Chapter
20
Nate Fergeson clutched tightly to the football as he ran. He was nearing the twenty-yard line, when
from out of nowhere, he saw a flash of green, as a player from the opposing
team approached him.
Nate pumped his legs faster, trying desperately to outrun the
other player. But it was no use. In one quick movement, the other player leapt
upon him, tackling him to the ground.
Nate felt a sharp pain in his head, and suddenly, his world went dark,
and he knew no more.
“Number 3, Nate Fergeson, on the carry,” an announcer called over
the loudspeaker. “And it looks like he’s
down.”
A hush fell over the crowd,
as Nate lay flat on his back on the field, motionless. Coaches from both teams hurried out to the
fallen player and surrounded him.
“Nate! Nate, can you hear
me?” Coach Jim Carson asked, hovering over his star player.
“He’s not breathing,” one of the other coaches said.
Moments later, paramedics from the ambulance parked nearby rushed
onto the field, taking over Nate’s condition.
“No pulse. Start CPR,” one
of them ordered.
The other football players stood around the group huddled over
Nate and watched in horror as the paramedics began giving him CPR.
The stadium was silent, the crowd sitting motionless, gaping at
the scene on the field below them.
“We need to get him to the hospital,” a paramedic said. “Let’s move him onto the stretcher.”
They lifted Nate’s limp form off of the ground and onto the
stretcher that had been wheeled onto the field.
Then they whisked him off into the ambulance, out of the sight of the
shocked crowd.
Minutes later, the ambulance sped away from the stadium, its
lights flashing and siren wailing.
***
Nurse Brandi Ellis burst into one of the exam rooms of the ER,
where a teenage boy had just been brought in, in cardiac arrest.
She gasped in shock when she got a good look at the boy, dressed
in a football uniform, which another nurse was hurriedly cutting away from his
body.
“Oh, my God,” she whispered.
“What?” the other nurse asked, looking up.
“That’s Nate,” Brandi whispered.
“Dr. Fergeson’s son.”
The other nurses’ mouth dropped open, and the two doctors that
were working on Nate looked up.
“Brandi, go find Dr. Fergeson,” one of them said. “She’s somewhere around here. I just saw her.”
Brandi nodded and hurried out of the room.
***
