Chapter 8 - The Unseen Enemy
The fragile peace on the cardiac floor shattered completely just as the hospital clock struck midnight, marking the beginning of the third day since Patrick Ror’s admission. Audrey was reviewing the midnight lab results at the central station when the primary monitoring system for Room 3 flashed a violent, erratic yellow warning. She didn't wait for an alarm; she grabbed the emergency crash cart and sprinted down the corridor, bursting through the door to find Patrick gasping for air while his heart monitor traced a jagged, dangerous rhythm of ventricular tachycardia. Callum was already on his feet, pressing the emergency call button while shouting his father’s name in mounting panic.
“Get back against the wall, Callum!” Audrey ordered sharply, slamming the medication tray onto the rolling stand as Dr. Park rushed into the room behind her.
“What happened to him?” Callum demanded, his voice cracking slightly with raw terror as he watched his father’s eyes roll back.
“His potassium levels spiked out of nowhere, triggering an acute arrhythmia,” Audrey shouted over the rising shriek of the monitor, her hands moving with lightning speed to prep an intravenous line of amiodarone. “Dr. Park, we need to shock him if this rhythm doesn't convert in ten seconds!”
Callum watched in helpless agony as the medical team swarmed the bed, the stark white lights casting harsh shadows across his pale face. For the first time in his life, all his money, all his power, and all his armed men were completely useless against an invisible biological enemy attacking his father from within. Audrey caught his panicked gaze across the frantic commotion, locking eyes with him through the chaos.
“Callum! Look at me!” she commanded, her voice cutting through the noise like a laser. “He is fighting, but you need to breathe. Get out of the way of the cart!”
Something in her absolute authority anchored him; Callum slowly stepped back, his hands clenched so tightly into fists that his knuckles turned chalk white.
“Charging to one hundred and fifty joules,” Dr. Park called out. “Clear!”
The room jolted as the electric shock surged through Patrick’s chest, his body arching off the mattress before falling back down in a lifeless slump. For three agonizing seconds, the monitor flatlined into a flat, straight green line accompanied by a continuous tone.
“Charge again to two hundred!” Audrey yelled, her fingers already pressing the pads against the patient's sternum. “Clear!”
A second violent jolt shook the bed. The monitor flickered, hesitated, and then slowly began to trace a regular, synchronized pulse once more.
May you like
“We have a rhythm,” Audrey breathed out, wiping a stray drop of sweat from her forehead with her elbow. “Blood pressure is returning. He’s back.”
Callum closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall behind him as a shuddering sigh escaped his lungs, the terrifying weight of impending loss temporarily lifting from his chest.
