Offer to the CEO

Saturday continued …

He turned and said "If things start to look worse for Aaron, come and get us.  We need to be here with him when he dies." Hou Yi observed a nod from Rosemary and continued out of the unit and took Anna back to her room where the nurses helped her back into bed.

A little over an hour later, one of the nurses returned and disturbed the two of them saying "CEO and Madam Hou, your youngest son has taken a turn for the worse.  If you want to be with him, we need to get you there." With that Anna was quickly helped into the wheelchair and they headed to the Critical Care unit getting in as soon as they could.

As the entered the two of them could see multiple doctors and nursing staff around one crib, with the second one pushed over to a side.  Hou Yi moved over and brought that crib close to them as they watched the staff working on their other son.  Around five minutes later one of the doctors said "CEO and Madam Hou, your youngest stopped breathing.  We have been able to resuscitate him, but unless a miracle occurs, he will be unlikely to live much longer."

Hearing these words Anna could not stop the tears running down her face.  Hou Yi looked to Rosemary who had also been moved to a side, and she came over and said "Yi, it was close that we got him back.  They are too frightened to say anything.  While I am not a paediatric nurse, I can tell when someone is suffering badly.  Aaron is suffering, and as his aunt I do not want to see that happen anymore.  It is your choice, but…"

Anna interrupted and said in a barely audible voice "You want us to tell the staff no heroic measures?"

Nodding, Rosemary said "You have to decide.  Do not let any of us influence the decision."

Hou Yi turned to the doctor and said, "Is she right?"

"CEO Hou, we can keep doing this…"

"That is not the what we need an answer to.  Is our son going to suffer if you keep reviving him?  Will he have any quality of life if he lives?"

"We cannot answer that, as we…"

Rosemary could see that the doctor was trying to avoid the question and said "Be truthful.  They need the truth to make decisions, not this trying to please them with an answer."

"But we can keep him alive, if we do this."

Rosemary shook her head, and asked "Is he in pain?"

One of the nurses behind the paediatrician said, "He seems like he is in pain with what we are doing."

Anna turned to Hou Yi and said "Yi, it makes no sense if he will continue to suffer and has no real prospects of any real life.  Yes, I want him with us, but not if that will mean his whole life is filled with pain."

"Are you certain?" said Hou Yi bending down to look directly into Anna's eyes.

"I am if you are." Hou Yi could see that Anna was determined on this.  It would break his heart to lose one of their children in such circumstances, but Anna is right he should not suffer.

Before either of them could speak, the equipment surrounding Aaron started beeping, indicating that he was failing again.  Hou Yi and Anna moved over to their son, and Rosemary seeing that they had decided what was to happen and moved the other crib back towards Aaron.  The paediatrician attempted to push the two of them out of the way but Hou Yi said "No, if he survives it is going to be because he is a fighter, nothing heroic, just normal, but we need to be together as a family."

Before anything could happen, Anna and Hou Yi had their sons cribs together and stood close to Aaron while little Jang kept reaching towards his brother.  They simply stood there watching the two of them, while Aaron gently slipped away.  As the machines indicated that Aaron had died little Jang let out a cry in his cribs, while Anna turned into Hou Yi and the two of them cried seeing Aaron's end.

Rosemary and the staff all quietly moved out of the room to allow the family of three be together to deal with the loss of their fourth member.