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    Marty
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

Marty's Shorts and Flashes - 2. Flat Lining (Flash)

Chapter Warnings: None
A surgeon has to make a quick decision in the emergency room.

"Clear!"

I stand back from the body of the middle-aged man lying on the table in ER. Several gunshot wounds are in evidence. A nurse places paddles on his chest. The body jerks violently upwards and then settles back onto the table.

"Still flat lining," says a voice to my right.

"Increase the power," I insist, restarting CPR.

The next jolt is also unsuccessful. I almost give up.

"Time of death 20:48 hours," says a voice behind me.

"No!" I cry. "Pass me the chest cutter!"

"Doctor, let him go. He’s too badly gone."

"Chest cutter. Now!"

Sound of ribs cracking... Vice opens the chest... Heart exposed... Not beating... Lifeless.

Closing my palm around the heart, I squeeze rhythmically. Blood pulses through the arteries. I stop after a minute. The heart is still lifeless

"Small paddles!" I say, squeezing the heart again.

I remove my hand from the chest as the nurse places two small paddles, one each side of the heart.

"Clear!"

The heart jumps inside his chest. It keeps beating as the paddles are removed. The electronic sound in the background changes.

"We have a heartbeat," says the voice to my right.

"Close him up," I say quietly, leaving the ER.

As a piece of flash fiction, I feel that I have ended this at the correct place. Readers are welcome to disagree with me.
Copyright © 2019 Marty; All Rights Reserved.
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Stories posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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On 3/3/2019 at 10:56 PM, Talo Segura said:

The ending was fine, I would have liked more at the beginning. Who was the person being resuscitated?

Thanks for the comment, @Talo Segura.

As to who the person being resuscitated was, I don't think it really matters. It could have been the victim of an attempted robbery. It could have been a victim of domestic violence. It could even have been someone shot by the police as he was committing some crime of his own. None of that mattered to the doctor trying to resuscitate him. All he saw was a fellow human being that needed his intervention to try to stop him from dying. Something to do with the Hippocratic Oath he had taken, maybe? :) 

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