’t sure his patience would last that long.

“Buddha, help me,” he murmured as the train pulled up, indeed packed with bodies and howling laughter he could hear before the doors even slid open.

Nevertheless, he pushed his way on and held a bar overhead as the train began moving again. The tight space reeked of alcohol and marijuana. While some of the passengers sat back quietly - probably too drunk to do anything but stay awake - the others were shouting, cursing, and guffawing their way through conversations he couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Not that he cared to know anyway.

Pushing back a growing headache, Miroku moved through the back door to the next car, seeing a similar state greet him. He continued moving down the line of cars, pushing past a woman who grabbed his ass - which he would normally return the flirtation had she not been three sheets to the wind - and an inebriated man who tried picking a fight, which he quickly side-stepped.

Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief when he entered a nearly-empty car, save for an unconscious woman curled up on a pair of plastic seats.

He sat down across the way from her, setting his gray backpack beside him and leaning his head back with a deep sigh. It felt good just to sit. Perhaps he would join his sleeping car-mate and doze off for a while. His phone buzzed, putting that idea to rest, and he fished it out with an annoyed glare.

[He’s gone] the text read.

Miroku furrowed his brows, wondering what prompted him to leave this time. It was one thing to disappear for weeks with barely a word, but he had only returned two nights ago. Leaving so suddenly within such a short time wasn’t his typical routine.

[Did he say why?]

A few minutes passed before his phone buzzed again.

[Does he ever?]

“No, I suppose not,” he murmured. Sighing, he ran a hand over his face and slipped his phone back into his jacket pocket. He could deal with that headache tomorrow. There was no way he could handle his nonsensical behavior at this hour.

His gaze fell on the other passenger, briefly wondering if he should wake her. The train had already stopped several times to let people off, but she hadn’t even stirred. If he had fallen asleep on the train, he would hope someone would wake him so he didn’t miss his stop.

“Hey,” he called out. “When’s your stop?”

There was no response. She didn’t even move.

Miroku climbed to his feet and stepped over to her, but stopped short when he noticed blood pooling on the floor beneath her. Eyes wide, he garnered a quick assessment of her condition. Now that he was closer, he could see how ghostly white her skin was, as well as the make-shift tourniquet from a belt tied around her thigh, her dirty and bloody garments, and the deformity of her shoulder.

“Hey, miss,” he tried again, this time louder and laced with deep concern. “Miss, are you—”

He didn’t have a chance to finish his question before he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. He froze, heart thumping in his ears, as he slowly raised his hands in open submission and met the woman’s leveled glare. Her brown eyes studied him through the haze of sweat and blood that dripped down her brow.

Swallowing thickly, he fought to keep his voice steady. “You’re injured,” he stated calmly, nodding with his head to her mutilated body. “I’m a doctor. I work at a hospital nearby. I can help you.”

Miroku, my friend, you really know how to get yourself into trouble.

He flashed her what he hoped was a friendly smile and took a small step toward her. “They have bandages and medicine there. We can help you get fixed up and-”

“No cops.” Her chest shuddered with each shallow breath, and anyone without a lick of medical knowledge could tell she wasn’t faring well. She again demanded in a raspy voice, “No cops.”

Hesitation crept into his thoughts, wondering what kind of trouble she was in, before she aimed the gun firmly at his head. If he brought her to the hospital, there would undoubtedly be questions and an investigation. He only had one other option, so he hastily agreed. “You have my word. I won’t call the police.”

A battle waged in her gaze before she finally lowered her weapon to her side.

Miroku sighed with relief, but when her eyes fluttered closed again, panic gripped him. “Hey!” he cried out, kneeling down in front of her and laying a hand under her head. “Stay with me!”

She mumbled something incoherent, and he realized she didn’t exactly agree to his help. She simply had no other option. Sweeping his gaze over the area, he made a mental note of her backpack, as well as the trail of blood from the train car doors. She obviously hadn’t been injured here, so he couldn’t readily determine the cause of her injuries or how much blood she had lost. But, the pale color of her skin and her thready pulse when he pressed his fingers to her carotid spoke volumes.

“Hang in there,” he pleaded as he counted how many more stops they had left to go, brushing her dark hair away from her face. “Just hang on.”

The classical electronica melody of ‘Underground’ resonated in the dark bedroom and jolted Kaede awake. She reached out from beneath the covers and blindly fumbled for her cell phone.

“Doctor Miyamoto,” she answered sleepily, the haze of dreamland still hovering thickly.

“Kaede! I need your help!”

She knitted her brow, the urgency of Miroku’s voice helping to shake off the blanket of sleep. “Miroku?” she murmured, reaching over to switch on the lamp and slip on her glasses. “What time is it?”

“I need you to meet me at the clinic!”

Kaede pulled away her phone to glance at the time, an annoyed sigh slipping from her lips as she leaned back against her pillows. “Miroku, it’s nearly two o’clock in the morning. What could be so important?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s an emergency! Please hurry!”

The line went dead as Miroku hung up, leaving Kaede perplexed. Miroku had always been sensible and level-headed regarding all aspects of his life. Hearing the exigency in his tone concerned her, and nervousness started to settle in. “Dammit,” she mumbled as she dragged herself out of bed, stumbling still half-asleep through her room to throw herself together.

Although she missed the old days, being woken up in the middle of the night for an emergency was one thing she could do without.

The crisp night air kept Miroku cool as he hurried toward the clinic, the nameless woman in his arms curled against his chest. Both of their bags were thrown over his shoulders, and although he made sure to stay in shape, he was sorely lacking in endurance. His eyes glanced down at the dark-haired woman, studying her features. She felt light in his arms, a sign of malnutrition, and the dark circles under her eyes spoke of many sleepless nights. Her clothes smelled of smoke, but not like cigarettes; more as if she had been sitting beside a bonfire all evening.

