Chương 117: Chapter 114.
I warily looked over the edge of the balcony under the assumption it was all in my head, but to my horror, I discovered an outstretched arm beneath one of the connected bridges that partially obstructed my view from the rest of the body below it.
Mortified, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was no way. My eyes were surely playing tricks on me. I rushed into the corridor towards the door to her unit and frantically knocked. I prayed that what I'd just witnessed was only an illusion.
Nobody answered.
The door was locked.
Not a single soul appeared to be home. I knew it would put me in a precarious position if this wasn't some sort of hallucination, but in my hysterical state, I couldn't think straight. To stand back and do nothing again, I didn't want to see it again. On the off chance her life could somehow be saved, no matter how small the possibility may have been, I wanted her to live this time. She deserved a second chance at a normal life.
She was only recently given this chance to live a new life, for it to be taken away just like that… it was too unreasonable. It was unfair. Wasn't it far too cruel and unjust? Without any hesitation, I slammed against the door to her unit with the full force of my entire body. I threw all caution to the wind. After a few strong bashes with the back of my shoulder, along with several heavy kicks, the door violently flung wide open. I fumbled into the room on my knees as I frantically looked about left and right for any traces of her.
There was nobody around.
"Kyaaaaa!"
Once again, for the second time, the sound of a panicked scream echoed loudly inside my head. Whether it was a real scream or myself replaying the traumatic event in my head when I witnessed her fall it wasn't very clear. I ran towards the balcony and looked directly down, but I didn't see a body as I'd previously seen.
A seed of slight doubt sprouted in my heart from the contradictory information I'd perceived. I dashed out of her unit and madly descended the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. I jumped down a flight of stairs at a time as countless chaotic negative thoughts corrupted all my thought processes.
I'd never lost my cool this badly before. It was truly a first for me. I completely blanked out; by the time I arrived at the location where she'd fallen, on top of the roof of the main lobby's building, what laid there in plain sight was the bloodied body of a familiar white-haired woman. Before I lost myself to despair, I approached her side. I fell to my knees powerlessly beside her as I examined her closely.
I couldn't lose myself yet. In the unlikely event that she could be saved, I had to keep myself together. I placed my hand by her nose and there was a very weak flow of air. It was so faint and fragile that I nearly overlooked it. I took out my phone and immediately called the emergency line before I examined her any further.
"911. What's the exact location of your emergency?"
"575 Ariala Street on the roof of the main lobby between the eastern and central buildings."
"What's the cross street?"
"Just google it! For the love of god, I can't even think straight, someone important to me is dying right in front of my eyes!"
"What's your name?"
"Diogenes Genovese."
"What's the problem? Tell me exactly what happened."
"My neighbor just jumped off the balcony in her unit. She landed on top of the main lobby's roof after falling. Her breathing is very weak after the fall and she is on the verge of death. Please send help immediately!"
"Sir, I understand the severity of the situation and have put through emergency dispatch. Sir, do you know how to perform artificial respiration to assist her with breathing?"
"Yes."
"Is she bleeding from the nose?"
"Yes."
"Is there blood pooled at the back of her throat?"
"... no, not from what I can see.."
"Can you feel her pulse?"
"It's weak, but it's still there."
"Start counting her heartbeat when I count down to 0. Do you understand? Please confirm."
"I understand."
"3. 2. 1. 0."
I held two fingers against her wrist and calmly counted. After fifteen seconds passed the operator on the phone asked, "what is the count?"
"Eight."
"Her heart rate is at 32 bpm, she's in critical condition and is teetering on the edge of death if she's bleeding as you've indicated."
No shit! Get to the damn point, I don't need pointless information I already know! I grit my teeth and kept my mouth shut because I knew it would result in further delay.
"You need to provide her with more oxygen immediately. The more concentrated oxygen she has while at a dangerously low heart rate the better. You will need to perform mouth to mouth respiration to avoid pushing blood from her nasal cavity to the back of her throat. If you have anything more efficient that could provide her with more concentrated oxygen that would be for the best; if not, please begin immediately, her life is in your hands. Please also refrain from moving her body to avoid aggravating any injuries she sustained from the fall. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand."
Countless emotions and thoughts flew through my mind. Fear. Pain. Disgust. Anxiousness. Worry. If you named it, I felt it.
My own heartbeat was off the charts right now, my mind was operating as if it were on drugs. The adrenaline coursing through my veins was definitely the cause behind it. Despite that, I couldn't think of anything that I could use to deliver more concentrated oxygen to her right now. There just wasn't enough time to put anything together or find anything useful on such short notice. If I had a balloon, a tube, and a can of oxygen, that would be perfect; but as if there were such bloody convenient things lying around on a rooftop.
I didn't have any time to think further over it so I immediately pinched her nose, covered her lips with my mouth, and exhaled at a steady rate. To prevent blowing the air down her throat into her stomach instead of her lungs I ensured that I wasn't too forceful.
I separated from her and took a deep breath while she exhaled naturally before I methodically repeated the process. I avoided assisting her through chest compressions as her injury would likely flare-up. This continued for another five minutes until I heard the sirens approaching from the distance at a breakneck speed. Not long after I heard them, a few clunking sounds came from the ladder that led to the roof. When I turned my head in the direction of the ladder, a woman in a paramedic uniform appeared, soon followed by three men behind her.
She rushed over to my side and took immediate control over the situation. They set up the emergency equipment they'd brought along and attempted to stabilize her condition. They hooked up a bunch of different devices to her body to monitor her vitals and placed an oxygen mask over her mouth feeding her with concentrated oxygen. They immediately stopped her bleeding and began an emergency blood transfusion on the spot while they occasionally stimulated her heart with electrical pulses from a defibrillator whenever her heart stopped.
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