In One Heart Beat

-Chapter Eighteen-

Date: August, 18th, 2015
Location: Landstuhl Regional Medical Hospital
Time: 0950

"Her pulse is dropping!", yelled a nurse.

I snapped my head staring at the monitor. Why the hell was the patient giving out?! I pulled back from my work as everyone and Dr. Reinhard began to try and get the patient back online to stability.

"Setting the charge to ten!", ordered Dr. Reinhard as he grabbed the diphliborator setting them up.

"Clear!", he barked slamming them down and lifted them as the woman's body jolted. I glared at the monitor. Still flat lined. Come on, come on. Yet even after three more attempts nothing changed. Still flat. She was just gone.

Dr. Reinhard sighed, "Alright, everyone, we're calling it", he said.

"Time of death ten am....", he voice droned on.

Dr. Reinhard hated this. I fixed the neck stitching the skin back together. I tore off my gloves exiting after cleaning up. Everyone fell rather silent, perhaps a bit of mumbling asking for tools. That was it. Dr. Reinhard followed.

"King", he warned.

"Not now, not now", I said rinsing my hands.

Dr. Reinhard clenched his jaw, he himself was angry with the outcome. He wanted to know what had gone wrong. The patient had been doing perfectly fine. It was going smoothly. He hit the sink, "Was für ein schrot!", he hissed (What a bunch of crap!)

Dr. Reinhard was utterly frustrated. Why?! Why?! Why?!

I tore off the hair slip and  crumbled it leaving the OR. I went through the halls stopping in the stairwell. I gripped my hair in my fingers clenching my teeth as tears brimmed my eyes. That wasn't right! She was doing perfectly fine! Why the hell did her pulse drop and flat line?! Why!?

I kicked the wall hands on my hips and lowering my head closing my. My lips trembled. She had been a mother of two. Now what the hell were they going to be told? That she passed away in surgery....because I wasn't able to do anything. Again.

Again someone was going to lose someone else because I hadn't done anything. Because I was incapable.

I breathed, I had another surgery in an hour.....Lumbar surgery. I had to keep going. As hard as it was. The soldier didn't deserve to die. Her children didn't deserve to be motherless and because of me they were. Because I couldn't save them all.

I returned to the surgical room placing the anesthesia mask over Bryan's mouth and nose. He stared at me but I was looking away staring at the pulse and heart monitor. I was tense and only paying attention to that. I felt his hand reach up and wrap around my hand giving it a small squeeze as his eyes slowly dropped shut.

His breathing became steady and another nurse took my place and Dr. Reinhard entered. Dr. Cade stared at me as I stared to work until Dr. Reinhard snapped at him to get started. Not much went between us. I remained silent only asking for tools and made the cut on the lumbar region of the spine getting the job finished.

Bryan lay very still with no idea as to what I was doing. With no feeling as I decompressed his nerve moving his disc back into position and freezes the nerve of it's tight location.