"Are you happy now? Go and be at peace. Your grievances, I'll collect them one by one. I'll let them get a taste of their own medicine." Luo Jingyi whispered as if someone's around listening to her.
Her grandmother had once told her, the souls of people who died with grievances will linger on Earth, unhappy to depart. Hence, people would offer something to appease them. Although there's no scientific explanation, there's nothing wrong with believing in it.
The original host called Luo Jingyi died unjustly in the hands of Chen family. The original suspected that they were behind her sister's death. She secretly investigated but they killed her first.
She, as the soul who entered this body, believed that the original host and her life were intertwined by fate and past grievances. And she came to this world full of them. Everything that happened was still fresh in her mind like it just happened yesterday. That boundless pain of being tortured internally. Her heart bled as she watched her family killed one by one. There's that poison that tore every inch of her flesh with brandished claws. Then, she died. But when she opened them again, a new world opened to her. It was perplexing to the point she thought she'd gone crazy.
By reflex, she pushed the nail on her index finger to her thumb, marking the white skin with red. The pain helped her calm her nerves.
Her eyes fell on the books on the table that the assistant managed to put after Chen Guozhi threw everything on the floor. The books were a constant reminder that she needs to keep learning to perfect her craft. The original's memory was intact. However, in the world of medicine, one needed to work harder than everyone else.
All of a sudden, there was a beep from her pager.
....
The sound of someone being paged over the intercom and sirens pulling up outside wafted her ears when Luo Jingyi arrived at the emergency room.
"Doctor Luo, do you want anything for dinner?" The nurse who was pulling the curtains aside to cover the patient who was about to have rectal examination asked. She tried even though she knew that Dr. Luo would refuse like she did a dozen times.
A furtive glance on her watch told her it's already 5 in the afternoon. She originally intended to finish her report and go grab something to eat. But that was 3 hours ago.
"No—" she refused but suddenly remembered something. "Sure. Get me something healthy." Luo Jingyi said as she breezed in the trauma bay. This left the nurse wondering what happened to Dr. Luo today that she actually accepted her offer.
Meanwhile, as the paramedic was wheeling in a patient, a junior resident asked, "What do we have?"
"Yun Jian, 16-year-old male, GSWs to the abdomen. Unresponsive." He responded as he pushed the stretcher to the trauma bay, leaving squeaking sound as it glides on the floor.
"How long has it been?" Luo Jingyi asked the EMT who was performing chest compressions.
"12 minutes."
Time wasn't wasted in idling. The minute the teenager was transferred to the bed, he was swarmed by residents and nurses. They checked for a pulse at the neck, groin, and wrist. Supplies were being yanked from protective packaging as a nurse was putting IV's and pressure cuffs. Someone was cutting the blood-soaked clothes with surgical scissors. It happened all simultaneously.
One by one, they called out. "No pulse."
They all looked at Jingyi, waiting for her to make the decision. But it wasn't something she would contemplate further. Although the protocol states that if a patient with a penetrating trauma doesn't respond after 15 minutes of CPR, the patient is considered dead. But in her heart she knew, she must save him. As a person who died once, she will not resign to that fate. Her mantra, no patient is going to die on her trauma bay.
"Let's open him." Her voice was flat and cold.
Betadine was splashed over the patient's chest by a nurse before Jingyi grabbed a scalpel and quickly cut laterally along the left side of the chest. That's from the breastbone all the way around her back. A quick assessment told her, the bullet did damage to his abdomen.
Luo Jingyi then plunged her hands in between ribs and spread them before placing a retractor to hold them open. As time ticks every second, Jingyi moved in speed.
"Give him epinephrine," Jingyi ordered while she put the vascular clamp on the aorta to shut the blood flow to all except to the heart and brain.
Dr. Lin injected epinephrine into his left ventricle to stimulate the patient's heart. After that, Jingyi used her hands and massaged the heart.
"Intern B!" She called the attention of a first-year resident who stood frozen on the sides.
"I'm here." A woman raised her hand.
"Start the transfusion! Don't just stand there!"
"Blue girl, put a tube in his chest." She was called Blue girl because of her hair.
Jingyi ordered this because she's worried the lung had collapsed on his right chest. Blue girl moved but Intern B was struggling to get a line. In the end, it was the nurse who did it and started giving warm blood to the patient.
After an unknown amount of time, there was a faint beat.
"Another dose of epinephrine."
After it was injected, she continued what she was doing until a minute later, the heart was beating normally.
"We've got him back. Call the OR. Let's go."
The OR team was alerted immediately by the OR nurse. While the others pushed the trauma room bed to the OR. Ample amounts of blood were dripping and leaving unsightly trails on the floor.
He was immediately prepped. Jingyi stepped forward and an OR tech draped her with a surgical gown and an OR nurse put her gloves on.
However, she was stopped in her tracks when she saw one intern hovering over the operating table without wearing caps and masks. Her blood boiled instantly.
"Put your damn masks on!"
The head nurse shook her head and when she turned, the other OR nurse gave her that knowing look. They were both thinking of the same thing.
'How long will it take before the interns collapsed from Dr. Luo's wrath?'
Meanwhile, Luo Jingyi who has quite a reputation for terrorizing interns walked to the operating table. A sterile drape was already on Yun Jian.
As she reached for the scalpel, she told everyone, "Let's save him at any cost."
Everyone nodded, which Jingyi didn't see because she was already cutting through the skin on the abdomen. Then through the fascia and muscles next.
Jingyi opened to an abdomen full of blood. Dr. Lin who was assisting Jingyi started packing in surgical sponges to absorb the blood so that Jingyi could figure out the source.
As everyone did their roles inside the OR, intern B and blue girl were observing on the sides.
"Not good." Intern B whispered so loud that it echoed to Jingyi's ears.
Everyone's attention was suddenly on her.
"What?" The intern asked because she doesn't know why everyone was looking at her.
Suddenly, the intern felt chills down her spine.
Luo Jingyi gave her a chilling stare and muttered, "Shut up."