4:00 P.M.
COLUMBIA-PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL
168TH STREET
NEW YORK CITY
Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital was the center of the world’s attention, even as FBI, NYPD, and various military assets killed off the final vestiges of the attack on New York City. No one had truly started thinking about what was next, though all knew that what faced the United States—and in particular New York City—was a decade-long recovery. It was estimated that the body count was higher than even 9/11, and approached five thousand. It would take weeks for even basic cleanup and to put out the last of the fires spreading from the tunnels.
But the eyes of the world were on Columbia-Presbyterian, where the president of the United States lay in ICU. The country, the world, even America’s enemies, waited with bated breath to see if J. P. Dellenbaugh would live.
A secondary story did manage to take the media’s attention away from the hospital every few minutes. Iran’s Presidential Palace had been hit with a direct strike by a missile. Though unconfirmed by the Iran government, reports were that Ali Suleiman, Iran’s leader, was dead. The Pentagon had not commented.
Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital was shut off to the public. Outside, behind a rope line thick with armed soldiers and SWAT, a cabal of reporters and media, cameras and vehicles, from every network in the world, gathered and delivered the news back home, and yet there was no news. For hours, not a word had been released by the White House or by Columbia-Presbyterian.
As the BBC put it:
DELLENBAUGH FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE
The truth was, however, Dellenbaugh was in ICU and breathing on his own. Though still unconscious, he would, it seemed, survive. Rather, it was Mike Murphy who was hanging by a thread.
After Murphy’s main life functions were rerouted through a heart-lung machine, Takayama operated on Murphy’s damaged heart. Surgery lasted several hours. Finally, Takayama looked up.
“Let’s get him off the heart-lung,” said Takayama as he prepared to stitch up the opening in Murphy’s sternum. “It’s repaired.”
The team went to work taking Murphy off the heart-lung machine. Slowly, they transitioned the body’s heart and lungs off the machine as Murphy’s heart started pumping again. A steady beat chimed on one of the monitors as the screen displayed a serial line of jagged but steady beats.