Dri Josiah: A St. Braxtons Story | Teen Ink

Dri Josiah: A St. Braxtons Story

May 29, 2018
By Anonymous

There was no room for error in Dr. Josiah’s field of work. However, this was not a problem for Dri because he had the steadiest hands out of all the surgeons throughout the states.

Dri Josiah was apart of St. Braxtons hospital and was considered a surgical veteran among the younger staff. He was fairly short, not even six feet, but had the muscles of an ox.
The reason people respected him so much is because of his bright personality. The love he showed for his job and all the people around him made everyone understand that the most important thing in life is finding the thing that makes you happy.
“Dr. Josiah, Dr. Mann and Dr. Hunter are waiting for you in O.R. 4. They asked if you would possibly observe the endonasal surgery they are about to perform?” asked Abby,  the nurse who sits behind the front desk.
“Gladly,” Dr. Josiah began to say as his smile grew, “Message Dr. Mann to tell him I will be right down.” Dri walked with confidence to the O.R. . The hospital hallways were his home. He spent more time in the O.R. operating and observing than he did at his own apartment.
There was a faint beep that got louder as he got closer to the room in which Dr. Mann and Dr. Hunter were operating in. A sense of panic rushed through Dri’s bones as he blasted into the O.R. . The patient, a twenty something was drifting away. He stood in shock, knowing that he could not scrub in fast enough to save the man and that Dr. Mann nor Dr. Hunter had the experience to find the fatal internal brain bleed. Being the well respected surgeon he was, he tried anyway.
“How much time does he have,” Dri yelled.
“Ten, maybe twelve minutes,” Dr. Mann responded.
“Is it a brain bleed?”
“We aren’t sure,” Dr. hunter looked at his shoes.
“I’m taking over. Scalpel,” Dri demanded.
With a few maneuvers of his surgical tools and a small vacuum to get the blood out of the way, he was able to find the bleed and apply sutures. 
“Looks like my work here is done,” he announced as he took himself outside to wash up. Nothing put a bigger smile on Dri’s face than saving a patient, especially when other doctors couldn’t.
However, he did feel bad “showing up” Dr. Mann. Dri Josiah and Alfred Mann (more commonly known as Fredo) went together like bread and butter. They were best friends, in and out of the hospital, inseparable even. They both had similar personalities and shared the same love for surgery. The only reason Dri was ranked number one surgeon is because he had been in the game for longer
2. Things Are Not Always as They Seem
His new white coat was sitting, clean as ever in his office as he entered the building the following morning. Saving lives was on his mind but so was revisiting the people that he saved. On that note, he went to the room of the patient who had the brain bleed the day before. As he approached,he noticed that a name tag was missing from the room number next to the door. His muscles tensed as he walked up to the nurse who was supposed to be attending this patient.
“Nurse, the man in this room… where was he moved?” Dri asked, more nervous than during his first surgery.
Her expressions were the opposite of his when she confidently replied, “He died last night because someone stitched up a vessel in his brain during surgery. This caused a cut off of blood to his brain once the stitches tightened.”
Dri felt lightheaded. His palms began to sweat and the collar around his neck felt tighter and tighter. He never felt this way, or at least he hadn’t in a long time. This sudden sickness only fell upon him when he failed to do his job correctly. His nearly perfect surgical record was only sprinkled with a few hiccups. The last time he failed to save someone was when his hand jolted during a craniotomy, puncturing the brain of a young woman.
Dri slowly walked back to his desk to sob and think about his mistake. He didn’t think that the sutures he applied to the brain bleed would have tightened causing them to cut off circulation to the brain.
He was always very hard on himself. The thought of being so blind to such a small mistake ate away at him.
3. The Lawsuit
Evidently,the family of the deceased patient wasn’t very happy with the matter at hand. They filed a lawsuit on St. Braxtons Hospital faster than you could say Dri Josiah. The surgery that Dr. Josiah performed only came with  a 2% chance of death because it was one of the most basic brain surgeries there was. The hospital nearly promised that there was no risk involved in this surgery. This being said, the hospital was now getting sued for a millions of dollars. Since Dri was an attendee and the biggest name in surgery since Lars Leksell, he was pinned with all the blame by default. It was also on record that Dri insisted he stitch up the bleed, so there was no getting out of this one for him. He sat down at his desk with a coffee wondering if he would have his job at the end of the week. Working at St. Braxtons meant the world to him and it was on the line today, there was no getting around it.
4. New CEO?
Dri was called into the CEO’s office. He knew it was about the new lawsuit. With fake confidence, he walked in and sat down. The new CEO was a younger guy who was just brought in last week. The old CEO just died last week, thankfully only from natural causes. Dr. Josiah could see the determination on this guys face.
”I think you know why you are here,” said the CEO,” and I am sure you know the consequences of costing the hospital a lot of cash.” he grinned, “But… I do have an offer for you. An offer that appeals to me and I sure hope appeals to you…”.
The pure silence of the room and the demand on the mans face took a toll on Dri, causing him to become uneasy.
“I want to make money, lots of it,” the new CEO, Mr. Newman started to say, his grin growing, “Your going to intentionally screw up on surgeries if you ever want to step into this hospital again . The people aren’t going to die but they are going  to come back to get another surgery. If you want to keep your job, from now on for the next year, you must urge the patients to spend more money at the hospital.”
