1 - Day One
Chapter 1: Day One
“V. Fib!”
“I need a crash cart in here!”
“Charging, nurse, get me an intubation kit!” Expert hooves grasped at the tray, ripping the plastic sheeting covering the grim stainless steel tools.
“Sparkle, stop gawking and get down here, now!”
With a jerk, Twilight jolted forward, hovering nervously at bedside as the whine of the defibrillator and the rapid pulse of the ECG echoed around her ears.
“Sparkle, I need you to push one milligram of epi, now!”
Twilight grabbed the needle and prepared to plunge the tip into the patient’s leg. Inexplicably she froze, her hoof hanging mere inches from the stallion’s leg. There was something wrong. What was it?
“Sparkle if you don’t do it now, get the nurse to. We don’t have time for—“
Shaking her head viciously, Twilight plunged the needle into his leg and depressed the plunger. She retracted the needle as the attending nodded at the nurse and grabbed the paddles. The nurse held back the oxygen bag, clutching it to her chest as the paddles came down on the contacts.
“Clear!” he yelled and stallion jerked in the bed.
“Not effective, bag on, charging! Sparkle get on his chest!”
Twilight pushed down with her hooves, frantically counting the digits.
“One, two, three, four—”
“Alright, one more time. Clear!”
Stumbling back, she watched as the paddles came down and once again the stallion jerked in the bed.
“Bag, Sparkle— hold it! I’m getting sinus!” The paddles hovered for a few moments, then clattered onto the stand. Relief flooded through Twilight like a potent drug. It all seemed unreal. She looked at her hooves. Did she just save a life?
“Good work everypony, we managed to delay his date with Death for a few hours.” His smirk whiplashed back to its usual frown as he spotted Twilight. “Sparkle, with me.”
Exhausted and dazed, Twilight followed the attending as he strode into an empty patient room. He waited for her to enter and then slammed the door.
“What the hell were you thinking, jabbing the patient with epi?”
“I-I thought I got the artery,” Twilight stammered, she quickly reviewed the scenario going through the steps. She cleared the needle, made sure there wasn’t any bubbles and then located the artery, administering the drug. It was right, wasn’t it?
“What in Tartarus did they teach you in med school? If you miss the artery you’re going to waste time the patient doesn’t have, that’s what the i.v. is for! Another thing, why were you using your hooves? You have magic and I didn’t see you scrub on the way in. If there was an infection following this crash who’s fault do you think it’ll be?”
“I—”
“Quiet, Sparkle. These errors are beyond rookie. If you can’t remember any of these simple procedures you’re going to kill somepony. I sure as heck don’t want to be here when that happens and I won’t have any of my patients caught up in that. If you can’t handle the pressure, get out of the hospital. This isn’t school anymore, this is about lives. You make a mistake and somepony’s going to die.”
The attending stalked out of the room, throwing open the door with such force that it rattled loudly against the wall.
Twilight stood alone in the room, trying desperately to keep from shedding the tears that were threatening to leak out.
It was her first day, barely minutes in and she'd already made a grievous mistake.
It seemed unreal when the day came for her first clinical rotation. Hours ago, a passing pony would not have recognised the mare, so different she was to her usual enthusiastic fervour for the medical sciences. Before she would have suppressed the urge to squeal for joy, now all she wanted to do was sit alone and cry.
She knew how she had gotten into medicine. She knew when it was the first time she had seen it and known her calling.
She wondered what her life would have been like, if she hadn’t met that doctor…
—————
“Twilight, we’re very proud of you. You’ve been practicing very hard for today.” Hooves gripped her shoulder. Amethyst eyes locked with her own. “Are you sure you really want this?”
Twilight nodded. More than anything she wanted to study magic. The gentle music of busking musician filtered across the square. Everything was so lively and energetic, like she was in one of those discos that her dad talks about all the time.
“Come on, Twilight, honey, you have to eat up.”
Twilight pouted. “I can’t,” she warbled, shivering slightly. “I’m too nervous.”
Twilight Velvet stroked a hoof down the filly’s hair.
“Oh honey, don’t be nervous, it’s only a test—“
A scream pierced through the square.
Muttering spread through the tables like wildfire. The collective clink of a dozen or so cups and the scraping sounds of an equal amount of chairs accompanied them as curious ponies joined in with onlookers peeking at the commotion.
“I wonder what’s happening?” Twilight Velvet muttered, getting up from her chair as well.
“Is… Is he dead?” a voice rang out.
“No he’s not you idiot, he’s breathing. Somepony call for help!”
The flutter of a pegasus taking off barely registered with Twilight as she spotted the problem through a brief gap in the crowd.
“Is anypony here a doctor?”
“I am. Get back, I need some space.” The pony put his head to the patient’s chest.
“Do something!” a shrill voice yelled.
“Ma’am step back, I need to make a diagnosis.”
“He’s dying! Help him!” Hooves in the crowd reluctantly dragged at a mare frantically trying to reach the downed stallion on the ground.
The doctor nodded to himself and scanned around the crowd. His eyes alighted upon Twilight.
“You there,” he said, as Velvet’s hooves clasped protectively around her filly.
“Don’t worry,” he told them personably. A hoof reached out to Twilight. “I just need this.”
Twilight felt something come loose in her mane. The doctor held in his hooves a hollow glass pin. The pin that had been holding her mane up. He carefully broke the ends off, shooting Twilight an apologetic glance in the process.
Aligning it carefully under the rib, the Doctor raised his hooves and punctured the chest. With a sucking sound, the stallion drew in a breath. His bulging eyes relaxed and his grasping limbs slowed and eventually stopped. The Doctor, with sweat-slicked brow and tired eyes, examined his patient one last time. Taking a deep breath and noisily blowing it out in a sigh, he finally smiled.
“He’ll live,” he declared. “But we need to get him to the hospital.”
The mare, only moments struggling to free herself, sagged in relief.
“Thank you,” she babbled. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
The Doctor laid a hoof on her shoulders and gave a simple nod.
“I’ll make sure he gets the care he needs, but I need to ask you a few questions…”
His voice was lost in the murmurs as the previously silent spectators broke up and chattered excitedly at the unexpected drama that had graced their day.
Twilight felt a tug on her shoulder, but she resisted the motion, still staring at the glass tube, somehow allowing the poor stallion to breathe.
“Doctor Pulse? Thank you.”
Twilight glanced up, finally allowing her mother to pull her away. Doctor Pulse.
—————
“Sparkle! You’re still in here?”
Twilight twitched. Her eyes flying to the attending’s. He scowled, dragging her by her arm.
“Do I have to do everything for you interns? Get the foley catheter and set it up on patient at bed 368.” Piercing blue eyes gazed into her own. “This is a test, Sparkle. This is not about doing, it’s about making judgements and carrying through with them. Live with the consequences, but always keep moving forward. Remember why you’re here.” He glanced around, then leaned in, his voice a whisper. “Don’t disappoint me… Doctor.”
Twilight set her jaw, her posture straightening.
“I won’t, Doctor Pulse.”