“No! This is it, the real thing!” she yelled. So, I carried her outside and waved frantically at a taxi to pull over. After two had passed one finally stopped to let us in. The hospital was only two blocks down, but the journey in the car lasted forever. Eventually we reached the hospital and I carried Jean over to the receptionist and there I spotted a wheelchair which I took hold of straight away. I sat Jean gently down and asked to see Dr. Prachid immediately. He was only in the staff room so he didn’t take too long in reaching us. He took us into a room full of pregnant mothers, one screaming at the top of her voice and I asked if we could please have a private room. Dr. Prachid informed us that the private rooms were two hundred and fifty-five dollars per day, but when I looked at the expression on my wife’s face I agreed instantaneously and took the room. So as we were approaching our new room, I could see that Jean was very excited indeed. But the groans she made made me think twice. At the room when I was putting Jean into her bed, the doctor took Jean’s records and started writing things down whilst muttering to himself, “…every twenty seconds…” I heard. I had no idea what this meant but soon the doctor announced that Jean was going to give birth any minute now. I clutched Jean’s hand and gave her a peck on the cheek and as soon as I let go of her hand she screamed the loudest I’ve ever heard anyone scream in my life. “Here it comes said the doctor, one last push!” I looked at Jean and tear dropped from her eye. And that was it. The baby was out! Then the doctor smacked its behind gently and I heard a loud cry. “What did you do that for?” I asked.
“Oh, I had to see if it was sensitive to touch to see if it was healthy or not” he told. “You’ve gave birth to a happy, healthy baby boy,” Dr. Prachid exclaimed handing the baby to Jean. I couldn’t believe it. I was a father – the happiest man alive! Then at that, the nurse took the baby away from us. “What are you doing?” Jean asked, and grasped her newborn as if never to see him again. “I’m just going to wash him off.” said the nurse defensively, “I have to clean him.”
“Well make sure you bring him straight back.” said Jean firmly. When the nurse left, Jean and I gazed into each other’s eyes and laughed, we were so joyful at each other! “Is there any chance that the nurse wanted our child so bad she took it home with her and is trying to raise him herself?” Jean whispered. She assumed the worse; subsequently I knew that Jean was going to be a wonderful mother. Just when we ended the conversation the nurse came back in and handed the baby to me – maybe because she was now quite afraid of Jean. But it was the first time I had held him. I didn’t know what to say. He was just so small. I held him close to me and supported his head and smiled, he just closed his eyes. Then I handed him to Jean. When she had hold of him, I put my finger in between his hand and he clenched his fist. “It’s instinct that he does that.” Doctor Prachid explained.
So four days later Jean was allowed to come home. “Lee, we haven’t thought of any names for him yet.”
“I know, what do you think?”
“I don’t know, we’ve done everything except pick a name for him.”
“I’ll like whatever you want,” I said willingly.
“I really don’t know Lee!” So the baby just went on as ‘Baby’. We put the baby in his cradle and there he rested for the whole night. Not a sound was heard from him. I couldn’t believe how heavy a sleeper he was. We grew a very large bond with Baby when feeding, changing and just playing with him.
Next morning I had to go back to work. I awoke at seven o’clock and crept out of bed and went into the bathroom to get washed and changed. After that I went into Baby’s room and lifted him out of bed. I slipped my finger in his hand. Nothing happened. I tried again, but his fist wasn’t tightening. Now I got really nervous. I assumed the worst. I put him down and put my hand over the left side of his chest. I couldn’t feel anything, I put his mouth up against my ear, and couldn’t hear any breathing. “JEAN!” I screamed, “call 911, now!” She rushed in to see what the matter was and I repeatedly shouted “Call an ambulance, there’s something wrong with Baby!” She ran downstairs as quick as she could and tripped over one of Baby’s teddies and let out a high-pitched shriek. I ran out to see her and she was lying at the bottom of the stairs beside a large pool of blood. My whole body trembled as I walked down the stairs. I turned Jean over and this huge gash on the side of her head was pouring out blood. She must have hit it off the corner of the skirting boards. So I ran in to the kitchen to get the phone and dialled 9.1.1, “ I need an ambulance to 60 Berryhill Road straight away. My 24 year old wife has fallen down the stairs and has a puncture on the right side of her head which has caused severe bleeding and my one week old baby isn’t breathing and has no pulse.”
“Okay. An ambulance is on its way now, but in the mean time can you sit your wife up making sure her head is above the level of her heart and wrap her in a warm blanket.” clarified the operator, “then attend to your child immediately. Do you know proper C.P.R?”
“Y-yes I think,” I stumbled.
“If not, you could end up damaging the child even more.”
“Yes, I do know how to perform C.P.R.” I said firmly.
“Okay, perform C.P.R until the paramedics arrives and then let them take over.”
“Thank-you!”
And I hung up the phone. I grabbed Baby’s blanket and wrapped it around Jean, and sat her up in between corner of the wall and unlocked the door. Then I rushed up the stairs to Baby and put him on his mat where he gets changed and pressed my sweaty palms against his chest and pushed down eight times. Then bent down and gave him mouth-to-mouth for five breaths and pressed his chest gently again. Seconds seemed like minutes, minutes seemed like hours, finally the ambulance came and they took over straight away. I felt relief but at the same time even more scared because the fact that my wife and child had to be taken care of by paramedics seemed to make me panic more. Both were rushed to Bridges Hospital and I was told that there was no room left in the ambulance so I had to take a taxi there. As soon as I got in the taxi, I told the driver to follow the ambulance. On the way to the hospital I was totally hysterical. I was never more terrified in my life. When we reached the hospital I was told to wait in the waiting room. I wasn’t even allowed to see my child. This made me very anxious and as result I burst through the doors to see my only baby boy being shocked with two metal resuscitators. The doctor staggered towards me and said, “I’m so sorry, there was nothing we could do.” My knees trembled, and I just fell. I had no will power to keep myself standing.
The couple of days I spent alone after the most heartbreaking experience you could ever imagine was like hell. There was nothing to do, well nothing worth doing. I just lay in bed, vexed with everything. Why, why after being blessed with a child does it have to be taken away from me, along with my wife? Questions just kept popping into my head, how come it has to happen to me – not that I would wish it upon anyone else. The funeral was just two days away. Jean’s parents were going to plan it. I didn’t even know if I was going to attend it. “There’s no point,” I thought to myself. I switched on the television and witness a baby being born on ‘ER’ and burst into tears. I got up and smashed the TV against the wall. I just had to take my anger out on something. I thought about the saying ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ but what good could come out of your wife and child dying? Then I thought, “Jean and Baby are in a better place, where no one can harm them, they can always be happy now and they’re just waiting for me so we can all be a happy family again!”
Following this, Lee helped with the wake and funeral for his wife and child. But sadness was all that was in his heart. Blaming nobody but himself for his wife’s death, as he told her to go down and call the ambulance, he had nowhere to go. Nobody to love. Now he has developed an alcohol addiction, and has been dismissed from work for good.
Philip Lee
11Y
