#Disclaimer: I own no one from ER except Dave. He's all mine and I'm not giving him back. Tell them Dave, sweetheart(as I remove the gag from his mouth)
PART 9
No one could believe what Mark just said. "We can't save Malucci but we can save Carter, but we need to do it soon," Mark said. Just then Chuny walked over to the desk and asked if Allison could see her daddy. She had been asking and Chuny did kind of promise. Mark and Kerry agreed but weren't sure how much about what happened she understood. Chuny said she knew her daddy was hurt but didn't know how serious it was. They let Chuny take her in but agreed that they tell her nothing, that was Cheryl's job. By the way, Randi, have you been able to reach Cheryl. "No, but I'll keep trying," she said. As Chuny led Allison in to her dying dad, Elizabeth came down after she heard about the shooting. She was in surgery and didn't know all the details. She had to make sure Mark was alright. He explained to her that there was only one casualty and took her outside Trauma two. She took one look and became speechless. Finally she was able to spit out," MALUCCI!". Mark told her the situation. They just stood and watched Allison at Dave's bedside. Allison held Dave's hand and said," Daddy, if you think I'm mad at you because we're not going to the zoo today like you promised. Well, I'm not. I know you're sick but we can go when you get better. In fact, when we do go it will be my treat. I have some birthday and Christmas money saved up. After all, it's the least I could do after you saved me today. But first we have to make you better. I love you, daddy." Mark and Elizabeth both tried to picture Ella in Allison's place and one of them in Dave's place. They both cried and Elizabeth said, "Why does everything have to be so hard?"
Elizabeth said if Maria agreed to the transplant she would make sure she is in the OR with Dave and Carter. Mark and Elizabeth went upstairs to speak to Romano about putting an OR and a transplant team on standby. Suddenly, alarms started going off and Haleh emerged from a room screaming, "We have a code blue in Trauma two." Luka was at the admit desk and yelled," Oh hell, that's Malucci's room." He ran inside followed by Lydia and Malik with a crash cart. "Charge to 200. Clear." Luka yelled than shocked Dave. Nothing. "Charge to 300. Clear." Again nothing. "Should we call it ,Dr. Kovac?" Lydia said. " No, not yet. If you never did anything right in your life before, Malucci , now's the time to start so if you have any fight left in you -- prove it. Charge to 500. Clear." There was a beat, then another. "Sinus rhythm", Malik said. Luka took a deep breath and replied, "Good boy, Malucci. Let's get 60 cc Imdur to stop the arrhythmia and 20cc nitroglycerin IV push to keep it from happening again. I can't believe I just resuscitated a dead man." Haleh, Malik and Lydia looked at Luka and he turned around to see Dave's sister standing behind him. "Maria!" he murmured as she ran hysterically out of the room and down the hall to her husband and sons.
Once Maria had calmed down Luka and Kerry had explained what happened. She didn't want to hear it. She just wanted to be by Dave's side and help him through this. When she was led into Dave's room, half the ER followed including Mark. They all stared at Mark as if to say, "Maybe, it was too soon to give up."
Mark answered, "He suffered massive brain stem damage. You guys are doctors and nurses, you know what that means and if you don't you're more brain dead than Malucci." Realizing that Maria was standing there, he said," I'm sorry, Maria, I shouldn't have said that." Maria said, "Miracles happen; people wake up from comas all the time." He replied, "Yes, they do, but, he's not in a coma. The only signs of life he shows are because of the machines he's hooked up to, however, his lungs are weak, they are filling up with fluid faster than we can suction it out of him. Pretty soon, not even the machines will be able to breathe for him. Maria, he will never recover. Your brother, Dave, will never take another unsustained breath without his respirator. He will never again open his eyes and look through them. Now there's a young man upstairs who has a chance at a normal, healthy, long life--that's more than Dave will ever have again. This is Carter's shot, it's his only shot and with Dave's help I would like to give it to him. It's only a matter of time before Dave goes into Congestive Heart Failure--his heart will go into a lethal rhythm and stop beating--then it will be of no use to anyone. Whether it takes six minutes or six months is irrelevant, the point is we lose one doctor or we lose two. Regardless, Dave Malucci is dead--John Carter is dying . We don't have time to debate this. If the transplant is going to happen, it has to be soon while Dave's heart is still functionable. The longer we wait it's a step closer we take to losing another young doctor prematurely." Pausing for a moment, Maria said she had to think about it. Mark interrupted and said," We want you to take some time to think about it but not too much time because neither your brother or Carter has that kind of time. Malucci has already gone into cardiac arrest once, if it happens again we may not be as lucky to get him back next time." Maria walked over to her brother and touched his blood covered head bandages and started to cry. They left her alone with Dave and waited outside for her answer.
She whispered into Dave's ear in Italian,. "I know how they feel about you here and if last night at your house didn't convince them that you really are a cool dude than maybe if you help out one of their prestigious doctors maybe they would see that Dave Malucci was really a sensitive, caring and loving man. I know you would want to do this for Carter anyway, but, now it's time to prove just how big a heart you really had." She kissed his head and left the room. Outside they saw a teary- eyed Maria emerge from the room and say, " You have a heart for Carter." Dr. Benton said he would start the paperwork and alert the transplant team on standby. They should also notify the national registry too. Wendy walked over to Maria and everyone thanked her for what she did. She said don't thank her--Thank him. She went back into Dave's room.
Only a few moments past but it seemed like hours, no one in the ER knew what to do with themselves, than it seemed like everyone saw her at the same time. Cheryl walked down the hall totally oblivious to today's events but slightly confused. She said, " I went upstairs to pick up my paycheck and they said you have been calling up there all day looking for me. I come down here and Allison said her daddy was shot. What is going on? Where's --Lucci?"(Her name for him). Then a surgical intern came down and told them that the paperwork was almost complete, Carter's being prepped for his transplant and they were about ready to harvest. "Was the donor in that room?" he asked. Cheryl looked at everyone and asked what he was talking about. " What donor?" Then she saw Maria walk out of the room and it all started making sense. Cheryl said, "Maria," then paused. Her eyes starting to well up with tears as she cried, "Oh god--Not Dave---Not Dave's heart." Maria and the others nodded and Cheryl bent over and fell to the floor crying hysterically.
Please read and review.