Sudden Death x2

He lies there, the driving rain beating down on his upturned face. I look at him and know, without a doubt, the eventual outcome. The tube in his windpipe lets the paramedic inflate his lungs, but there is no movement of their own. His body shows me all too clearly the trauma that he has suffered, when the cars collided, when he was ejected through the windscreen. I pierce his chest, deflate the tension pneumothorax, and again on the other side. But still, the monitor attached to him shows a straight line, asystole, death.

His family watch in horror, as I stand, my job done, and the paramedics draw the blanket over his head.

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He lies there, unable to stay still, unable to catch his breath. He calls out, pleading for me to help him. I look at him, and know, without a doubt, the eventual outcome. I have nurses, monitors, a whole hospital at my disposal this time. I listen to his chest, fight to find a vein to give life-saving drugs, and watch as his eyes glaze over and he takes his last breath in front of me. I pass a tube into his windpipe, breathe for him, and give him clot-busting drugs, in an effort to dissolve the clot that is blocking his pulmonary vessels.

His family are brought in as we continue the resuscitation attempt, and watch in horror, as I switch off the monitors, and the nurses draw the sheet over his head.