Three Seconds Before Death

I watched my attending pronounce a patient dead who was still breathing. Room four.

Cardiac arrest. We worked him for forty minutes. Flatline. She called it.

But I saw his chest move. Subtle. Real. I froze.

Do I speak up and humiliate her in front of everyone? Risk my entire career before it starts?

Or stay silent and become complicit in something unforgivable? The monitor showed nothing.

Maybe I imagined it. Maybe exhaustion was playing tricks. But his finger twitched.

I locked eyes with the attending. She saw it too. For three seconds we just stared at

each other. Then she grabbed the paddles without a word. We got him back.