Rounding the last corner, the Miyamoto clinic came into view. The quaint building sat wedged between two other shops on the main artery through town. Dim street lights guided his path to where a soft glow spilled from the windows. Perched just in front of the clinic’s entrance sat its owner, curled up on a bench with a blanket around her shoulders and a cup of freshly brewed coffee in her hands.

“Kaede,” Miroku greeted as he hurried toward the doctor he had awoken rather abruptly.

The elder physician’s gaze shifted between Miroku and the injured woman in his arms. “Miroku, what on earth—”

“Please, hurry,” he said, ignoring her and brushing past her through the front door. He made quick work of making his way to the back room where an exam table was stationed, quickly lying the woman down. She groaned, eyes fluttering between consciousness and oblivion. He didn’t waste any time setting down their bags, shrugging off his coat, and washing his hands at the sink.

Kaede followed after him, dropping her blanket on a chair in the waiting area. Her brown hair had been woven into a messy braid that hung over her left shoulder, strands of gray glinting from the lamp overhead. “Miroku, what’s going on?”

“Kaede,” he addressed as he dried his hands and pulled on a pair of gloves. “I’m sorry for the rude wake-up call, but I found her on the subway. She needs our help.”

She adjusted her glasses and peered over at his patient, taking note of several injuries, before getting to work herself. Now she knew why he had sounded so urgent over the phone and the last bit of tiredness drifted away. “Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?” she demanded in a chastising tone, gathering supplies to start an intravenous line and dress the woman’s wounds. “We’re not equipped to handle traumas!”

He grimaced, nodding to the gun he had taken from her, now sitting on the counter. “She said no police. I had no choice.”

Kaede shot him a warning glare, her bright, brown eyes gleaming suspiciously. “What kind of trouble are you bringing here?” She watched as Miroku expertly gained IV access before hanging a bag of fluids wide open.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, rounding the table to look at her shoulder. “And, I don’t care. She needed my help. I couldn’t leave her.”

“You very well could have!” she argued. “We don’t know anything about her. She could be involved in something dangerous! What if someone followed you?! Now you’ve endangered everyone here!”

He paused for a moment, thinking of the sleeping child he had passed by in the waiting room. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, looking at Kaede with trepidation in his eyes. “I didn’t mean to jeopardize Rin, but I took an oath as a doctor and I plan to uphold that. If you aren’t going to help, please leave the room so I can work.”

Kaede stared at him long and hard. She had taken Miroku under her wing years ago and always knew he was passionate about his profession, but she had never dreamed he would take it this far. Even so, he was right.

She resigned with a sigh. “As soon as she’s stable, she leaves.”

“That’s all I ask.”

Resolve strengthened, Kaede grabbed a pair of scissors to cut away the woman’s clothes so they could work. Midway through cutting the fabric of her shirt, the girl sputtered, eyes rolling open to stare at the elder woman. “Wh-Where—?”

“You’re in good hands, honey,” she soothed, placing a gentle palm on her forehead, her skin cool to the touch. “I’ll draw up some pain medication for you.”

“N-No,” she choked out, pushing Kaede’s hand away, her arm shaking with the effort. “N-No medicine. No narcotics.”

“You can’t be serious,” Miroku called out, brows raising. “Your injuries are very severe. Treatment is going to hurt like hell. If you deny—”

“No,” she said again, her voice firm and resolute. Her eyes, although wincing from the sweat dripping down her brow, gazed back at him, determined.

Kaede and Miroku exchanged glances before the elder doctor sighed. “I see. As you wish.”

Miroku shook his head and grabbed a towel, rolling it up and placing it between his charge’s teeth. “Bite down on this,” he instructed. “Your shoulder is dislocated. I’m going to pop it back into place.”

She did as he said, her distrustful gaze holding his.

“On the count of three. One, two—”

She cried out with a muffled scream as a simultaneous popping sound reached Miroku’s ears. Tears came to her eyes as she choked back a sob.

“Shh,” Miroku soothed, quickly fixing her arm into a makeshift sling. “It’s okay.”

“Not yet,” Kaede murmured, setting her glasses on the bridge of her nose and peering at the bullet hole in the woman’s stomach. “Help me turn her.”

Miroku held the woman close, trying to ignore the way she tensed up while they moved her. Kaede ‘tsk’d’ and then instructed him to set her down again. “It’s a through-and-through, which is good, but I’m still going to have to stitch her up. Not to mention that leg of hers. She’ll die if we don’t stop the bleeding.”

He grimaced, peering down at the woman who still didn’t have a touch of fear in her eyes. She gazed at him hard, a silent agreement passing between them. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, brushing back her bangs, slick with sweat. “This is going to hurt.”

Kaede drew something up into a syringe, the needle tip catching the light, before she moved toward their patient. The woman’s eyes darted between the man who saved her from the train and the doctor who was going to try to save her life. Her chest shuddered with each shallow breath.

Miroku’s hands found hers and squeezed reassuringly, commanding her gaze to his. “We’ve got you,” he promised, attempting to calm the panic her body resonated with.

Tears filled her eyes, but Miroku couldn’t tell if they were caused by her pain or the comfort he unabashedly offered her. “Here we go,” Kaede murmured, gentle hands fluttering over her thigh. “Just some lidocaine to numb the site.”

Although she had declined narcotics, the woman didn’t refuse this small gesture of kindness. Miroku picked up a suture kit as Kaede prepared to sew their charge back together again. It didn’t take long for a whimper to fall from the woman’s lips, and then she fell unconscious.

#inuyasha #kagome #inukag #miroku #sango #mirsan #fanfiction #inuyasha fanfiction #my fanfiction #the closest moment to the dawn #sassy stays classy

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