Chapter 8 - The Defiance
I kept squeezing Thomas's heart.
I didn't look at the police officers.
I didn't look at the Chief of Medicine.
"If I take my hands off his heart, he dies in thirty seconds," I said, my voice eerily calm.
"Arrest me when I'm done."
"Officers, remove her," Dr. Aris ordered, terrified of the massive lawsuit looming over his hospital.
One of the cops stepped forward, reaching for my shoulder.
Before his hand could make contact, the observation gallery door upstairs burst open.
Dr. Wells had abandoned the viewing room and sprinted down to the surgical floor.
He threw his body in front of the police officer, physically blocking him from the sterile field.
"Get out of this room!" Dr. Wells roared, his voice shaking the glass cabinets.
"She is keeping my son alive! If you touch her, I swear I will destroy this entire institution!"
Dr. Aris hesitated, intimidated by the sheer fury of a medical titan.
"Richard, she's uncredentialed. If he dies..."
"If he dies, it's on me!" Dr. Wells shouted back.
"Now get the hell out of her way!"
The officers stepped back, unsure of their jurisdiction in a live operating theater.
"Backup pump is here!" a technician screamed, wheeling a heavy console through the double doors.
"Connect it!" I ordered, my hands shaking violently from muscle fatigue.
The perfusionist rapidly clamped the tubes and transferred the lines to the new machine.
"Pump is active," he confirmed.
I slowly released my grip on Thomas's heart, pulling my cramping hands out of his chest cavity.
I stumbled backward, almost collapsing into a nurse's arms.
"Okay," I panted, catching my breath.
"Restart his heart. Give me the internal paddles."
The scrub nurse handed me two small, sterile metal spoons connected to the defibrillator.
I placed them directly onto the surface of Thomas's heart.
"Charge to twenty joules," I ordered.
"Clear."
I delivered the shock.
The heart jerked violently in the chest cavity, but remained still.
"No rhythm," the anesthesiologist said.
"Charge to thirty," I said, panic finally bleeding into my voice.
"Clear."
May you like
Shock.
Nothing.
