The Gauze They Ignored

I opened her chest and froze. The tumor wasn't a tumor. It was surgical

gauze from an operation ten years ago. Someone else's mistake, now my nightmare to fix.

My hands shook as I pulled it out, knowing this would destroy a colleague's career.

The nurses went silent. Word spread through the hospital in minutes.

My phone buzzed with texts from administration. But here's what haunts me: the patient

had been complaining for a decade, and everyone dismissed her as anxious. I believed her when

no one else would. Sometimes the most dangerous thing in medicine isn't what we do.

It's what we ignore.