I was a moonlighter when I first started working at County, you list with an agency and they would call you in when they were short a doctor. I had no reason to think that it would lead to anything permanent, or to even think that anyone would know me as anyone other than that. The day that they had all the mass casualties come in from the truck that had crashed through the coffee shop window changed things though.
I remember walking toward the hospital and seeing this little girl sitting all alone in the back of one of the ambulances, her arm was in a splint, she couldn't have been much older then my Jasna had been. I asked her if she wanted to come out so I could look after her, but, I guess she was too frightened, I ended up going in and talking to her, then eventually taking her in the hospital. Her mother had been badly injured and Dr. Weaver didn't think Michelle should see her, I felt differently, she needed to know that her mother would be okay, so I took her in, even though they had told me not to. I explained to her about the tubes, about the medicines her mother was being given, I wanted her to see the doctors were doing everything we could for her.
Later Carol, one of the nurses, asked me about it, it was the first time that any of the staff had really talked to me. I think she wanted to understand why I went against what I was told, but that wasn't all we talked about. As a moonlighter people really don't get a chance to see you for your skill, they don't get a chance to understand how you got to where you are. Usually you're doing simple things, things that any resident could do, in time if you're lucky you'll earn their trust, more often you'll just move on. I was lucky, not that day, but later I was hired on full-time, and now I'm Chief of Staff, had you told me it would happen then I would never have believed it.
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