11. On the Road to Death

Private opened Skippers beak and tried to ventilate. At first it did´t really work but after a few tries, he made it to blow a little breath into the lungs of the leader. A few minutes later, Kowalski came from his lab and took a machine with hoses behind him. Rico was also awake now and was about to freak out. "Skipper dead?" he cried in horror.

"No, not yet." Private anwered and tried to make Skipper breathing one more time "Private, Rico get him to the couch. I need space to connect him to the machine." Kowalski said nervously, and prepared everything. As soon as possible Private and Rico carried the unconsious Skipper to the couch. Kowalski was already ready start an intubation.

After the leader was lying on the sofa, the scientists pushed Skippers head back and led the tube into his trachea. Then he attached a thin tube in it and turned on the respirator, so Skipper was finally able to breathe again. Now, the biggest danger was passed. The Penguins were trying to calm down after the excitement. "Private, what happened?" Kowalski asked out of breath. "I don´t know, he was suddenly breathing so hard and then he stopped breathing at all. I was so scared." Private said, trying to recover from the shock.

The three looked nervously to the poor skipper who just survived because he had a tube in the lung. "How can such a thing happen. Is he dying now?" Private whimpered softly and Kowalski started immediatly to examinate Skipper. The scientists listened Skippers heart with a stethoscope and his face became serious.

"Rico, bring me a syringe, stat." Kowalski said, feeling and examinating Skippers chest. His face grew more tense. After two minutes, Rico came back with the syringe. The scientists quickly took it and stabbed the needle into the region of Skippers heart. He slowly pulled the plunger up and a clear liquid filled the syringe.

The Penguins were shocked. "Kowalski, what's that?" Private asked in alarm. "This is a pericardial effusion. A collection of fluid in the chest, which presses on the heart. This could also affect his breathing. If we don´t aspirate the fluid, his heart will be damaged even more." Kowalski murmured thoughtfully. "Oh God, this means that the end is coming?" Private asked again and expecting the worst.

"Private, I don´t know. I don´t know what I should do more. I will do everything to help him. But if his heart would fail, I can´t do anything." Kowalski said sadly. "No, no." Rico muttered and sighed despaired. "You saved his life, Private. If you had not been with him, he would have suffocated." the scientist said, looking proud at the little penguin who was pleased with the compliment.

"What now?" asked Rico depressed. "I think we have to wait until he wakes up. More we can not do now. I'll connect him to the ECG, so that we can monitor his condition. Now, if something should happen, we will know it immediatly." Kowalski muttered as he stuck electrodes on Skippers chest. A short time later, Skippers heartbeat appeared on the monitor.

It was weak but regularly, which calmed his team a bit. "I think we should go to bed. Theres no use if we sit here all night." said the scientist, who was glad he had the situation under control now. "How are we supposed to be able to sleep?" Private asked irritated. "Skipper would not want us to spend because all night in fear for him." Kowalski said, standing up.

"I will stay with him." Private cried and lay on the couch demonstratively. Rico also wanted to stay with him. "Well, we all stay with him." Kowalski muttered and threw some pillows at them. The four huddled on the couch and tried to sleep. The beep of the ECG echoed through the HQ and left a sinister atmosphere. Nevertheless, they managed to fall asleep because they were all done totally by the emotional stress.

The next morning ...

Skippers team was already on its feet, as the leader regained consiousness. He felt terribly miserable. He couldn´t speak, because he still had the tube in his throat. With bloodshot eyes he looked for help to his friends. Quickly the others noticed that their leader was regaining consciousness.

"Skipper, how do you feel?" Private asked and sat down beside him on the couch. The leader pointed with tears in his eyes on his neck to show Private that he couldn´t answer him. Skipper nodded and a big tear rolled from his eyes. His face hardly showed a sign of life, only pain and despair. "Can you not remove the hose, Kowalski?" Private asked when he saw Skipper painful facial expression.

The scientists went to the couch and took his stethoscope. He pressed the cold metal tightly on Skippers chest and the leader counted with a further bad news. "Wait, Skipper. I have to aspirate the liquid again, so the pressure on your lungs will be reduced again. Then I remove the tube, at least for a few hours. Until a new pericardial effusion accumulated. Through you cardiac damage it could happen any time now. " Kowalski said with a sad undertone.

Skipper knew that he wouldn´t recover, yet he wept about his terrible condition. He didn´t want to be ventilated or that he could only live by machines. "Shh skipper, that's not so bad. As long as you're alive." Private murmured, stroking Skippers back to comfort him. "So, Skipper. I´ll pull out the hose now and you have cough vigorously, okay?" Kowalski said, and fumbled with the tube.

Skipper coughed and choked as Kowalski pulled the tube out of of the leaders throat. It was very unpleasant, and the leader got a coughing attacki. "Thank you, men." coughed Skipper and pressed his flippers against his aching neck. But Kowalski made a serious face, because he wanted to explain to the leaders the urgency of the situation. The scientists knew that it made no sense to make his leader any false hopes.

"Skipper, I don´t know how to explain it. But your condition is very serious. I know it's hard to say this, but your heart will fail soon. I'm sorry, but I guess that you won´t have more than one to two days left. " Kowalski murmured and tried to swallow his tears. Skipper got a heavy sting in his chest that had nothing to do with his illness. He buried his face under his wings and sobbed. The leader felt ten times worse by Kowalski's harsh words. Depressed, he sank back into the soft couch and suffered a nervous breakdown.