Grave Decisions

Hundreds of patients passed through his ORs with hundreds of follow-ups and talking to of families. Seeing post-surgical patients lying in hospital beds with tubes running from their arms, tubes forced down their throats, automated blood pressure cuffs taking readings every ten minutes, and electrodes attached to gauze-covered leads strategically placed around the subject’s head measuring brain activity had become the norm for him. All of it had become the status quo of his medical life. No past medical professional experience had prepared him for the sight of his own loved one lying prone, helpless, powerless to those who administered medical attention. In all his years of watching families and friends stand beside, hover over, care for, and minister to his brain patients, it was this moment that drove all their pain and grief home into his heart like a sledgehammer. His mind raced frantically trying to think of what he could do to help her. To get her back home with him where she belonged.