A Hoshie Story: DNR

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Dr. Tezuka came back into the room with a portable chart recorder on a rolling cart. He placed several sticky electrodes on Hoshie's forehead and scalp, and wired them up to the machine.

“This is an EEG recorder.” He told Professor Ochanomizu. “We use it to evaluate a patient's brain activity.”

The doctor turned on the machine and adjusted the display. The oscillograph screen displayed several waveforms at once.

Astro was still in a trance, with one hand on Hoshie's head. His breathing was slow, but regular.

“I can actually see two separate, unrelated traces on this display” Dr. Tezuka said. “The weaker one is Hoshie's, I think the stronger one is Astro's. It's almost like there are two people inside her head at the moment.”

Hoshie and Tobio boarded a bus, and headed to the fair grounds.

“I've always wanted to see the fair, and the petting zoo.” Astro said. “Dad was always too busy to take me.”

“I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, Tobio.” Hoshie answered. “I'm going to make it up to you now.”

They got off the bus and Hoshie bought a book of tickets at the fair ground entrance. Their first stop was the petting zoo. Astro leaned over the railing at the goat pen and two yearling's came up to him, bleating. Astro petted them on their heads and smiled.

“They like you, Tobio!” Hoshie said. She paid an attendant a few yen coins for a bag of food, and poured a handful into Astro's hands. “Here, why don't you feed them, Tobio?”

Astro stuck out his hand and both of the baby goats started eating the corn grains out of his hand. Their wet tongues tickled, and Astro laughed. Hoshie smiled and gave Astro a hug.

Suddenly, Hoshie felt dizzy and and faint. The fair grounds seemed to melt away, and she could hear Tobio's voice calling her in the distance.

“Mom, Mother! Where are you?”

Astro snapped out of the trance he was in. The EEG recorder was nearly flat lined, with just a few slight wiggles going by. Hoshie's breathing was shallow, but constant.

“She may just have had another attack.” Dr. Tezuka said, picking up the phone. “I'm going to order another cat-scan for her right now. We need to know what's happening!”

“She's still alive, doctor!” Astro cried. “I was just with her.”

“She doesn't know we are here, Astro” Professor Ochanomizu said. “Her senses have shut down.”

“She knows I'm here!” Astro protested. “though she thinks I'm Tobio.”

“I think I'm going to get Kurō to look at her again.” Dr. Tezuka said. “His experience in these matters might shed some light on what's going on.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Hoshie was wheeled back into her room from the radiology laboratory. Dr. Tezuka re-connected her up to the instruments monitoring her heart beat, breathing, and EEG. The surgeon known as Blackjack entered the room holding a sheet of x-ray images that had just come out of the Cat-Scan machine.

Kurō Hazama was the name that Blackjack had been known by while he was in medical school, and that was how Dr. Tezuka knew him. He had lost his medical license after refusing to follow the medical associations ruling on the use of an experimental procedure to save a patient's life. The fact that the woman survived didn't matter to the governing body. Desperately ill, well heeled individuals now sort out the rouge doctor, and would pay him any price for his services. He sometimes would visit the hospital where his school mate, Dr. Tezuka worked at his friends request. This was one of those occasions.

While Dr. Tezuka and Kurō were examining the data from Hoshie's x-ray the monitor over her bed started to wail as the EKG flat lined. Dr. Blackjack grabbed for a portable defibrillator and ran toward her bed, but Professor Ochanomizu interceded.

“No!” he said. “Hoshie has it in her living will that she doesn't want to be resuscitated.”

“No!” Astro cried out. “Mother!” He once again took his place by her side. Astro slid his right hand under her gown and placed it on her chest over her heart. He put his left hand on her forehead. Astro became stiff as a board, his eyes glazed over, and his eyelids closed. A creepy smile appeared on his face.

Suddenly, the EKG monitor stopped it's wailing sound, and a weak, but normal sinus rhythm returned to the oscillograph screen. Hoshie's breathing became steady again.

“I don't believe this!” Blackjack gasped.

Hoshie was being pulled along by Tobio as the eight year old boy ran toward the roller coaster.

“Let's use one of our tickets on this ride!” Astro begged his mother.

“You might not be tall enough to go on that ride!” Hoshie teased him.

They reached the gate, and the attendant looked down at Tobio. He saw the plea in the boy's eyes and the smile on his mother's face.

“He can ride, if you go on with him.” The attendant said.

