Page 8 - Good News April 2015 paper

he hospital was unusually registered nurse at the hospital. pushing emergency equipment. A Suddenly she whirled towards
quiet that bleak January I'm calling about your father. He doctor took over the manual me, “I want to see him.”
Tevening. Quiet and still like was admitted tonight with a slight compression of the heart. A tube
the air before a storm. I stood on heart attack and …” was inserted through his mouth My first thought was, Why put
the nurses' station on the seventh as an airway. Nurses plunged yourself through more pain?
floor and glanced at the clock. It “No!” she screamed into the syringes of medicine into the Seeing him will only make it
was 9 p.m. phone, startling me. “He's not intravenous tubing. I connected worse. But I got up and wrapped
dying, is he?” the heart monitor. Nothing. Not a my arm around her. We walked
I threw a stethoscope around my beat. My own heart pounded. slowly down the corridor to 712.
neck and headed for room 712, “His condition is stable at the “God, don't let it end like this. Not Outside the door I squeezed her
the last room in the hall. Room 712 moment,” I said, trying hard to in bitterness and hatred. His hand, wishing she would change
had a new patient: Mr Williams. A sound convincing. Silence. I bit daughter is coming. Please let her her mind about going inside. But
man all alone. A man strangely my lip. find peace.” she pushed open the door.
silent about his family.
“You must not let him die!” she “Stand back,” cried a doctor. I We moved to the bed, huddled
As I entered the room, Mr Williams said. Her voice was so utterly handed him the paddles for the together, taking small steps in
looked up eagerly, but drooped compelling that my hand trem- electrical shock to the heart. He unison. Janie leaned over the bed
his eyes when he saw it was only bled on the phone. placed them on Mr Williams's and buried her face in the sheets. I
me, his nurse. I pressed the chest. Over and over we tried. But tried not to look at her - at this sad,
stethoscope over his chest and “He is getting the very best care.” nothing. Mr Williams was dead. A sad goodbye.
listened. Strong, slow, even “But you don't understand,” she nurse unplugged the oxygen. The
beating. Just what I wanted to pleaded. “My daddy and I haven't gurgling stopped. One by one I backed against the bedside
hear. There seemed little indi- spoken for many months. On my they left him, grim and silent. How table. My hand fell upon a scrap of
cation that he had suffered a 21st birthday, we had a fight over could this happen? How? I stood yellow paper. I picked it up. It read:
slight heart attack a few hours my boyfriend. I ran out of the by his bed, stunned. “My dearest Janie, I forgive you. I
earlier. house. I haven't been back. All pray that you will also forgive me.
these months I've wanted to go to A cold wind rattled the window, I know that you love me. I love you
He looked up from his starched him for forgiveness. The last thing pelting the panes with snow. too, Daddy.”
white bed. “Nurse, would you...” I said to him was, “I hate you.” Outside everywhere seemed a
He hesitated, tears filling his bed of blackness, cold and dark. The note was shaking in my
eyes. Once before he had started Her voice cracked and I heard her How could I face his daughter? hands as I thrust it toward Janie.
to ask me a question, but changed heave great agonizing sobs. I sat, She read it once. Then twice. Her
his mind. listening, tears burning my eyes. When I left the room, I saw her tormented face grew radiant.
A father and a daughter, so lost to against a wall by a water fountain. Peace began to glisten in her
I touched his hand, waiting. He each other. Then I was thinking of A doctor who had been inside eyes. She hugged the scrap of
brushed away a tear. “Would you my own father, many miles away. Room 712 only moments before paper to her breast.
call my daughter? Tell her I've had It has been so long since I had stood at her side, talking to her,
a heart attack. A slight one. You said, “I love you.” gripping her elbow. Then he “Thank You, God,” I whispered,
see, I live alone and she is the only moved on, leaving her slumped looking up at the window. A few
family I have.” As Janie struggled to control her against the wall. Such pathetic crystal stars blinked through the
tears, I breathed a prayer. “Please hurt reflected from her face. Such blackness. A snowflake hit the
His respiration suddenly sped up. God, let this daughter find for- wounded eyes. She knew. The window and melted away, gone
I turned his nasal oxygen up to giveness.” doctor had told that her father was forever. Life seemed as fragile as
eight litres a minute. “Of course gone. I took her hand and led her a snowflake on the window. But
I'll call her,” I said, studying his “I'm coming. Now! I'll be there in into the nurses' lounge. We sat on thank you, God, that relation-
face. He gripped the sheets and 30 minutes,” she said. Click. She little green stools, neither saying ships, sometimes fragile as
pulled himself forward, his face had hung up. I tried to busy myself a word. She stared straight at a snowflakes, can be mended
tense with urgency. with a stack of charts on the desk. pharmaceutical calendar, glass- together again - but there is not a
I couldn't concentrate. Room 712. faced, almost breakable-looking. moment to spare!
“Will you call her right away - as I knew I had to get back to 712.
soon as you can?” He was “Janie, I'm so, so sorry,” I said. It I crept from the room and hurried
breathing fast - too fast. I hurried down the hall in a run. I was pitifully inadequate. to the phone. I would call my
“I'll call her the very first thing,” I opened the door. Mr Williams lay father. I would say, “I love you.”
said, patting his shoulder. I unmoving. I reached for his pulse. “I never hated him, you know. I
flipped off the light. He closed his There was none! loved him,” she said. [From: Tears in my Heart, James
eyes. Such young blue eyes in his God, please help her, I thought. Collins, Zulon Press, USA, 2007].
50-year-old face. “Code 99, Room 712. Code 99.
Stat.” The alert was shooting
Room 712 was dark except for a through the hospital within
faint night light under the sink. seconds after I called the switch-
Oxygen gurgled into the green board through the intercom by the
tubes above his bed. Reluctant to bed. Mr Williams had had a
leave, I moved through the cardiac arrest.
shadowy silence to the window.
The panes were cold. Below, a With lightning speed I levelled the
foggy mist curled through the bed and bent over his mouth,
hospital parking lot. breathing air into his lungs. I
positioned my hands over his
“Nurse,” he called, “Could you chest and compressed. One, two,
get me a pencil and paper?” I dug three. I tried to count. At fifteen I
a scrap of yellow paper and a pen moved back to his mouth and
from my pocket and set it on the breathed as deeply as I could.
bedside table. I walked back to the
nurses' station and sat in a Where was help? Again I com-
squeaky swivel chair by the pressed and breathed. Com-
phone. pressed and breathed... He could
not die! “O God,” I prayed. “His
Mr Williams's daughter was listed daughter is coming! Don't let it
on his chart as the next of kin. I got end this way.”
her number from information and
dialled. Her soft voice answered. The door burst open. Doctors and
“Janie, this is Sui Kidd, a nurses poured into the room