Chapter 487

Morning sunlight streamed through the hospital corridor as Vivian Laurent walked briskly into the General Surgery Department office.

"Dr. Laurent!" Several nurses abandoned their medical charts and rushed toward her.

"Are you trying to eat me alive?" Vivian laughed, dodging their enthusiastic hugs.

The head nurse wiped her eyes. "You're finally back! Our outpatient numbers plummeted this month. Patients went to other hospitals."

Vivian arched an eyebrow. "That's quite dramatic."

"It's true!" Resident Dr. Li chimed in. "Patients switched hospitals when they heard you were on leave."

Nathan Clementson peeked out from his office. "Stop scaring Dr. Laurent." He handed her a steaming coffee. "But several department heads have been asking for you."

Before Vivian could take a sip, Dr. Wang from Cardiac Surgery burst in.

"Dr. Laurent!" He grabbed her wrist urgently. "We have an aortic dissection case that could rupture any minute!"

Dr. Zachary Kalmien from Neurosurgery followed close behind. "Our brainstem hemorrhage patient is more critical!"

The two senior physicians argued loudly in the hallway, drawing stares from patients.

"Gentlemen." Vivian raised her hands in surrender. "I'll check the cardiac case first, then neurosurgery in thirty minutes."

She'd barely taken two steps with Dr. Wang when Dr. Li from Orthopedics intercepted them.

"Dr. Laurent, we have a young patient with femoral head necrosis..."

Nathan chuckled. "Looks like you'll be touring the entire hospital today."

General Surgery staff leaned against doorframes, shaking their heads at the spectacle of department heads competing for Vivian.

"Our golden ticket is back," a senior resident murmured.

The head nurse planted her hands on her hips. "Now we'll have endless patient queues again."