Hoshie handed the man two tickets and Astro dragged his mother through the gate toward the waiting coaster cars. Mother and son boarded a car in the middle of the train and the attendant lowered the safety bar, locking them in. A few minutes passed as other riders chose their seats before the train started to move, the chain drive began to pull the coaster cars up a steep hill toward the drop off. Higher and higher they rose, and Hoshie began to dread what lay ahead of them. Tobio bounced up and down in his seat, with a wide grin on his face. They reached the top, and the train slipped away from the escapement that had been pulling it up the incline. For a split second it hung there, and then it started down the track, gaining speed as gravity pulled them. Faster and faster they went, Hoshie could feel the acceleration and the G forces pressing her into her seat. Tobio waved his hands in the air, screaming with excitement.

The EKG monitor registered an increase in Hoshie's pulse rate. Astro still stood there, still as a rock, but his breathing was noticeably faster, and beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. Dr. Tezuka whispered to the professor and Kurō, “What's happening?”

“Astro seems to have joined minds with Hoshie. They are experiencing the same dream vision, whatever that may be.” Professor Ochanomizu explained.

“I think he is also supporting her autonomic functions as well” Dr. Blackjack guessed. “If he breaks contact with her, she may slip away.”

“Then he's acting as a resuscitator” Professor Ochanomizu said, “Which is against Hoshie's wishes.”

“If I'm reading her EEG readings correctly,” Dr. Blackjack said, “They are sharing something that Hoshie is happy about.”

The Coaster banked and turned. The centripetal force turned the negative G force of falling into a positive one. They reached the bottom of the first hill and roared up the next, smaller one. Once again the train nearly stopped as it crested the incline before dropping off and falling down toward the bottom again. Tobio squealed with with pleasure from the mild fear the ride invoked. Hoshie held her son's hand as the ride whirled about the last curve and reached the bottom. The train was caught by the drive chain and slowly pulled back into the station where they had started out from.

“That was fun!, Mother,” Astro said, giving Hoshie a kiss on the cheek. “Can we ride again?”

“I don't think I can take that again” Hoshie said. “I'm not as young as you are!”

“OK, Mom” Astro said. “Let's go get some cotton candy then.”

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Hoshie sat down on a bench and dug into her purse. She pulled out some Yen notes and handed them to Tobio and pointed to the vendor selling Cotton Candy, and some other 'Carny' food.

“Go get yourself what you want, and bring me back a funnel cake.” Hoshie asked the boy. “I feel a bit faint, I think I'll rest on this bench for a while.”

Astro slowly walked in the direction of the food stand. He looked over his shoulder and saw his mother close her eyes.

Astro snapped awake and removed his hands from Hoshie. The pulse oximeter on Hoshie's index finger connected to the LCD monitor still indicated acceptable vital signs.

“She's stable for now,” Dr. Blackjack said, “But her x-ray's don't look good. Another bleed may have started and without surgery she's going to only get worse.”

“I thought you said surgery was impossible.” Dr. Tezuka reminded his colleague.

“It is.” Blackjack said. “I have the skills, but the task is impossible. No human could be precise and stable enough with the scalpel to get at the damaged area without causing damage to other vital areas. My hands are steady, but even I wouldn't be able to achieve the accuracy required. A robot surgeon could do it, if we had the time to program one.”

“He's right.” Professor Ochanomizu sighed. “The Ministry of Science makes some excellent robot surgeons, but they need to be programmed with the exact task at hand. A surgeon can work along side such robots, but the programming for the various surgical techniques took years to develop.”

“I've worked with some of those robots.” Dr. Tezuka agreed. “The kind of brain surgery that Kurō refers to isn't a stock procedure that such robots would have been programmed with. A doctor would have to help develop such software.”

Tears slowly dripped from Astro's eyes. He took a deep breath and looked at Dr. Blackjack.
“My hands can handle the precision, and my eye hand coordination is a thousand times more precise than a human's. My eyes can see detail so small that a microscope would be required.” He said softly.

“But you don't have the surgical knowledge.” Professor Ochanomizu said.

“I can acquire it from Dr. Blackjack.” Astro said. He walked up to Kurō and looked him in the eyes.
“Can you inject yourself with a mild sedative, just enough to relax yourself enough to allow your mind to be receptive?” Astro asked. “Then I could join with you and allow you to transfer your surgical skills to me!”

“Is that possible?” Dr. Tezuka asked

“At this point, I wouldn't bet against it.” Professor Ochanomizu said.

Dr. Blackjack walked over to the medical cabinet and searched through the drug list.
“I think this will do the trick” he said, as he removed a vial of Sodium Thiopental and a syringe from the locker. He plunged the needle through the rubber stopper on the top of the vial and filled the syringe with a carefully measured amount. Kurō sat down on a double wide lounge, rolled up his sleeve and injected himself in the upper arm.

