Opportune

__//**Opportune**//__ “Mr. Sanguine, how are you?” asked Dr. Brigand. “Doctor, nice to see you again. I’m doing well, thank you, the best I’ve felt in weeks.” “That’s good. Glad to hear you’re doing better. Do you remember anything that happened last night?” “Yes, of course. My wife and I were driving home from Shop Smart. The roads were perfectly covered with a dusting of snow. I could barley make out the double yellow lines. As we navigated around Granole Street the car spun out of control and we were face to face with a county plow’s headlights. The last thing I remember was waking up here.” “Right, I see. While you have suffered only from a broken arm and minor scratches your wife has not been so lucky. She and your newborn baby are not likely to survive for more than a few hours. We safely delivered you baby, but at twenty-four weeks, it is unable to survive on it’s own. If it weren’t for the machines keeping a steady heartbeat and an adequate supply of oxygen it would be dead. Your wife’s condition is even worse. The impact of the plow has left her entire face destroyed and she suffered internal bleeding. Her lungs are crushed and will most likely need a transplant.” Mr. Sanguine sighed sadly and leaned back in his chair. “I cannot believe this has happened,” he murmured, tears filling his eyes. “Is there anything I can do?” “Mr. Sanguine, I can assure that you and your family are in the best of care. My team has added your wife to the blood and lung donor list. All you can do is hope and pray. My nurse can escort you to the maternity ward if you wish to see your baby. I wish you the best.” “Thank you.” And with that he walked out and left Mr. Sanguine with a feeling of sadness and resentment. His racing thoughts caused him to lack concentration on what the nurse was saying. Something about a beautiful baby boy…

Joe Winters limped painfully towards the front door. “I’m coming, hold your horses,” he shouted. As he walked down the hallway to answer it, he glanced at the clock. 11:37. It was probably his daughter, Vanessa, at the door. She had probably spent the last seven minutes digging for her keys and came up empty. That’s what she got for coming home past curfew. As a teenager who partied with her friends on Friday nights, that was expected. When Joe finally opened the door, ceasing the ringing, it wasn’t Vanessa he saw standing on the porch. Instead, two police officers in black suits with gold badges pinned across their chest stared back at him. “Can I help you officers?” he asked groggily, wiping the sleepys out of his eyes. “Good evening Sir. I am Officer Hopkins and my partner, Officer Scott. Do you have any relation to Vanessa Winters?” “Yes, Vanessa’s my daughter. Why, what happened?” His tired face grew wide and worried, anxious to hear the news. “Sir, there’s been an accident. I’m sorry,” Officer Scott started. “An accident!? Oh my…what happened, is she okay?” “She and her boyfriend Bryan were transported to Applegate Hospital. Her car crashed along I-99. They are both in critical condition. My colleagues are conducting an investigation to find out further details. Sir, I assure you, we are doing everything we can. We could escort you to the hospital if you’d like,” Officer Hopkins finished. “Yes, let me get my coat.” The ten minute ride to Applegate Hospital and Personal Care Center seemed to last forever. The only other time that Joe had felt this worried was when his beloved Vanessa was born, eighteen years ago. Upon arrival, Joe jumped out of the police car and rushed into the Emergency Room. He immediately found Mr. and Mrs. Jerment, Bryan’s parents, and rushed over. “Lori, Tom, what happened? Is everything allright?” Mr. Jerment was holding Mrs. Jerment closely to his chest as she bawled into a thin, wimp tissue. They wore their coats over their pajamas, a sure sign that they had found out the news no sooner than Joe himself. Mr. Jerment stared blankly at Joe. “It’s not good,” was all he could muster. Joe turned around, tears forming his eyes for the second time that night. He could tell by the look in Mr. Jerment’s eyes, father-to-father, what had happened. The world seemed to spin around him as he tried to focus his mind on the tragedy. He just needed to be by himself. To think things through. He slowly sank down into a chair as a doctor approached him. “Mr. Winters, my name is Doctor Pike.” There was a long pause as he chose his words carefully. “Vanessa has passed on. I’m really sorry. I just came to see if you wanted to take one last look at her before her organs go up for donation.” Joe cringed as he heard the news and it rung through his body. Actually hearing it being said was a lot worse than only thinking it. Tears fell down his face faster than he could wipe them and he collapsed into a fit of sadness. When he finally grasped onto the concept, he lifted his head and asked, “What organ donation?” “Your daughter agreed to donate her organs.” “What!? How can a dead person agree to anything?” “You didn’t know that she had planned on donating her organs in the case of an emergency? She agreed to this two years ago when she checked the box on the back of her license and signed consent forms.” “No, I didn’t know,” his face very suprisesd. “Take me to her.” Together they walked down a long, white, empty corridor. They finally came upon a very large, empty room. At first glance Vanessa looked peaceful. But when you entered the room you could feel the smothering thickness in the air and the passing wave of grief. Vanessa’s body was pretty messed up, but you could tell it was her by the long, brown, pin-straight, layered