Dri swallowed his pride. He knew if he declined this offer, Newman would bury him and he would never be able to touch a scalpel again. However, he couldn’t stand doing his job wrong. Now, he would have to do it wrong on purpose for a whole year.
“I will take you up on that offer, for my job,” he replied, instantly regretting it.
He didn’t know if he would be able to do it for a whole year, but he would go on to try.
5.Can Dri Handle the Heat?
A few weeks passed after the talk he had with the new CEO. Dri opted out of most of the “surgeries” that “had” to be done, due to the fear that pulsed the depths of his soul and drove him mad. Since then,he realized that it only made sense that the whole staff at St. Braxtons was in on this scandal.
His close friend, Fredo just performed one of those good-for-nothing surgeries about an hour ago and was walking right toward Dri. Fredo wouldn’t have even realized he was walking right past Dri unless Dri stopped to talk to him because he was walking quick with his head down.
“How did it go?” Dri asked with his hand on Fredo’s shoulder, causing his head to prop up quickly.
“Feels bad man…” he said back, turning around and continuing on his way to who knows where.
Fredo was a tough guy. Dri thought he was seeing things after he saw tears filling up his eyes. Dri knew he was more emotional than Fredo when it came to his patients which made him think about if he really would be able to handle the phony surgeries.
6.There Was No Way Out Anymore
Dri was fresh off of his lunch break. There was a nurse behind the desk in the F wing of the hospital and he did his best to avoid eye contact while walking by but he knew he couldn't avoid this tragedy for much longer so he just gave up and gave in to the stare which the nurse already had locked in on him.
“Your wanted in surgery in order to do a biopsy,” the nurse said with a sarcastic sound, her face showing mild disgust.
With a nod and a quick smile, Dri was on his way to a black hole.
There was only one O.R. in use so he knew exactly which one to go to. He swung open the door and scrubbed in slowly. As he walked in, Dr. Hunter was there to greet him.
“Listen,” she sighed, “the point is that we do a surgery that creates a problem for the patient. Then we do another surgery to fix that problem. It is a win-win because we get extra money and look like heroes.”
He was speechless. Never in a million years would he have thought that Dr. Hunter would accept this.
Dr. Josiah took the scalpel and proceeded to cut. Once he got a good look at the brain he knew it was over.
He couldn’t do it.
Dr. Dri Josiah fainted then and there.
7.Save Yourself and Risk the Lives of Others?
No one could talk him out of it. Dri was going to quit. He couldn’t live with the fact that people's lives were at risk and he was just sitting there doing nothing. Dri was old and had no desire to continue working under questionable circumstances.
Thunderous steps filled the hall as Dri charged to the office of the CEO. His blood was boiling as he stepped right up to the desk of the CEO.
“I am done with this BS!” he screamed, “I don’t care about this job anymore so I quit. I won’t stand for this tomfoolery any longer!...”
Before the man on the other end of the conversation could get a word out of his mouth, Dr. Josiah was already halfway out the door.
“This will not be the last you see of me!” he yelled for the whole hospital to hear.
8.The Beginning of the End
The day after Dri resigned from his position, he called Dr. Mann who had been trying to reach him for the past twenty four hours.
“You must come to my apartment ASAP,” Dri whispered as he quickly hung up.
Dri had a plan that would end the CEO.
He wanted to bury the man who ruined one of the only things he loved. However, he could not do it alone. This is where Dr. Mann would come in.
Fredo arrived and walked in to find Dri with a glass of whiskey already prepared for him. He made and kept eye contact. Fredo could tell that Dri had something important to tell him. Dri took a long swig from his glass, polishing off his liquor.
“I need your help to take down Mr. Brown, the new CEO…” from there, Dri proceeded to tell Fredo how he wanted to destroy Mr. Brown’s career.
9.Putting the Plan Into Action
Dri drove to St. Braxtons to carry out the plan he went over with Fredo the night before.
He got to the hospital and met Dr. Mann at the main entrance. They both scanned the waiting room as Fredo took Dri to the room where patients get PET scans. Dr. Mann layed Dri down on the table and put him in the chamber.
Fredo quickly took scans of Dri’s brain and didn’t even wait for the images to process before he took Dri back out into the hall and got him onto a stretcher.
10.Only Option
The events that were about to go down did not have to be carried out the way they were. However, the events needed to get as much attention as possible in order for the problem to be properly recognized.
Dri was rushed to the O.R. by Fredo.
Fredo was going to do a fake surgery on Dri to extract a brain tumor that he didn’t really have. In the process, he was going to kill him so the media was all over the story and would dig deeper into the case. Then, Dr. Mann would show the FBI all the records from the healthy patients that were falsely diagnosed and blame it on Mr. Brown in order to end his career and most of his life.
“Are you ready?” Fredo asked just before he put Dri under anesthesia.
Dri replied with a strait face, “Ready as ever, brother.”
With that, Fredo proceeded to remove a crucial part of his brain.
Dri flatlined.
11.Another One Bites the Dust
Within a day, news reporters were all over the case. Breaking News: Famous Brain Surgeon Killed While Getting Brain Surgery.
Fredo was sad to see these headlines. Dri was like a brother to him. The important thing was that he got his wish. His one last wish was to see another news headline, right under the one with his name in it. This other headline read: New CEO of St. Braxtons Hospital Arrested For Making Staff Falsely Diagnose Patients.


The author's comments:

I love hospitals.


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