#cpr fantasy

Jesus adjusted the collar of his black button up shirt in the reflection of the office window. At just 23, he was one of the youngest analysts on the team. He had been feeling off all morning. A strange tightness in his chest that he chalked up to stress and too many late nights debugging spreadsheets. He powered through another email, fingers flying across the keyboard.

Then it hit.

A crushing pain exploded behind his sternum, radiating down his left arm like fire. His vision blurred. The room tilted. Jesus tried to stand, gripping the edge of his desk, but his legs gave out.

“Jesus? You okay, man?” his coworker called out.

He collapsed to the carpeted floor, gasping, the black fabric of his shirt stretching across his chest as he clutched at it. Voices rose in panic. Someone shouted for help. A woman nearby screamed.

“Call 911!”

Within minutes, the sharp wail of sirens pierced the building. Two paramedics burst through the glass doors, equipment bags swinging. They dropped to their knees beside Jesus, who was now unconscious, his long brown hair fanned out across the floor.

“Clear the area!” one medic ordered, a woman with steady hands. She ripped open his black button-up shirt, buttons scattering, exposing his chest. Her partner immediately started chest compressions, deep, rhythmic pushes right over Jesus’s sternum.

“One and two and three and four…” she counted aloud, the heels of her palms driving down with force. The other medic cut away more of the shirt for better access. Jesus’s body jerked slightly with each compression. His long hair shifted with the motion. A coworker stood frozen nearby, phone still in hand, whispering, “Come on, Jesus… stay with us.” …….

First his friends think he just fainted, it was about time that happened with all the work he’s been putting himself through, but he doesn’t stir. Checking his pulse, they find nothing. One of them call an ambulance, the other starts CPR.

The arrest is caused by nothing more than the emotional distress of an argument with his partner, combined with a heart defect the doctors had told him wasn’t so serious. HIs partner performs CPR, breathing heavily and trying not to panic, but freaking out over the agonal gasps and the feeling of his ribs giving under the weight of the compressions, just when the ambulance arrives.

An EMT takes over compressions, and soon he is intubated and his chest is squeezed by an AutoPulse instead. He is still in cardiac arrest when they transport him to the hospital, eyes half open, going back and forth between v-fib and PEA.

In the ER they work on him for the better part of an hour until they have a pulse back. His heart has taken heavy damage - if it was ‘not so serious’ before, now it definitely is. It’s hard to tell what this has done to his brain.