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Kate sat on a side bench inside the ambulance, the harsh lights illuminating her son’s gaping chest wound. She held his cold hand, averting her eyes from the deep hole in his young body. The two paramedics yelled orders at each other while one of them pressed on the wound. From under the oxygen mask, Renzo lay motionless, his once pink and glowing youthful complexion now gray, his body still.
The medics urgently, yet calmly, worked on her son as Kate kept her head near his, holding his hand and leaning in close. She whispered in his ear, as she smoothed his brown curls from his forehead.
“Hang in there, baby. Mommy’s here. I love you.” She kissed his cheek and hand over and over. “Stay strong, baby. You and daddy are gonna’ be okay.” Her voice cracked. “You hear me?”
She didn’t believe her own words. Renzo already looked different. Gone. She was certain Marco didn’t survive, though no one had told her so.
They made a sharp turn, as the ambulance driver shouted orders into a two-way radio preparing the emergency personnel for their arrival. He took another fast right into the Regions Hospital emergency parking lot. He swerved around a sea of parked cars, finally making his way up to the entrance. Kate’s breath grew shallow as things happened quickly.
Her hand was yanked from Renzo’s as they whisked his gurney out of the ambulance to a crew of five waiting for him. One of the officers from earlier blocked her view as he leaned in. She rose and let him help her down. Icy snow lashed at an angle under the bright lights, but a large overhang above the emergency room entrance shielded them from the storm.
She shouted up at the cop. “Where are they taking him? I need to follow them!”
At that moment, the siren from the ambulance carrying Marco interrupted his response. Kate’s head snapped back into focus as it pulled up. She put her hand to her mouth and choked back her screams as Marco too, was quickly whisked inside.
She moved to run after them, but the cop grabbed her arm.
Kate tried to pull away from him, digging in her heels. “Please! I need to be in there!”
She yanked her arm from his grip and took off. The doors where they took Marco and Renzo had locked shut, so she darted in through the lobby entrance. Passing a crowd in the waiting room, she ran up to an intake desk where a clerk was with a patient.
Pointing and crying, Kate sobbed and wailed. “I’m sorry, but they just brought my husband and son in. I need to get back there. Please!”
The heavyset woman apologized to the patient she’d been helping and stood up. She pointed Kate to the next desk over. “Ma’am, ma’am,” she said to Kate. “Calm down. We’ll need some information.”
Kate furiously waved her head. “No, no, I—”
“Please, ma’am. Someone will take you back in a second. We at least need their names, dates of birth and address. If you give us that, I promise we’ll take you back. Okay? You can give the information to this young lady. The smiling woman gestured for Kate to sit.
“I’m not sitting,” Kate said. She railed off their names, birth dates and address and threw the insurance card at her. Looking back at the first woman, she pointed. “Take me back to my husband and son. Now.”
The woman nodded and gestured another apology to the person she was helping. She rose and started walking. Kate followed her to a secure area. The woman swiped her badge and hit a silver button on the right wall. They paused for the huge doors to swing open. She jogged with Kate down a long hall, and then turned right, down another hall.
Shouting could be heard from inside an operating room. Kate ran ahead, leaving the woman behind. As Kate pushed back the curtain, her head spun at the sight.
A crowd of nurses and doctors were frantically working on her son’s motionless body, the bright spotlight blazing down onto his bloody chest. She ran toward Renzo but was grabbed at the waist.
A tall dark-skinned man in baby blue scrubs was bent over, his fingers working inside Renzo’s chest. Kate’s legs buckled as tears poured down her cheeks.
“Oh my God, is he ok? What’s happening?”
With a slight accent, a male nurse shook his head. “I’m sorry ma’am, but your son is very weak. We are doing our best to save him.”
An unfamiliar crack in her voice escaped, as she shook her head. “No.” She pressed the tears from her eyes and sniffed her runny nose. “Come on baby. Please, stay with me.”
She looked around at the nurses and doctors working on the machines, checking Renzo’s tubes and jotting down notes.
“Where’s my husband? Marco? Is he okay?”
One of the nurses gave her a strange look as another one said, “He’s down the hall. They’re working on him now, ma’am.”
“Can I see him? Can someone show me where he is? I want to tell him his son is okay.”
“Not yet,” said the doctor, who was leaving the room as she spoke.
“Please! Is he okay?”
He shook his head. “No ma’am. He is not okay. And I’m sorry. Neither is your son. She’ll take you to your husband.”
She stared at Renzo as she left the room and turned the corner following the nurse to her husband’s room. She entered, took one look at Marco, and everything went black.
