Chapter 6 - The Emergency SurgeryThe victory in the penthouse was short-lived.
Just as Claire was guiding Leo out into the hallway, her emergency pager—the one connected directly to Lily’s isolation room downstairs—began to blare a continuous, high-pitched alert tone.
Code Blue. Pediatric Cardiac Wing. Room 412.
Claire’s world narrowed to a single, terrifying pinpoint. She didn't look back at Margaret or the lawyers. She grabbed Leo's hand and ran toward the service elevators, Ethan sprinting past her, his long strides carrying him down the stairs three at a time.
When Claire and Leo reached the fourth floor, the corridor was a scene of controlled chaos. Nurses were rushing into Room 412 with the crash cart, and the sound of the cardiac monitor’s flatline was audible through the heavy glass doors.
"Lily!" Claire screamed, trying to push her way through the door, but a nurse caught her by the shoulders, holding her back.
"Mrs. Marsh, you need to stay outside! Dr. Cole is in there. They're bag-masking her now. She’s gone into ventricular fibrillation."
Through the window, Claire watched Ethan take the defibrillator paddles from the technician. His face was a mask of absolute concentration, the sweat standing out on his forehead.
"Charge to fifty joules!" Ethan ordered, his voice cutting through the panic in the room. "Clear!"
He placed the paddles against Lily's tiny chest. Her small body jolted off the mattress as the current passed through her. The monitor continued its horrific, unbroken tone.
"Increase to seventy-five! Charge!" Ethan shouted, his fingers adjusting the dials with an efficiency that was beautiful and terrifying. "Clear!"
Thump.
Still nothing.
Leo stood beside Claire, his small hand holding hers with a grip that was surprisingly strong for a seven-year-old. He stared through the glass at the little girl who looked exactly like him, save for the pale, blue tint around her lips.
"She’s the bird," Leo whispered, his voice shaking. "Father... please don't let the bird stop flying."
Inside the room, Ethan looked up for a fraction of a second. He saw Claire pressed against the glass, her face twisted in an agony he knew he couldn't live through if he failed. He saw his son, Leo, watching him with the expectations of a boy who believed his father was a god.
Ethan lowered the paddles, his hands perfectly steady now. He looked down at Lily’s chest. "We aren't losing her today. Charge to one hundred. This is the last one before we open her up right here. Clear!"
Thump.
The monitor went silent for one agonizing, endless second.
Then... beep.
A slow, irregular rhythm appeared on the screen. Beep... beep... beep.
"We have a sinus rhythm," the technician gasped, wiping her brow. "Heart rate is sixty-five and stabilizing."
Ethan dropped the paddles into the cradle, his shoulders slumping as he let out a long, ragged breath. He walked over to the glass door, opening it just enough to look out at Claire and Leo.
"The anomalous band has completely obstructed the outflow tract," Ethan said, his voice thick with emotion but his clinical mind already executing the next steps. "The medication isn't going to hold her anymore. We need to operate now. Not tomorrow. Now."
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"Ethan," Claire whispered, her tears falling onto Leo's shoulder. "Are you going to do it?"
"I'm the only one who knows the geometry of that valve, Claire," Ethan said, his eyes meeting hers with an intensity that carried the weight of seven years of lost time. "I am going into that OR to save our daughter. Take Leo to the consultation room. I'll see you when she's whole."
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