“What?” he cries. “No, you can bring her back. You’ve got to bring her back.”
“She signed a do not resuscitate order,” I tell him.
“I don’t give a fuck what she signed!” Brian yells in my ear. “You need to give her CPR.”
“I can’t,” I tell him. “Legally, I can’t.”
“She’s dying!” he yells, and the door to my office opens.
Yuri’s in the doorway, waiting for some kind of instruction from me, but I really don’t think now is the time for me to tell her to call the morgue.
“I’m going to need a little help in here,” I tell her. “Mrs. Probst just passed away.”
“Why aren’t you doing anything?!” Brian screams at me.
“Mr. Probst,” Yuri says. “You need to come with me.”
“Fuck you!” he shouts. “I’m not going anywhere. This is my mother, and you’re just letting her die!”
“Brian,” I say in as calm a voice as I can muster given the situation, “you need to come with me.”
“You’re just going to leave her here?” he asks, his anger turning to grief and confusion.
“No,” I tell him. “A couple of doctors are going to come in here and help me move her to a gurney, all right? I’m sorry, but this is what she wanted.”
Brian’s in tears now, clutching his mother’s hand.
I’ve had patients die before. I’ve been in the room when it’s happened, but it’s never happened in my office.
After a few minutes, a couple other doctors and a few nurses are in my office and we’re lifting her as carefully as we can onto the gurney. Brian’s just standing off in the corner of the room now, watching us in silence.
For now, we leave the gurney where it is. I’m not about to tell Brian that he has to leave his mother’s side.
“If you want,” I tell Brian, “we can give you a few minutes with her.”
He’s wiping his nose with his sleeve and doesn’t say anything.
“We’ll just be right outside whenever you’re ready to come out,” I tell him.
With that, the other doctors, nurses, and I exit the office, and I close the door behind us.
Most of the nurses leave, and all but one of the doctors go, as well.
Yuri’s sitting at her desk, looking at the grain of the wood in front of her.
“Are you all right?” I as
k. “That was pretty hard in there.”
“It’s okay,” she says. “I’d probably be doing the same thing in his shoes.”
“Okay,” I tell her. “Let me know if you need anything, will you?”
This isn’t what I expected of today, but something like that is never out of the realm of possibility.
I look back over the waiting room, but immediately turn back to Yuri.
“Where’s Grace?” I ask.