MY ROCK--3

I heard the siren fading in the distance,as the ambulance carried my dying husband to a large hospital for surgery.His chances of arriving alive,were slim.Chances of surviving surgery,even slimmer.

I called our son Steve,to tell him of this new development but he had already left,to come to his father's bedside,at this little country clinic.
I would have to wait here for him.I couldn't chase the ambulance to the hospital,as I wanted to do.I asked the nurse at the desk,if I could wait for my son.She said she would wait with me and unlocked the front door.Lovely people at that clinic.

After an eternity ,we heard banging at the door.Steve,my daughter Jane,daughterJemma and grandson Justin tumbled in the door all at once.They ran to me and held me until I could speak.Apparently,they had been wandering,lost,for the last forty minutes.So much for Justin's Google map.
I explained that we would have to go to the university hospital.Steve was very familiar with the city,so we made it there in under thirty minutes.Brian was still in surgery.That must mean he was still alive.I told them as much as I knew and we all sat there holding hands.
"Did you call Jen?"Steve asked me.
Jennifer had just left for a week's holiday with her family,to a special camp for kidney patients.She was due to have a kidney transplant in three or four weeks.She was very close to her dad,but I was reluctant to take that week away from her."No,let her rest,unless Dad dies,then,we have no choice."

By the time the surgeon emerged it was about two thirty a.m.
"Well,he's still alive,"he said."I don't know how he made it here with almost complete restriction of blood flow.I removed a long piece of plaque that was caught at an intersection of two arteries and it was blocking both.I've put four stents in the artery to hold it open.Fifty percent of his heart has been permanently damaged.That half will never work again because of the build up of scar tissue.In that sense,the human heart is unforgiving."
"He must live the time he has left accordingly.Change his lifestyle completely,so he doesn't put any strain on the working portion of his heart."
"If only you had got him here sooner,I could have done so much more,saved so much more of his heart."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY DOCTOR?"At that moment the strain was too much.I blacked out for just a moment.
When I came back to the real world,I was sitting down.My daughters were on their knees in front of me."The doctor went to get you some water and a cold cloth.Are you okay?"
asked Jemma.
The doctor's words were ringing in my head.That little pissant country doctor had nearly killed Brian,and he's destroyed whatever life he has left.I should have insisted they bring him to a hospital.Why didn't I?
Eventually we got to see Brian.As we walked into the room,we heard him say,"Don't let me die,I have to be there when my daughter has her surgery."

We wondered later,if that was the reason he hung on to life so tenaciously.Apparently,we found out later,he had died in the ambulance and was revived by the para medics and the doctor who had travelled with him.
When we brought him home,he didn't look like Brian anymore.He had aged by twenty years and his hair was grey.His eyes were dull and vacant and he couldn't remember anything that had happened.He couldn't remember our names or the names of lots of common items.I was told that his brain had been starved of blood and ,therefore,oxygen for so long,that it affected his memory,but it was temporary.
The change in his personality was not temporary.He was a completely different man.There was no more fun or mischief in him,no joy,no more good old dependable Brian,no more rock.He was a quiet,frail invalid,who seemed to have shrunk inside himself.
Steve stepped into the breach and became our patriarch,bless him.

One month later,against doctor's orders,a very pale and wasted Brian,stood beside a gurney,where his daughter lay,waiting to be wheeled away for a transplant.He had promised her he would be there,He held her hand and smiled at her and told her,she was going to be just fine.It was exactly what she needed.He has never broken a promise to any of us.
Did I say,no more rock?I was wrong.