Time of Death | Teen Ink

Time of Death MAG

January 15, 2009
By Grace Hoo Hoo BRONZE, Palatine, Illinois
Grace Hoo Hoo BRONZE, Palatine, Illinois
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

The first death on your watch isn’t even your fault. You’re just one of the many interns who rush to the bedside when the code is called, peering at the doctors crowding around. As the patient gasps and chokes, you too gasp and choke as each electric shock blasts through the body. The doctors are grim-faced but determined; you hopelessly wonder why they even bother. Again and again the voltage is cranked up, but thunderbolts can only do so much.

The doctor holding the paddles slowly turns away from the flaccid flesh and another quietly asks, “Time of death?” You back away, feeling as if the defibrillator was really meant for you as your heart pounds out its own furious pace. A devastated mother takes your wrist. “Time of death?” she whispers, mis­taking you for a doctor, someone who tried his best to resuscitate her darling daughter, someone who knew what he was doing, someone with guts enough to challenge death. Not a first-year intern who never could remember which number was the systolic for blood pressure, not someone who didn’t even dare to take blood sugar levels.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” you blurt. “You’ll be able to talk to the doctors inside …,” you mumble, patting the trembling hand. She bites her lip and nods, letting go of the scrubs that you shouldn’t be wearing, the scrubs reserved for those who can save lives, not for those who don’t even know how to gently break death to a loved one.

The third death is similar, only this time you’ve been dragged along for scut work. You’re the one ramming your hands into the sternum, trying to force the fluttering heartbeat into your rhythm. You’re the one leaping out of the way of the defib paddles, jumping back to start compressions again. The patient bottoms out, but after the paddles thunder a third time, you can feel the thump of the heart, tangoing with yours as you collapse against a chair, arms quivering with strain. You shudder with relief. You brought him back. You saved him. You.

The eighteen death is the hardest. That little baby in neo-natal care should never have been forced to live on machines. Each breath is a struggle, and the medications are flowing in a poisonous concentration for such a small body, yet the parents insist on continuing the farce of life. They’re unwilling to bear any grief while their baby boy wheezes and thrashes weakly, seeking comfort but receiving only the hard embrace of a hospital cradle and the groan of machines.

The mother shrieks, “He’s blue! Do something!” After you reach the crib and despair at the readouts, you motion the code team away and beckon to the mother and father.

“The best thing for him is to take him off the machines,” you say.

The dad glares. “You want to kill him.”

They don’t understand the torture they have put him through. “If he even survives a year, he will be severely physically and mentally disabled. For life,” I persist.

The mother moans, “He’s blue! I don’t care. Just save him! Now!”

You nod at the code team, maneuvering yourselves around the tiny crib and pulling off the oxygen mask, trying to fit your large palms against the flimsy baby with his face scrunched up in a silent wail. The heart drugs aren’t having any effect due to the amount of medication already flowing through his body.

“Use the shocker!” the mother wails.

“We can’t!” you snarl, trying to give compressions to a weak chest and an even weaker malformed heart. “Your baby is too small and his heart is deformed! If we do, we’ll kill him!”

The code leader shakes his head. “Time of death ….”

“No!”

“3:36 p.m.”

The thirty-third death is the best death. You’re the one in charge. If a code is called, you will wield the paddles, call out “Clear!” You have the final say on time of death if it occurs. You won’t let those words pass your lips.

But she smiles at you through her pure white hair. “I’m ready to leave. Are you ready to let me go?”

You sob, throw down the clipboard. “No, Mom! I don’t want you to.”

She still wears the tender smile of years past as her body wastes away and shrivels to a mere fraction of her vitality. “But it’s necessary. I need you to. And you know it.”

“Mom ….”

And she brushes her hand against yours, squeezing it once before closing her eyes. “You’re ready.”

You kiss her cooling cheek then note: “Time of death: 9:12 a.m., Thursday, April 24 ….”



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This article has 300 comments.


on Jan. 8 2012 at 9:19 pm
emmabergman GOLD, ., New Jersey
10 articles 0 photos 18 comments
Please check out my work:)

on Jan. 8 2012 at 9:17 pm
emmabergman GOLD, ., New Jersey
10 articles 0 photos 18 comments
Wow..This piece is truly inspiring. As I read I felt like I was right there beside you finding myself in those painstakingly confusing situations. I wondered what I would have done if I was in that situation. Your article brought tears to my eyes. Great job!

