Mentor Sent Me to Surgery, Barrage Warned "No"

Chapter 2

The young nurse was already getting annoyed with me.

"What are you still hesitating for at the door at a time like this? Dr. Andre is more than qualified to teach you. What are you even worried about?"

The pregnant woman's family members standing nearby put themselves in the same situation, and they were shooting daggers at me, practically seething with hostility.

"Where did this doctor even come from? She's so unprofessional! Dragging her feet over performing a surgery, how are we supposed to trust your hospital?"

Andre jumped on those two comments immediately. "You heard that, Yolanda? If you don't cooperate with me today, I'll mark you as failed on your assessment report right away and ask the director to fire you!"

Now the nurse was really panicking. She jabbed me hard in the side with her elbow, thud.

"What is wrong with you today? You know how much authority a preceptor has, right? Do you even want to keep working here?!"

I didn't say a word. I just grabbed her hand and started heading straight for the operating room.

Standing at the doorway, the harsh, bright lights from inside the OR flooded out, making it impossible to make out what was going on at the operating table.

All I could smell was the thick, coppery stench of blood, and I could just make out the shape of a woman lying motionless on the table, her whole body completely still.

Before I could step inside, Andre blocked my path. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"To do the surgery, all three of us together."

"I didn't give her permission to come in. The two of us are more than enough for this procedure."

"That's against protocol. Do you really think the patient will feel safe having only two people responsible for her surgery?"

Andre's face turned livid with rage, his temper flaring completely out of control.

"What is your problem, Yolanda? I'm your preceptor! Do you really think you have more experience than I do?! Or are you just a total hack who's been faking it this whole time, and you can't even help me with a simple surgery?"

As soon as those words left his mouth, all the family members cut me a new look, eyes sharp with doubt now.

"No way? What kind of doctors is this hospital even hiring these days?"

"With skills like that, how can we trust her with our family member's life?"

The nurse's face burned bright red at the comments, and she turned to plead with me.

"Yolanda, what has gotten into you today? Why are you picking a fight with Andre for no reason?!"

The commotion got louder and louder, drawing the attention of Ramil from the pharmacy, who stopped to watch the drama unfold for a minute.

Seeing that neither side was backing down, he stepped forward and curled his lip at me in disdain.

"I swear, I don't know what the hospital's hiring process even looks like these days. They'll let any random new hire walk through the door.

"You're not actually as bad as Andre says, are you? Some half-baked newbie who can't even assist with a basic surgery?"

I was thrown right into the eye of the storm, with accusations flying at me from every direction.

Seeing this, Andre puffed out his chest even more, arrogance surging off him in waves.

"Cut the crap, Yolanda. I don't want to make things hard for you. Just come in with me and finish the surgery, and there won't be any trouble for you."

Then he glanced at the crowd of anxious family members hovering around them.

"As long as I'm here, I swear no unqualified doctor will slip through the cracks at this hospital. If Yolanda really messes up during the surgery later, as her attending preceptor, I'll fire her on the spot."

People in the comments were so ticked off at his audacity they could only laugh bitterly.

A: [The patient's already dead! If that girl goes in there alone with you, she'll end up taking the fall for a dead body. You think firing her will even be the worst thing that happens to her?]

B: [There are no cameras in regular operating rooms or patient rooms here, and the fetus and mother died at different times. The second you let her walk in there, she'll never be able to clear her name for the rest of her life.]

A cold chill shot down my spine.

I didn't let that stop me. I stepped around Andre, reaching for the nurse's hand to pull her inside with me.

Andre flew into a rage, fingers snicking around my arm, clamping down so hard it felt like he was about to crush my bones.

"I said, you're not bringing her in!"

That sharp, furious roar made both the nurse and Ramil, who'd been taking his side just a second ago, freeze dead in their tracks.

"Andre? What's with the attitude? Why are you being so harsh?"