musesandlyrics | 8.11. He Ain't Heavy lyrics
8.11. It's a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we're on the way to there
Why not share
And the load
Doesn't weigh me down at all
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
He Ain't Heavy - The Hollies
[Follows THIS and THIS]
It was expected to go so smoothly. Despite the fast-tracked nature of the whole pending procedure, the team couldn’t have been more prepared for it if they tried. Everything was in place, with both patients really unable to be prepped for the routine more efficiently. The only thing Bella may have changed was sedated Chris before wheeling him into the OR. As soon as the patient/surgeon was in there, he seemed wired to get involved and his coping mechanism for being the one on the table was to interrogate every surgeon that was going to lay a finger on him about everything from the size of scalpel to what brand of adrenaline was in their crash cart. It was amusing, even up to the elusive Genius Cowboy told them all to go fuck themselves right before the anesthetic kicked in and he was out, finally awarding them some peace. Of course, he had made them promise not to talk about him when he was unconscious, so they didn’t have the luxury of snickering about his antics once he was asleep and with Serena just a few feet away managing to looking extremely menacing in her surgical mask despite her stature, none of them would have dared to say anything out of order during Chris’ procedure anyway.
The two adjoining Operating Rooms were in action at a smooth pace. The first step was to get Chris opened up and the kidney out while the second team in the parallel OR started working on Rick, cutting him open and prepping him for Chris’ kidney. There should never have been a hitch, and surgeries like this were performed all the time without any complications, just like both Deleo brothers had been assured many times by many different people in the lead up to it. From where she was standing in Rick’s OR, Bella could see both Rick lying on the table just a short distance away from her, and Chris through the large mirror, both teams working intently. She could see as Chris’ kidney was removed and placed carefully into the receptacle dish, and she could see Serena watching, and looking like she was getting a little emotional at the sight of her boyfriend losing a body part. The only thing was, she was more than aware she couldn’t hug him or touch him despite that. It was never going to be an easy thing for her to watch, and Bella kept a close eye on her to make sure she would be okay, and she seemed to pull it all back together after the initial shock of the sight.
In fact, it was all going to smoothly, that the surgeons working on both men and conversing over an intercom to keep up on the progress began to comment optimistically on how successful a procedure it would be, considering both lads were so fit and healthy. But it was almost like flicking a switch. As soon as those words were passed between the two teams of surgeons, Chris started to have a massive bleed in the surgical cavity and his blood pressure dropped rapidly. They tried to suction the blood, but it just continued to flow and before they located the site of the bleed, Chris’ monitors started to beep loudly in warning, taking everyone in both ORs by complete shock. In took a couple of beats for anyone to even manage to cotton on to the fact he had gone into cardiac arrest and his blood pressure was still dropping at an alarming rate.
The team of surgeons in Rick’s OR had stopped abruptly to see what was going on, despite the fact they now had a healthy kidney in their midst, but they had no choice but to continue with the transplant despite the emergency in the connecting room. In a panic of her own, Bella could see a nurse holding Serena back from reflexively getting in to help with Chris’ arrest, and without a second thought, knowing Rick would want it, Bella bolted into the next OR so she could go up to Serena and wrap her arms around her in a firm hug to at least try and get her to calm down. It took three shocks to get Chris’ heart beating again, Bella telling Serena over and over again that she had to let them do their job. It was unexpected, and a complication no one could have seen coming, but the surgeons quickly realised that somewhere in the early stages of the surgery in cutting the arteries and removing the kidney, Chris’ abdominal aorta had been nicked, likely by a scalpel, and that was causing the massive haemorrhage in the surgical site. The lack of blood from the aorta to the heart sent him into cardiac arrest and a quick decision was made to open him up further to repair the rupture, or he would inevitably die from blood loss.
Both brothers had given their own blood prior to the surgery in case there were complications like this, and a blood transfusion was starting to be administered to Chris when the head transplant surgeon ordered all student and observers out of the OR... including Bella and Serena. They had no choice but to leave and Serena was nearly in hysterics as she got led out, knowing she had promised Chris she would stay there with him. The only thing Bella could do was get Lisa paged to get her to get Drew down to the OR and scrubbed up so he could be with Serena in the waiting area while Bella went back into Rick’s surgery. She was his oncologist and she had to be in there... and she had made her own promise.
Rick’s surgery went without a hitch, but her view of Chris’ OR had been obscured by blinds as they continued to work on him. She had no idea what was going on, and the need to separate the two procedures at that point was vital so the transplant team didn’t screw up getting the kidney in Rick. Bella stayed with Rick the whole time and followed him into Recovery. She wasn’t going to leave his side, she swore to this. Once she was out of the OR, she had the luxury of accessing information while she waited for Rick to wake up. As she stood there with her pager in her hand at his bedside, watching the first signs of him waking, she sighed and dropped her head down, closing her eyes briefly to prepare herself.
How the hell was she supposed to tell him his brother’s life was hanging in the balance?
