Unnoticed

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

I'm not kidding. Room 7, trauma bay, gunshot wound. We worked him

for forty minutes, called it, covered his face. Then I saw his chest move.

I froze. My attending already walked out to tell the family. I looked at

the nurse. She saw it too. Monitor flatline, but his lungs

kept pulling air. Nobody else noticed. The family is outside crying now.