A Shocking Turn of Events

Jody was standing right beside me when the hammer came down behind my eyes. His voice, wrapped in cotton, floated in from far away. It was a helluva time for him to develop laryngitis. I tried to move closer. The hazy air in the trauma room was so thick it was like wading through glue.

I could make out Jody’s green scrubs, but the angle was all wrong. Mike got in my face and yelled something over his shoulder I couldn’t understand. He was gone as quickly as he appeared. The room began to spin around the drum beating between my ears. I was going to puke.

Good thing I held it back. Jody was rocking on somebody’s chest right below me. I couldn’t make out the guy’s face; Mary had half of it covered with a bag mask and Doc was leaning over the other half. The glint of light on the ET blade cut the fog. The room was getting crowded. Why wasn’t I in there helping? Weird.

I knew what was going on alright. I could choreograph a code with my eyes closed. I knew all the lines too.

“Epi!”

“Resume CPR.”

“Stop CPR--Clear!”

I had a strong sense of how this was going to end.

“Asystole,” Mary said.

No surprise there. What was surprising was finally getting a look at the guy’s face. It was only a little thicker than the air and blurred when the fan blew across it. Can you believe it, the guy waved at me. It was creepy, but not as creepy as seeing the guy float away through the ceiling.

Jody and Mike caught me under the arms.

“Up you go,” Mike said.

“What happened?”

“Dude, you forgot what “Clear” means. You bounced higher than the patient.” Jody felt the back of my head. “That’s gotta hurt.”

“This is going to look great on the code report,” Mary said. “Do you spell ‘oops’ with one ‘o’ or two?”