Music to operate by

Anastamosis, a third-year medical resident, is in the operating room as part of a surgical team trying to save the life of a man shot in the abdomen. All of a sudden, music starts playing:

... this isn't uncommon - surgeons often bring their own iPod, or the scrub nurse will turn on Pandora - but as the first notes came streaming out from the speakers, my ears perked up. was this U2's "bloody sunday"?

indeed it was. i glanced at the clock. it was just past midnight, making it sunday, and our hands, the surgical field, and the patient were covered in blood. i looked around, wondering which circulating nurse had the ironic sense of humor to play this, but they were all sitting around, faces impassive.

the lyrics struck me as they have in the past, though more physically now, as i had my hands in the abdomen of a guy who had been shot ...