Trish looked at her watch and realized with a slight jolt that it was after midnight. All the questions she’d been asked, all the probing about Kate’s lifestyle and her friends. “Why, oh why did I ever get those pills?” she reproached herself. A shadow moved beside her.
“Mrs Norris, why don’t you try to sleep now? Kate is in the best possible hands, and I am sure the doctors will let you know exactly what’s happened as soon as they find out. We’ll wake you up if there’s any news,” said the nurse.
“I still don’t think I can sleep,” Trish sighed heavily. She looked at her daughter and at all the tubes and monitors and the ventilator mechanically ventilating her lungs. “Her heart seems to be beating strongly, doesn’t it?” she asked. The nurse nodded. Trish sighed again. “You will wake me if there’s a change?” The nurse nodded again and gently led Trish away to a sofa in the quiet of the waiting room.
Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/brain_death/brain_death2.asp
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