Who: Dr. Dhamiria Otieno and Dr. Lalita Singh. Where: The ER, UMCB. What: A spat between coworkers on who gets to be the hero turns into neither one getting their way. When: December 9, 2019.
Try to take me down I'll be right up Cause you aim too low And I've had enough Always been top rated You think you can change it?
Lita walked into the E.R. like she owned it. Even though she was technically out of her department, she was a surgeon; cutting was her art and the hospital had just admitted a canvas for her. Even though it was technically an emergency, a ruptured appendix was smack dab in the center of general surgery territory, which meant that Lita, as lead general surgeon currently on shift, should take lead. She didn’t begrudge the trauma doctors or what they did; their work was an integral part of how the hospital worked. If you went to med school to put in chest tubes and place central lines all the live long day, that was your prerogative but when it came down to it, the primary goal of E.R. physicians was to do whatever they can to stabilize patients. Their whole deal was to keep patients alive long enough to the proper treatment from the various, specialized departments. Sure, one of the trauma doctors could technically perform the appendectomy but why let them when a veritable artist like Lita was right in the wings? You couldn’t get more proper treatment than that.
Lita bellied up to the large, industrial sink in the room right off of the E.R.. She recognized the head of the department, Dr. Otieno, scrubbing in next to her. Lita didn’t know much about the woman other than she had strolled in from Denver to take over one of the most busy departments in the hospital. From what Lita had heard about her, she was an exemplary doctor and was very well-respected amongst her patients and peers. Still, no matter how amazing she was, she wasn’t Lita and that meant she wasn’t the person for the job at hand.
“Thanks for stabilizing my appendectomy,” Lita said brusquely. Her tone lacked all any of the appropriate sentiment of her statement. “I’ll take over from here.”
“Excuse me?” Ria looked over at Dr. Singh. She knew the other woman was a talented surgeon, one of the best the hospital had, but that by no means gave her any right to swoop in and assume control of this surgery. “Like hell you will.” It might not have been the most professional response, but Ria had been with this patient for hours now and felt like they were her responsibility -- she wasn’t about to hand the cause off to a doctor who might not even know the patient’s first name.
Call it a pride thing or a territorial thing, but this patient had come into her E.R. and Ria was already way too invested to just hand the case over. “Dr. Singh, right?” Ria began, managing a level of professionalism she had not had a moment before. Lita arched a single, perfect eyebrow and after a long moment, nodded once. “I understand you’re a skilled doctor, but this is my patient and I intend to keep it that way.” she continued to scrub up as she spoke, never once faltering in the usual pre-surgery routine she had. Surgeons tried to do this all the time, assume they could handle a case better than a trauma doctor, but Ria had long ago stopped being intimidated by them.
“So, I’m not sure who called you in to take over, but I have this handled.” Ria’s tone made it clear this wasn’t some kind of negotiation. Dr. Singh was not scrubbing in on her surgery and that was finale -- at least in Ria’s book.
Lita blinked at the woman, her expression quickly turning from mild annoyance to downright dislike.
“Nobody had to call me,” Lita replied, blatantly ignoring her coworker’s assertion that this was her patient by continuing to scrub in. “It’s an appi. Therefore, it’s under my purview. It’s, like, the epitome of general surgery.” Lita pursed her lips. Lita had been a doctor at the UMCB since before the outbreak had overtaken the city and the greater United States. She was an OG here; part of the old, established guard and as such, most of her colleagues knew to give her a wide berth. It was generally understood that it was easier just to let her do what she wanted as opposed to arguing with her but apparently, this Denver doc hadn’t gotten the memo. Lita had to admit, Dr. Otieno was no pushover; however, they were both women of science and medicine. The pair of them likely lived their lives with a similar set of rules and standards so maybe if Lita used basic logic, Dr. Otieno might be persuaded to see her way.
“Listen, it isn’t like I’m snaking some glamorous surgery away from you,” Lita reasoned, rubbing the soap up to her elbows. “It’s an appendectomy. It’s, like, the dry toast of surgeries. I do them all the time; I could do one in my sleep. Really, I’m doing you a favor.”
Lita offered what might have passed for a smile under friendlier circumstances; in this one, however, it came off more like a sneer. Dr. Otieno should be thanking her lucky stars that Lita’s morning had been slow and she had nothing else on her plate. She could be like any other doc, taking advantage of the free time to catch up on paperwork or snag a quick nap in one of the on-call rooms but no. Here she was, busting her ass to go above and beyond the call of duty, and she was catching flack for it?
