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The limosine pulled up to the emergency entrance. A frantic man in robes emerged as he picked up a bleeding, pregnant woman from the back seat. His identity was no secret but it was the first time the medical staff at Canaria Medical had seen him this way.
She was unconscious and bleeding and he was wearing it.
"Someone clear the way to the OR!" he screamed.
"What the hell is wrong, Doc?" asked an attending doctor.
"She's bleeding and she's 6 months pregnant with twins," he hollered, "Dammit, clear the way!"
Carrying his wife, Doc walked as fast as he could to the O.R. As he did, the attending doctor paged the attending surgeon, "Dr. Naggers, report to O.R. 5. Dr. Naggers, report to O.R. 5. You have an emergency."
As she entered the room, her coat covered the dress she was wearing from an engagement.
When she saw a bloodied John Holliday, the man who taught her much, frantically trying to help his wife, the smile ran from her face. She then turned to a nurse on her staff, "Get her ready!"
She then got in front of her mentor and pushed him back, "John...JOHN!! You are in no shape to help her. Please, let me do it! She'll be fine! Please, John, go out and collect yourself. I'll get you when I can."
He knew Doreen and trusted her implicitly. As she plead with him, his resistance weakened into emotions. As he cried in fear of his wife, he just replied, "Take good care of them, Doreen. She's got twins inside."
She nodded, "I will." With that, he left the room, finding a place of solace away from everyone else.
Doreen wasted no time as she ran scans of his wife. With twins at six months, her belly was large and firm, the stress causing internal rupturing and hemorrhaging. The bloody kibuki was removed and Doreen finished her scans. "I have no choice," she said, "we go in now. Get two incubators ready and plenty of type B blood."
As she scrubbed up, the team got things together. By the time Dr. Naggers returned, the prep was done.
She began her work. All the while, she remembered who she was working on....the wife of the man who taught her much of what she knew. She also knew that she was in rough shape having lost a lot of blood.
So far, the team was doing well to keep her alive with blood transfusions.
"Vitals holding weak but steady, Doctor," announced an attending nurse.
Within twenty minutes, both twins had been removed by c-section and placed in incubation. Both were alive but would need time in those incubators to develop. They were small, only about 2 pounds, 4 ounces each but they were alive. Once the twins were delivered, the team went to save the life of the mother. Several hours later, they had done so but she was left in a coma due to heavy blood loss. She lay resting. When Doreen was finished, she went to speak with her mentor.
"John," she said softly as she approached him from a blind spot with a serious face.
"Doreen," he answered in a voice from a very tired man, "what can you tell me?"
"Well, I'm sorry I pushed you away......," she began.
"No, Doreen, no apology needed," Doc interrupted, "You did the right thing. I did it to you and Benjen if you remember."
"I do, John," she answered, "Listen, the twins are alive and in incubation where they must remain." She forced a small smile, "Congrats, on your new son and daughter."
"One of each," he said, ".....nice. And their mother?"
She just spoke as he had taught her, honestly and to the point, "John, she's alive but comatose. She lost a lot of blood before she got here. A small framed woman with twins that far along tore her up inside. She hemorrhaged in her uterus. I fixed it but now.....it's not up to me."
Doc nodded and leaned against the wall where he just began to shake his head and softly mutter "no," over and over.
For the time, Doreen put aside being a doctor and became a friend, "John, come here." As only a good friend could, she hugged him, trying to take the pain away, to take the despair away. In a small way, it was return for the many hugs he gave her when she found herself without a family and only an infant son of her own to tend to.