Word Count | 1,110
From which there is no return
While we're on the way to there
Why not share
And the load
Doesn't weigh me down at all
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
He Ain't Heavy - The Hollies
[Follows THIS and THIS]
It was expected to go so smoothly. Despite the fast-tracked nature of the whole pending procedure, the team couldn’t have been more prepared for it if they tried. Everything was in place, with both patients really unable to be prepped for the routine more efficiently. The only thing Bella may have changed was sedated Chris before wheeling him into the OR. As soon as the patient/surgeon was in there, he seemed wired to get involved and his coping mechanism for being the one on the table was to interrogate every surgeon that was going to lay a finger on him about everything from the size of scalpel to what brand of adrenaline was in their crash cart. It was amusing, even up to the elusive Genius Cowboy told them all to go fuck themselves right before the anesthetic kicked in and he was out, finally awarding them some peace. Of course, he had made them promise not to talk about him when he was unconscious, so they didn’t have the luxury of snickering about his antics once he was asleep and with Serena just a few feet away managing to looking extremely menacing in her surgical mask despite her stature, none of them would have dared to say anything out of order during Chris’ procedure anyway.
The two adjoining Operating Rooms were in action at a smooth pace. The first step was to get Chris opened up and the kidney out while the second team in the parallel OR started working on Rick, cutting him open and prepping him for Chris’ kidney. There should never have been a hitch, and surgeries like this were performed all the time without any complications, just like both Deleo brothers had been assured many times by many different people in the lead up to it. From where she was standing in Rick’s OR, Bella could see both Rick lying on the table just a short distance away from her, and Chris through the large mirror, both teams working intently. She could see as Chris’ kidney was removed and placed carefully into the receptacle dish, and she could see Serena watching, and looking like she was getting a little emotional at the sight of her boyfriend losing a body part. The only thing was, she was more than aware she couldn’t hug him or touch him despite that. It was never going to be an easy thing for her to watch, and Bella kept a close eye on her to make sure she would be okay, and she seemed to pull it all back together after the initial shock of the sight.
In fact, it was all going to smoothly, that the surgeons working on both men and conversing over an intercom to keep up on the progress began to comment optimistically on how successful a procedure it would be, considering both lads were so fit and healthy. But it was almost like flicking a switch. As soon as those words were passed between the two teams of surgeons, Chris started to have a massive bleed in the surgical cavity and his blood pressure dropped rapidly. They tried to suction the blood, but it just continued to flow and before they located the site of the bleed, Chris’ monitors started to beep loudly in warning, taking everyone in both ORs by complete shock. In took a couple of beats for anyone to even manage to cotton on to the fact he had gone into cardiac arrest and his blood pressure was still dropping at an alarming rate.
The team of surgeons in Rick’s OR had stopped abruptly to see what was going on, despite the fact they now had a healthy kidney in their midst, but they had no choice but to continue with the transplant despite the emergency in the connecting room. In a panic of her own, Bella could see a nurse holding Serena back from reflexively getting in to help with Chris’ arrest, and without a second thought, knowing Rick would want it, Bella bolted into the next OR so she could go up to Serena and wrap her arms around her in a firm hug to at least try and get her to calm down. It took three shocks to get Chris’ heart beating again, Bella telling Serena over and over again that she had to let them do their job. It was unexpected, and a complication no one could have seen coming, but the surgeons quickly realised that somewhere in the early stages of the surgery in cutting the arteries and removing the kidney, Chris’ abdominal aorta had been nicked, likely by a scalpel, and that was causing the massive haemorrhage in the surgical site. The lack of blood from the aorta to the heart sent him into cardiac arrest and a quick decision was made to open him up further to repair the rupture, or he would inevitably die from blood loss.
Both brothers had given their own blood prior to the surgery in case there were complications like this, and a blood transfusion was starting to be administered to Chris when the head transplant surgeon ordered all student and observers out of the OR... including Bella and Serena. They had no choice but to leave and Serena was nearly in hysterics as she got led out, knowing she had promised Chris she would stay there with him. The only thing Bella could do was get Lisa paged to get her to get Drew down to the OR and scrubbed up so he could be with Serena in the waiting area while Bella went back into Rick’s surgery. She was his oncologist and she had to be in there... and she had made her own promise.
Rick’s surgery went without a hitch, but her view of Chris’ OR had been obscured by blinds as they continued to work on him. She had no idea what was going on, and the need to separate the two procedures at that point was vital so the transplant team didn’t screw up getting the kidney in Rick. Bella stayed with Rick the whole time and followed him into Recovery. She wasn’t going to leave his side, she swore to this. Once she was out of the OR, she had the luxury of accessing information while she waited for Rick to wake up. As she stood there with her pager in her hand at his bedside, watching the first signs of him waking, she sighed and dropped her head down, closing her eyes briefly to prepare herself.
How the hell was she supposed to tell him his brother’s life was hanging in the balance?
Word Count | 1,110