The ambulance skidded to a stop beneath the hospital’s emergency bay lights, tires squealing softly as the rear doors flung open. The paramedics leaped into action, unloading the stretcher with practiced speed. Silvia, still pale and trembling beneath the oxygen mask, was alive but just barely.
“She’s got a pulse, but she’s circling the drain,” the female medic shouted to the ER team rushing toward them. “Oxygen at 15 liters. We need a crash room ready—she coded twice en route!”
Jesus jumped out of the rig behind them, stumbling slightly, his legs like jelly. “I—I’m going with her.” The older medic placed a firm but gentle hand on his shoulder. “This is gonna get rough in there. You sure?”
Jesus didn’t hesitate. “I’m not leaving her again.”
The paramedic nodded and waved him forward. “Then stay out of the way and don’t touch anything.”
They rolled Silvia down the hallway at a sprint, the stretcher wheels rattling against the floor, the fluorescent lights overhead flashing across her face like stuttering lightning. The air was heavy with urgency, monitors beeping, nurses barking out vitals, and doctors rushing to clear the path to the trauma bay.
As soon as they entered the resuscitation room, a team of ER staff surrounded Silvia like a pit crew. Her gurney was locked in place as her vitals were rattled off.
“BP’s dropping—she’s hypotensive again!”
“Pulse thready—getting weaker!”
“Push fluids, wide open. Get a second line in. Call respiratory and prep for intubation.”
“Remove everything,” one of the nurses ordered, snapping on fresh gloves.
Jesus stood just inside the doorway, pressed against the wall, his heart in his throat as he watched the team descend around Silvia. They began cutting away the last of her clothes with surgical shears swift, and efficient, The fabric fell in tatters to the floor, leaving her bare beneath the fluorescent lights.
Someone draped a thin sheet over her lower half, but everything else remained exposed. Electrodes were quickly reapplied to her chest, an IV was jammed into her other arm. Her skin was pale, a bluish tinge just beginning to creep around her lips.
Then her body gave a sudden shudder.
“She's coding again!” a nurse shouted.
Jesus’s breath caught. “No—no, not again.”
The sheet was removed fully exposing her.
“Start compressions!” The lead Doctor said.
A nurse climbed onto a step stool beside the bed and began chest compressions immediately, her elbows locked, hands positioned firmly over Silvia’s sternum. Silvia’s body jolted under each thrust forceful. Her chest caved rhythmically beneath the medic’s weight, her head bobbing slightly from the movement, arms limp at her sides. Her breasts jiggled from the force.
Another nurse was already prepping the defibrillator. Gel pads were slapped onto her bare chest, the machine charging with a rising, electric whine. "shes in VFIB stand clear"
“Charging to 200 joules. Clear!”
Jesus froze as Silvia’s back arched violently, her body lifted off the stretcher as the shock surged through her. The sound of the jolt cracked through the room like a whip, and then silence.
“Go again!” the lead doctor barked. “Start compressions. Epi, now!”
Silvia’s chest was once again crushed beneath the weight of compressions, She was surrounded by people doing everything they could to force her heart back to life—but her body remained unresponsive, pale, fragile.
Jesus couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe.
But he watched. He had to watch. If she was going to leave this world, he refused to let her do it alone.
A nurse glanced over at him, her eyes softening for a brief moment before she refocused on her task.
The female paramedic who had ridden with them entered the room quietly and stepped beside Jesus.
“They’re doing everything,” she said softly, her voice low. “Don’t lose hope yet.”
Another shock. Another violent jolt. Silvia’s body jumped, then slumped again. Her Breasts glisten with gel and her nipples hard.
The monitor beeped—then flatlined again.
Jesus felt something in his chest crack.
“Come on,” one of the doctors whispered under his breath as he continued compressions pushing down hard on her exposed chest, sweat now dripping down his brow. “Come back, Silvia.”
A nurse leaned over and gently ventilated her lungs with the bag valve mask, the whoosh of air keeping rhythm with the compressions. Her chest rose and fell mechanically, like a puppet pulled by invisible strings.
“She’s got something!” someone cried.
The lead doctor leaned in, eyes on the monitor. “That’s a pulse! Sinus rhythm, weak but regular!”
“She’s back!” the nurse at her side confirmed.
Jesus let out a choked sob, his knees buckling. He grabbed the nearest chair and collapsed into it, his hands shaking, heart pounding.
Silvia lay motionless on the stretcher, a thin sheen of sweat glistening on her forehead, her chest now rising on its own, slowly, unevenly. Nurses covered her gently, rechecking lines, and stabilizing her vitals.
A voice called out: “Get ICU on standby. She’s not out of danger yet, but she’s back.”
Jesus could barely hear them. All he could do was watch her—the gentle rise and fall of her chest, the slow blink of her eyelids as she stirred, weakly.
He reached out, gently touching her fingers, whispering, “You came back… You came back to me.”
Silvia didn’t speak, but her hand curled—just slightly—around his.