hair that was her pride. Joe reached out and ran the shiny, majestic strands through his fingers. Smooth as silk. At least the recipient would get beautiful hair, if anything. Joe sat down on the edge of the bed and held Vanessa’s hand. He tried to remember when she was filling out forms for her license. He knew that she was an avid blood donor, ever since she was sixteen and was able to, but didn’t even know that they asked about donating organs! So he pulled out his own driver’s license and flipped it over. On the right center he read: I hereby make an anatomical gift to be effective upon my death. It then listed lines to write whether you wanted all possible organs donated or just specific ones only. At the bottom was room for you to sign, as well as two witnesses. His was completely blank. He had never really thought about donating before. On the bedside table he saw a bag filled with Vanessa’s belongings. Among the stack of make-up and ring of keys he found her wallet and in that her license. He flipped it over and saw the box checked for “donate all possible organs.” Further down he saw her neatly penned in signature and beneath that his own. The date read February 19, 2006. Vanessa’s sixteenth birthday. Joe couldn’t recall signing the witness line. But if that was what Vanessa had really wanted then he was happy. He was proud that he had raised a daughter sensible enough to want to help others and willing enough to do just that. He gazed at her body. He tried to imagine what she would look like after everything was removed. Her long, brown hair. Her glassy, almond-shaped eyes. Her clear, porcelain skin. Her liver, never harmed by alcohol and lungs never poisoned by cigarette smoke. Her kidneys would prevent someone from needing dialysis and her brain would go to science research. She could also donate her pancreas, intestines, ears, veins, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, stem cells, and blood marrow. It was hard processing the thoughts of how many people she could help. And finally her heart. The one organ that connected you to other human beings and gave the gift of life. The organ that ached at such a tragedy but basked at such magnificence. It was the one place where he felt Vanessa would live forever. In the memories and love of his own heart. He stood up and kissed he gently on the forehead. Tears welled in his eyes as reality set in. This was the last time he would lay eyes on his precious Vanessa. She would always be in his memory, but things would never be the same again. Apparently, God had other plans for Vanessa. She must have already completed her task on Earth. Everything happens for a reason and Vanessa had proved she was a positive impact on everyone around her. Even those barely in her life had come to learn something from her. “Today, tomorrow, forever. I love you,” he whispered as he sullenly walked out.

The days seemed to past by monotonously to Mr. Sanguine. Three days after the horrific car crash and his newborn son had managed to survive them all. He was strong. He was a fighter. He would pull through with enough force to shake China’s population. He was a true miracle, thus his name, Ajay, meaning unconquered in Sanskrit. He was a tiny little guy, weighing in at only one pound, twelve ounces. He had the smallest, cutest fingers with microscopic fingernails. His eyes were like his mother’s, big, bold, and brown. Whenever you looked at him it was like you could see that he had a sense of what was wrong. Fortunately for him he was too young to understand. Too innocent to ever be questioned. Ajay had finally been able to take his first breath and had most of the machines removed, a sure sign of improvement. Three floors below the maternity ward in the ICU wing laid Ajay’s mom. She, unfortunately, had not been doing so well. Her total lung capacity was decreasing with each passing day. Luckily for her she has type AB+ blood and could receive any blood type in the event of a transfusion. If she had O blood like her husband, she would have only been able to receive type O blood and would have surely died. Mr. Sanguine often found himself sitting at his wife’s side day and night. He often wondered how long it would take to find a compatible donor. He wanted nothing more than the company of his wife. It would still be a while until she was completely healthy, even with a donation. Mr. Sanguine knew that it could be months, even years before a compatible lung donor was found. He also knew that it was possible to never find one. He had hope, but with almost one hundred thousand people wanting for a donation, it seemed impossible. On the fifth day Mr. Sanguine received a call at home. He was sitting at the dining room table when the phone rang. Ajay was upstairs in his room sleeping. It was his first day home from the hospital and he desperately needed his rest. It was Doctor Brigand. “Mr. Sanguine, good afternoon. We have good news. Unfortunately there was a car accident about an hour North of here late last night. The driver, a young female, had agreed to donate all of her organs and may be a compatible match to your wife.” “Doctor, that is great news. I’ll be down as soon as possible.” He quickly hung up. A smile spread wide across his face as he rushed to get Ajay into the car seat. He hadn’t felt happy in days. Things were finally going to change in his favor. God, he was so thankful. When Mr. Sanguine and Ajay arrived at the hospital and reached his wife’s room doctors were already swarming around. Doctor Brigand came over and said, “It is a perfect match. We will begin the transplant