Sensing that it was her time to speak, Garrett started. "We just need to let his body go, Diana."
"But how…who?" Diana’s eyes grew bigger as her mind raced with the possibilities. "You don’t expect me to…" her eyes now darted around the room, the tears welling up and starting to fall. "You’re asking too much. I couldn’t…"
"Me," fighting a break in her voice not to be heard. "I’ll be the one to turn the machines off." The surgeon reassured her.
The girl thought about it for a moment. Looking to her friend’s mother for approval, she slowly nodded her head in agreement. Garrett closed her eyes and sighed. The decision was made. Now all she had to do was carry out the task.
"Would you like to see him before…?" Danni waited for her answer. The girl only shrugged her shoulders, and then thinking on it, shook her head. "That’s all right, Diana. If it were my brother, I think I would want to remember him at his happiest moment, full of life and loving everything in it. What did your brother love to do best?"
The girl thought for only a second. "It would be riding his bicycle. His racing helmet on and streaking across the top of the hill at the end of our street, the late afternoon sun at his back, that’s how I’ll remember him." A faint smile played upon her lips at the thought.
"Then that is the way you will see him. Remember him like that and you will never be far from his spirit." Danni instinctively meet the azure eyes of the surgeon and felt that her words had helped more than just Diana.
The subdued voice of the nurse seemed to wrap itself around Garrett’s soul. The silences of the moment allowed a fleeting glimpse of a tasseled haired boy come to Garrett’s mind. His youthful features covered with a smattering of sweat and dirt as he laughed holding up his prize catch, a rainbow trout.
The nurse watched as a serene look came over the face of the surgeon. She wasn’t sure what her friend was thinking about, but at least what she had said was helping her cope with the situation at hand, if not what she held in her past.
Alex breathed a sigh of relief knowing that the hard part, if only for her, was over. She had feared the worst out of the young girl who was being dealt a hard slap in the face by reality. The intense emotional scene that she expected had been averted by the combined effort of Danni and Garrett. For this she was truly grateful.
Diana walked over to Mrs. Gryphon. "I’d like to leave now." Her voice was even and unwavering.
The woman gathered both girls into her arms and hugged them equally. Looking back to the medical professionals she mouthed the words, "Thank You." She watched as each one accepted her appreciation. "Come on, let’s go home." With that, the small group made their way to the door and out of the hospital.
Danni sidled up to the tall surgeon who seemed to still be absorbed by her thoughts. She watched the expression on her friend change to one of confused questioning, as the surgeon became aware of her. "Ah…I’d like to be with you when you take him off." Her green eyes locked onto the blue orbs in a knowing plea to allow her to share this last service to her patient.
Garrett acquiesced. There was something about the petite nurse that made her feel better about the whole situation. Rubbing her chin in thought, she nodded. "Let’s go see to our patient’s needs one last time."
They left the confines of the small room. The slow procession traveled down the hall into the Neuro-ICU without a single word spoken. The anguish on each of their faces was the only lament to the task they were about to do. As they passed the nurses’ station, Alex left the formation to review the arrangements for the destination of Bradley Morgan’s remains.
The surgeon, now taking the lead, walked with purposeful strides through the unit to the cubicle where the young boy’s body was being maintained. She stood observing the array of mechanical support systems and sighed. ‘This is all that modern medicine can do. We can duplicate and maintain the bodily functions but we can’t give him back his soul,’ she mused. ‘I didn’t want this to ever happen to anyone else.’
She was presented with the boy’s chart. Taking it, she flipped it open reading the latest entry in the nurses’ charting area. ‘No new observations of any physical activity on the part of the patient noted.’ That one sentence said it all along with the results of the battery of tests she had received earlier. She handed the chart to the petite nurse, allowing her eyes to view that all-encompassing declaration, announcing the futility of any further hope for Bradley’s survival.
The surgeon closed her eyes in an effort to calm the anger that was building within her. Her mind was in a quandary as she remembered what her goal had been when she decided to become a doctor. The suffering was soon to be over for Brad, but in her mind she had been able to do nothing for his sister, Diana. It was happening again and she had no control over it this time either.
Her mind was forced back to her present physical surroundings, as she felt a warm touch upon her back, the heat of which seemed to bring comfort to her. She looked down at Danni trying to hide all of the emotions that were raging inside of her head. "Would you like to give it one last try?"
The green eyes twinkled with the thought. Hesitantly she nodded saying; "I’d like that. Thank you." The nurse went to the boy’s bedside talking to him in the same gentle manner as when he had first arrived in the trauma room. She placed his hand into hers and delicately stroked the back of it. Squeezing his hand with hers she watched for any signs of response. Looking over her shoulder at Garrett she shook her head, a disappointed look crossing her face.
She laid his hand back down and once again stared at his angelic face. She brushed back a straying lock of hair on his forehead, as she leaned in to place a light kiss on his cheek before coming back to stand with her friend.
Garrett looked around the unit and motioned for the nurse to close the drapery, shutting the cubicle off from view. It was time to let the young boy’s body take its leave without the stares of any visitors or other patients to distract from his final moments in human form. The surgeon swallowed hard, trying to settle her nervous stomach. Walking over to the ventilator, she reached out and pressed the toggle switch to the off position. She pressed her eyelids together and inhaled deeply, trying to keep the scene of a distant time from reappearing in her mind. Exhaling, she opened her eyes and watched the electronic devices showing the deterioration of the human body lying before her.
The patient’s nurse stood off to the side recording the time and vital signs prior to the termination of mechanical support as Danni braced herself for the events to come. It was always sad to watch the passing of a life before your very eyes, but Danni was no stranger to death, it went with the job of being a trauma nurse. The sadness today seemed to come from her friend and the demons that she was wrestling with. Something in this woman’s past had really affected her. Wishing that she would be able to help ease the surgeon’s mind, she resigned herself to the fact that she could do no more than just be here for her. With that thought in mind, she watched the tall woman for any clue of how she might help her deal with that pain.
It was a few moments now since the rhythmic sound of the respirator filled the room. The steady rise and fall of the boy’s chest had ceased and his form remained motionless. The constant beeping of the heart monitor was beginning to slow; the electronic tracing on the screen became wider and more irregular in its pattern. The reading of the recycling blood pressure monitor revealed a steady drop in his pressure.