M-star BRONZE said...
on Jan. 5 2012 at 10:49 pm
M-star BRONZE, Kalamazoo, Michigan
4 articles 3 photos 39 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you."- Richard Brinsley Sheridan

I really enjoyed reading this! I like that it makes the reader feel like they were actually there! Awesome job!

Ella1 GOLD said...
on Jan. 5 2012 at 7:07 pm
Ella1 GOLD,
14 articles 7 photos 137 comments
Wow this was amazing and you put so much emotion into it

on Jan. 5 2012 at 6:48 pm
zadiekatie23 PLATINUM, Rio Rancho, New Mexico
39 articles 4 photos 69 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

A moving piece. I like the perspective it was put into, making you the main character. I also enjoyed the plot - very different from what I've been reading these days. Thanks!

on Jan. 5 2012 at 3:24 pm
SmileyBabe SILVER, Union, Connecticut
5 articles 0 photos 16 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Whatever"

This made me cry... great job :)

on Jan. 1 2012 at 12:43 pm
Unicornsandelephants, Chertsey, Other
0 articles 12 photos 20 comments

Favorite Quote:
the higher you climb the further you have to fall

This is the best one I've read, it's really good.

on Dec. 21 2011 at 12:59 pm
Soni-kay BRONZE, Bronx, New York
4 articles 0 photos 6 comments
It was really good but yet really sad i really loved the ending.

Kpalo14 SILVER said...
on Dec. 21 2011 at 11:17 am
Kpalo14 SILVER, Wilson, Michigan
9 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
You don't know what you have until you've lost it. So treasure everything you do have and never let it go

wow...that was really emotional. great job

Fia-fia BRONZE said...
on Dec. 14 2011 at 10:50 am
Fia-fia BRONZE, Bethesda, Maryland
4 articles 1 photo 157 comments

This is amazing! Really good and kinda sad! Thank you!

:)


on Nov. 24 2011 at 10:26 pm
VanillaRose13 BRONZE, Abernathy, Texas
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
Wow!!! This is a really amazing peice. I felt like I was really there. =D Keep up the ggod work!!

surferdudeNJ said...
on Nov. 22 2011 at 10:41 pm
this is so beautifully written and is just an amazing peice. i also have a homework question, what is the lesson of this passage?

on Nov. 22 2011 at 9:48 pm
I read it three times. I died the first time. Time of death, 9:47 PM. November 22, 2011

irishlass317 said...
on Nov. 22 2011 at 5:44 pm
irishlass317, Jefferson City, Missouri
0 articles 0 photos 134 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I asked Jesus 'How much do you love me?' He answered 'This much.' And He streched out His arms and died."

Wow, this is absolutely amazing!!!! You are a great writer!!!!!!!

on Nov. 9 2011 at 10:44 pm
CorrinaElisabeth, Eatonville, Washington
0 articles 0 photos 22 comments

Favorite Quote:
"No man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without even noticing it." ~C.S.Lewis

Powerful story. Beautifully written. The reader senses every movement and every thought you wrote about. I like how personalized it is/feels. Nice work!

KingMiddie said...
on Nov. 9 2011 at 11:42 am
Im will. i like mids.

on Nov. 7 2011 at 4:41 pm
LifesIllusion BRONZE, Cicero, Indiana
4 articles 0 photos 127 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Don't let your fears slow you down. Instead, chase them down and beat them."

I loved this story! It was so realistic. :)

on Oct. 31 2011 at 5:42 pm
pens-are-mightier-than-swords SILVER, Caledonia, Michigan
8 articles 0 photos 46 comments

Favorite Quote:
"we often put up walls not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down"
~Author Unknown

Simply outstanding! So sad, touching, and unique! By far, one of the short stories I have ever read!

Lletya BRONZE said...
on Oct. 31 2011 at 5:21 pm
Lletya BRONZE, Aurora, Colorado
2 articles 1 photo 21 comments

Favorite Quote:
All we ever wanted you to be, is to be yourself! If everyone leaves the show that night feeling better about themselves, then we did our job. Its a social experiment, slash art project. We're trying to change the world and help alot of people. MCR

Im close to crying too, my mom is in the hospital today, nothing serious though, but it hits home

on Oct. 31 2011 at 5:02 pm
-OathKeeper- BRONZE, Baltimore, Maryland
2 articles 0 photos 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
"You Don't Know What Control Is... Until You Lose It."

Wow... just... wow. At first i thought the story was good... but then by the end it turned into a simply fantastic one.