Family Problems

An 18 year old man was rushed into my trauma room- a bullet had gone into his back. As the physicians were crowded around, arguing with each other about the best course of action, he said quietly to me at his side, I feel it right here. There was no exit wound- there was a bullet still inside.

I put a hand over his and felt the sharp point of the bullet barely protruding from his right chest/abdomen.  "Hey, he says he feels it right over here." The doctors looked up and started moving the ultrasound probe near the bullet.

"Hey, I'm really uncomfortable, can I lie on my side?" Absolutely not, the doctors replied. And the young boy laid sulkily in the chaos, feeling unheard.  "It's because the bullet went so close to your spine. If you move, you might be paralyzed," I whispered in his ear. He nodded. He understood.

"Where were you when this happened?"
"At my grandmother's funeral."
Shot at a funeral... Really??
I had seen the new tattoo on his young neck- RIP Grandma- "Is that the tattoo on your neck?"
"No, it's the other one. And I don't want to talk about it."

Things were moving so quickly because he had to be transferred to the operating room immediately, but I couldn't help but feel for the young man- so young, with so many family problems, a bullet in his chest and nobody able to answer his basic questions.

S