immediately.” Mr. Sanguine couldn’t have been happier. This was all he ever wanted and could wish for. He just hoped that her body would not reject the foreign part and accept it as her own. The surgery seemed to last forever. Mr. Sanguine waited in the waiting room throughout the entire procedure. He could have gone home and waited, but wanted to remain close just in case anything happened. Besides, the nurses enjoyed the unexpected visit from Ajay. They had grown considerably close. Four hours later, doctors emerged from the operating room, smiles on their faces. So far, everything had gone as planned. They successfully removed her old lung and replaced it with the donor. As far as they knew, her body had accepted it without rejection. Mr. Sanguine was overwhelmed with joy. Even in such a crisis of the accident he was glad to know that everything would be somewhat back to normal. He couldn’t wait until he and his wife could start raising Ajay together, as the loving family he had always dreamed of. By the next week Mr. Sanguine was able to take his wife out on afternoon walks with Ajay. She had recovered rather well and was far down the road to recovery. Ajay was growing extremely fast and smiled when he was held. He especially liked his mom to hold him. One day Mr. Sanguine had the time to actually sit down and have an adult conversation with his wife without Ajay interrupting, fighting for their attention. She had no memory of the accident or anything that had happened since. He began to explain the condition that she was in and how she had received a lung donation from a young girl who died in a tragic car crash. Upon hearing the news, his wife grew sad but thankful. When he had finished speaking, she sat there, staring back into his eyes, thinking about the whole ordeal. She had never met anyone who was brave enough to donate their organs. Especially not someone that young. There were only told her age and medical history. Some donors like to keep their name confidential while others leave that decision up to their surviving family. She wanted no more that to be able to contact this generous person’s family and personally thank them. Her single act of kindness had done so much to help her and her family. She wanted nothing more that to express her true feelings for this person, this anonymous person who she didn’t even know, yet loved so much already. She would try to find this family. She had to. It would be her personal goal as soon as she left the hospital.

It had been one week after the horrific accident and Joe still had nightmares of the day when everything changed. Nothing seemed to be the same anymore. He was lonelier than ever. Everything he did, everything in his house, reminded him of Vanessa. She was everywhere. The Father’s Day gift she hand-made for him in first grade still hung on the refrigerator door, causing every trip there a little harder. At least that was where he went to search for a little whiskey to help ease the pain. Her school pictures neatly hung on the living room walls, from kindergarten to senior year. All of her lotions and body washes were lined up on the bathroom counter where she had always kept them. Her scent still remained in the house, making it even harder to forget she wasn’t there. People came and went, leaving casseroles and cleaning up here and there. The neighbors did whatever they could to help out. But nothing would ever bring his Vanessa back. The hardest day to come was her funeral. So many people had come to love and admire Vanessa and her talents that almost her entire high school was in attendance. Families came with beautiful bouquets of flowers, enough to fill her casket three times. Over one thousand people signed her guest book. Her classmates sobbed into each other as Joe spoke about how much he missed her. Her high school principal presented Joe with a special certificate as he spoke about her accomplishments. “Vanessa was nominated most likely to succeed in the senior class and would have graduated valedictorian. Everyone had something to learn from her. She was kind and helpful, always looking for ways to improve her surroundings. It is very unfortunate to know that such a great soul has been taken. We hope that you remember her and never forget all of the happiness she brought to each and every one of our lives.” Her best friends all wore red high heels in memory of Vanessa. She had always talked about how red was the color of life, blood, and even associated with heart disease, the number one killer in women. And so they wore them in the celebration of her life. One week later Joe was making dinner when he received a phone call. He didn’t recognize the number but decided to pick it up anyway. The woman on the other end said that she had received Vanessa’s lung and just wanted to tell him how grateful she was. Joe wondered how she had gotten his number. It was possible that she had tracked him down online. She said that she had no reason to harm Joe or even to contact him again. She just wanted to send her condolences and explain how Vanessa had changed her life. She was so happy to be alive. If it weren’t for Vanessa’s desire to help others she would be living off of a machine. Joe was shocked. That was that day he realized how much one person could mean to another. How we are all connected to each other by the smallest actions. Every decision you make in a lifetime effects the outcome of another’s. Vanessa knew of the impact she would have and that’s why she chose to give the gift of life. Joe swore he would do the same. After hearing such a wonderful story, how could you not?