The Accidental Hero Read Online Free PDF Page A

crowded around Bethie, two of them
squeezing a plastic bag to assist with her breathing. Instruments
rattled in the crash cart as the trauma surgeons surrounded her.
IVs webbed around her, into her arms.
    Speaking in rapid succession, overlapping each
others' words, yet somehow maintaining some form of intelligible
communication, the team's dialogue all meshed together.
    "Epi's in."
    "She's bradying down."
    "Atropine in."
    "We're losing her!"
    They began CPR. Then the whine and snap of
defibrillator shocks. Jolted me as well. One of the nurses
announced that they'd gotten a pulse back, but a very weak one.
Bethie just had to pull through.
    Doctor Yang, one of the doctors not completely
engrossed in the code, came over, pulled down her face mask. "She's
lost a lot of blood. We're doing everything we can, but you should
prepare yourself."
    "For what?"
    "Is there anyone you'd like to
call?"
    I wanted to scream that her mother had been
murdered, less than half an hour ago. I could not accept the fact
that my little girl was within moments of death…"Please, you have
to save her!"
    Doctor Yang nodded and returned to the team.
Seconds later an alarm from the EKG blared again. Bethie's pulse
was gone.
    The lead doctor called out something about
joules. "Clear!"
    Again, with the defibrillator. Bethie's torso
arched up and fell. The EKG blipped, but the line remained flat,
the tone static. The lead doctor was now performing chest
compressions with both hands. Gently! I wanted to cry out. But I
knew they had to do this to help her. This went on for a while, but
it was clear that her pulse continued only because the doctor's
efforts.
    "Bethie?" I managed to whisper. It was
starting to hit me. Not even an hour after Jenn's death, I was
about to lose my daughter.
    "Mr. Hudson," Doctor Yang said as she
approached. "Do you want to be with her now?"
    Tears stung my eyes like acid. Gradually, the
cacophony of voices died down. I could now discern something that I
had vaguely heard earlier through all the commotion—one of the
doctors in the background announcing each elapsed minute since
Bethie's heart had stopped.
    "Thirty-seven minutes since arrest." The chest
compressions continued.
    "Mister Hudson?" Doctor Yang
said, again, her tone sympathetic, but a
bit more urgent. Less and less of the team were looking at Bethie
now. They kept eyeing the clock.
    The lead doctor had been doing chest
compressions for some time now. He looked to his team. "Shall
we?"
    "He just lost his wife," one of the nurses
replied. "Can we try a little longer?"
    He nodded and continued the compressions.
After a while, they tried the defibrillator again. No response. A
solid green line slithered across the screen. The nurses looked up
at the other doctor. He stood still for a second, glanced at the
wall-clock and shook his head. "Time of death..."
    "We did all we could, Mr. Hudson," Doctor Yang
said. "I'm so sorry."
    "NO! Save her, dammit!" I rushed for the table
on which Bethie lay as still as silence. "Don't let her go!" I
reached for the defibrillator paddles. A large orderly grabbed and
pulled me away. I shouted at the top my lungs. He didn't release me
until I stopped thrashing. The nurses stepped back.
    When I calmed myself, the lead doctor
approached me.
    "We did everything possible, but her injuries
were too severe. I'm sorry."
    I couldn't speak. First Jenn, now Bethie.
Anger ebbed, giving way to despair. I walked over to my little
girl.
    "Sweetie..." I held her lifeless hand, brushed
the hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry.
Daddy's so sorry." Before I knew it, I was curled up on the floor
and sobbing, still reaching up and holding her hand. The orderly
tried to help me to my feet but I couldn't do it. Eventually, they
managed to get me up and pour me into a chair.
    "Sir, do you need a moment?"
    I nodded.
    They drew a curtain and left me alone with my
daughter. That's when I lost it. I don't think I'd ever cried so
hard, or pounded my