And then we looked up at the monitor and the pressure read 137/80.

The trauma surgeon, seconds from cracking this guy’s chest, says, “His pressure’s up! Let’s do this in the OR!”

Aw, hell. I know it’s better for the patient and all, but geez. We were so close.

They packed up our patient and rushed him up to the OR where they found a bullet chillin’ in his right atrium.

My resident and I stood in the empty trauma bay surrounded by bloody gloves and the trappings of a messy trauma. The color had drained from his face and he looked a little defeated. I turned to him and said, “I guess you fixed him a little too well.”

Looking back at things like this I kind of smile. I miss those days when everything was brand new. New procedures, new diagnoses, new everything. I still see new things every day, but when I get to work with the residents, it’s like watching the ED through a kid’s eyes. Maybe it’s kind of silly, but I think they keep me from burnout.

Our patient lived. He had a lot of operations and was in the hospital for more than a month. But about a week ago, he went home. Even though we didn’t get to do the cool procedure, we got to save this guy’s life. That’s also one pretty cool procedure.

Dr. Bundy is an assistant medical director at Baptist Medical Center East in Montgomery, Ala., and a former photojournalist, who not only sings in the car, but talks to herself, is addicted to diet drinks and shoes, and thinks emergency medicine is the greatest specialty.