“Would you like to tell that teenage girl out there on the table that her surgery is like dry toast to you?” Ria sneered, clearly not impressed by Dr. Singh’s assessment of just how unglamorous and routine this surgery was. Lita knew she should probably feel guilty about Dr. Otieno calling her out on her assessment of the surgery but really didn’t. Appendectomies were her bread and butter so as good as she was at them, there was no denying that they were boring and predictable as hell. There was no changing that. Though, when she thought about it, it might be possible that just because Lita felt that way, Dr. Otieno didn’t. She probably didn’t get to do all that many surgeries all that often so an appendectomy might be a chance for her to do something exciting and different with her day. Even if that were the case, Lita still wanted the appi. Maybe she was being selfish, or territorial, but she never claimed that she was anything otherwise.
“I don’t need you do me any favors, because I don’t give a damn about glamorous surgeries or accolades,” Ria paused. “What, or more appropriately who, I do give a damn about is that girl who came into my emergency room in critical condition and I promised her father I wouldn’t leave his daughter’s side.” Which was why she wasn’t just going to step aside while a surgeon -- even if Dr. Singh was the best surgeon they had in the whole hospital -- shove her aside.
They were obviously at a stalemate here. Logic said that Ria should have let Dr. Singh take over and she could return to the emergency room and the next critical case that came rushing through her doors. But that wasn’t the sort of doctor that she was. If she made a promise, she kept it. The patient on their table wasn’t just another appi, something that could be done in someone’s sleep. She was a daughter, an older sister.
“Now, are we done wasting time here?” Ria questioned as she began to rinse off the soap from her arms. There was a no nonsense tone to her voice, one that her staff knew meant she was done discussing this. Dr. Singh wasn’t one of her staff, though. Which meant Ria’s guards were still up and her expression was still stony as she stared down the other doctor as she neared the end of her pre-surgery prep.
Lita didn’t back down from Dr. Otieno’s stare but she sure as hell felt it. It was almost enough to make her question her decision to take the surgery...almost.
“Why don’t we ask the father then?” Lita asked, playing to Dr. Otieno’s very apparent moral compass. They had time -- not alot of time -- but enough to run the query by the family. It might have been more than a little underhanded but Lita was nothing if not opportunistic when she wanted to get her way.
“That takes the decision out of our hands,” Lita continued, sounding reasonable to her own ears. “And then that way, neither of us can argue with the verdict.”
Ria had to hand it Dr. Singh, she didn’t back down easy. Still, whatever respect that earned her from the head of the emergency room didn’t cancel out the fact that the other doctor was trying to swoop in on her surgery. Plus, she had more than a little faith that if it came down to asking the father or her patient who should do the surgery he would choose the doctor he was familiar with.
“Why don’t we,” Ria replied while she gestured towards the door that would lead them out to the hallway and over to the waiting room. “After you, Dr. Singh.” She continued, keeping her tone even while she waited for the other doctor to move towards the door.
“Why thank you, Dr. Otieno,” Lita simpered, insincerity dripping from every syllable. She turned to the nearby scrub nurse to help her pull a pair of latex gloves over her clean hands and and arms. She waited for Dr. Otieno to do the same before she pushed the swinging door open with her butt so as to not contaminate the sterile area.
Maybe she shouldn’t have been as sure as she was that the patient’s father would choose her over Dr. Singh, after all the latter was a surgeon. But Ria had been the one to assure him that his daughter would be fine, that she was in capable hands and Ria wouldn’t leave her side. That kind of support had to hold some sway, right? This wasn’t a pride thing or even an ego thing, it was the pure fact that she didn’t like handing over her patients to other people, not after making a promise like the one she had.
“Leaving no room to argue the verdict is in fact the most logical way to handle this.” Ria added, not willing to admit that they were both likely wasting time with this little tiff.
“Oh, I couldn’t agree more,” she replied, already feeling like she won. No one in their right mind would choose an ER doc over a gifted surgeon, unless the father of this girl was a complete moron. But, then again, Lita did sometimes underestimate people’s stupidity. Suddenly Lita didn’t feel quite as confident as she had when she initiated this pissing contest.
Lita and Dr. Otieno walked back into the ER on their way to the waiting room.
“The dad should be right out...what the hell?”
Lita jumped backward and put an arm out over Ria’s chest to prevent her colleague from getting run over by a fast moving gurney. She had contaminated her sterile hands in the process but apparently it didn’t matter. Dr. Todd Clutterbuck whizzed by with the patient she and Ria had been arguing about in tow.
“You snooze you lose ladies,” he called to them, following his nurses as they pushed his patient, their patient, into the prepared OR.
“Son of a bitch!” Lita yelled, startling several nearby orderlies. She ripped her gloves off and threw them on the ground. “I hate that guy!”
Whatever animosity Ria had felt towards Dr. Singh attempting to steal her patient was in fact completely transferred in that moment to the idiot doctor who just when by with their patient. The hospital might not have been all that big, but it was big enough that Ria only recognized the man’s face, but didn’t in fact know his name.
“Who the hell is that jerk?” Ria asked as she turned towards Dr. Singh who did seem to know him. “And why the hell does he think he can just snatch a patient away from us like that?” The us came out before she could think about what she was saying. Neither she nor Dr. Singh had planned to share the surgery, and yet to Ria it still felt like the girl had been their patient on some level -- at least until the father determined who would actually do the surgery.
Now though that option was removed from both of them and yes it wasn’t lost on Ria that their mild bickering over the patient had likely led to both of them losing out on the appendectomy surgery. “Did that jerk actually go behind both our backs and talk to her father?”
“Doubtful,” Lita said with a sniff. “His style is more along the lines of erasing our…your name from the surgery board and writing in his own. Ten bucks says I’m right.”
Ria was fuming and already in her head she was composing at least three different text messages to three different people about what an absolute jerk and idiot this doctor was and how she may already be plotting to make his life miserable. Right now though, she needed to find out his name and she hoped that Dr. Singh might shed some light on the situation in that respect.
Lita narrowed her eyes and glared at the closed operating room door with a quiet fury.
“That jerk is Dr. Todd Clutterbuck,” Lita said, seething. “AKA, the human equivalent of a skidmark.”
Lita’s last run in with the doofus known as Dr. Clutterbuck had resulted in a trip to HR’s office and since then, she’d been keeping her dislike for him as under wraps as she could manage. This, however, was an act of war. Stealing another doctor’s patient was beyond the pale. Yes, Lita had been trying to do that very same thing to Dr. Otieno but she had at least shown her fellow doctor enough respect to tell her right ot her face she was bogarting her surgery instead of yanking the patient out from behind her turned back. Lita might be a thief but she was, if nothing, a classy thief.
Lita turned to Ria.
“I’ve been trying to be the better person as far as he’s concerned but I realize now that it isn’t a good look on me. I’m heavily considering replacing his non-dairy creamer with laxatives, unless you have a better idea?”
Retaliation had never been something Ria actively engaged in, but if this Dr. Clutterbuck was known for pulling shitty things like this on his fellow doctors, well, the man had it coming. “I think being the better person is overrated, at least where this man is concerned,” Ria replied as her gaze flickered to the closed operating room doors. “Maybe if he were a good guy I’d say we should give him a pass,” she paused. “But, he’s clearly not a good guy.” And Ria was thankful that up until today she hadn’t had the not so pleasant pleasure of interacting with him.
“I think replacing his non-dairy creamer is a good start,” Ria continued as she began to move down the hallway and towards her office. “He deserves more than just that, though…” She glanced at Lita for a moment. “Maybe we replace his shampoo with nair?” Though she had to admit that would be tricky, the way she was fuming right now it seemed appropriate as a means to get him back for what he had just done. “We can discuss retaliation tactics in my office, unless you have somewhere you need to be Dr. Singh?”
While the two of them had clearly started off as adversaries now it would seem they were allies, at least in this. Ria found she couldn’t hold a grudge against Dr. Singh for trying to snatch her surgery from her, not when they had both experienced the utter horror that was Todd Clutterbuck and his egotistical behaviour.
“You know? Suddenly? I have nowhere else to be.” She shot a dirty look to the OR door before turning a decidedly more friendly face to Dr. Otieno. “After you,” she repeated and this time, Lita meant it. The snooty sneer the statement had dripped with earlier had completely vanished. She had somehow turned a potential adversary into an ally; maybe it wasn’t such a bad day at work after all.