“The drug should take effect in a few minutes.” he said. “Why don't you sit next to me and work your magic, Astro?”

Astro sat next to Dr. Blackjack and placed his hands over the doctor's forehead and scalp. He slowly sank into a deep trance as the drug began to do its work on Blackjack.

Hoshie lay on the operating table. Her head had been shaved and the outline of the required cuts were drawn on the skin with black marker. Dr. Blackjack used the electric skull saw cut the required openings in her head, and carefully peeled back the skin and bone to expose the damaged areas of the brain.

“The bleed lies under this area.” He pointed to Astro. “It's necessary to get a few centimeters below the surface to make the repair to the blood vessels. A very fine cut between these lobes of tissue to remove the membrane holding the brain matter in place is required, then the area needs to be gently expanded to access the bleed. Then the artery must be sutured with a patch of donor tissue. All without damaging any of the vital neuron matter. The slightest wrong move of the tools, and the patient will be left a vegetable.”

“Show me.” Astro said.

Dr. Blackjack carefully inserted his scalpel and made the required cuts. He carefully used the surgical spatula to separate the lobes of the brain and exposed the damaged artery. Astro carefully held the spatula while his teacher demonstrated the technique of repairing the artery. The bleeding stopped.

“There, now we need to close up.”

When Dr. Blackjack woke up, he saw Astro's smiling face looking over him. The boy robot was dressed in surgeon's greens and was wearing a cap and a face mask.

“What just happened?” he asked.

“Thank you Sensei!” Astro said. “You made it look so easy a child could do it! Let's operate.”

I got the inspiration for this chapter and the next one from the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain"

[Prettywitchiusaka]

(laughs) It's amazing where a writer gets their inspiration sometimes, isn't it? Anyway, this is definitely getting interesting. Keep up the good work.

Also, the mental image of Astro in a surgeon outfit smiling is just too cute!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

(laughs) It's amazing where a writer gets their inspiration sometimes, isn't it? Anyway, this is definitely getting interesting. Keep up the good work.

Also, the mental image of Astro in a surgeon outfit smiling is just too cute!

I saw a video clip on youtube that had Blackjack, Pinoko, and Atom dressed in surgeons greens in an O.R. where a cellphone started to ring. Blackjack yelled at both Pinoko and Atom but they both denied having their phones on. It turned out that the PATIENT (Hosuke) had the phone on and answered it.
I think the video was from a film clip used in Japanese movie theaters to remind patrons to silence their phones!

Anyway, that's where I got the image of Astro in surgeons greens.

[tailz]

lol. Yeah! I remember that! (Btw, you're forgetting someone important. !)

I remember seeing that for the first time back in summer last year. It was cute.

And yes, it was a cellphone reminder for the Black Jack movie they were showing in theaters in Japan at the time. ^^!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

lol. Yeah! I remember that! (Btw, you're forgetting someone important. !)

I remember seeing that for the first time back in summer last year. It was cute.

And yes, it was a cellphone reminder for the Black Jack movie they were showing in theaters in Japan at the time. ^^!

I found it. Kuo-YI posted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbvN_M7lOM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWpbvN_M7lOM&app=desktop

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

Dr. Tezuka slipped several X-rays onto the viewing lamps in the O.R. Dr. Blackjack examined them again, and carefully marked the shaved areas on Hoshie's scalp where they would be making the incisions. Astro stood next to Hoshie, holding her hand. Dr. Tezuka thought it a bit odd seeing the boy robot dressed in the surgical gown with a hair cap over his head, and wearing a breath mask over his nose and mouth. Astro's head didn't shed hair or dander, so the cap was not needed. Nor was the breath mask, as he harbored no bacteria that he could breath out into the room. In fact he didn't even NEED to breath. Pinoko stood in the background dressed in her white medical outfit. She had been prepared to help her Sensei, but would now be assisting Astro.

Dr. Tezuka used the skull saw to open the areas marked on the skin. Dr. Blackjack carefully pealed back the skin and bone, as he had done in his mind with Astro watching. This time the scene was different, Kurō frowned as he examined the surface of Hoshie's brain.

“There is much more damage than was immediately evident in the Cat-Scans.” He said. “I can see at least two areas that will have to be repaired.” He pointed to two different places where it would be necessary to probe for the internal bleeding.

Astro zoomed his eyes into microscope mode and carefully scanned the surface of the brain. Equipped with the surgical knowledge that he had downloaded from Dr. Blackjack, he knew what to look for and identified three places where he would have to work.

“Scalpel!” he said, extending his open palm outward. Pinoko slapped the surgical instrument into Astro's gloved hand. Astro carefully cut through the membranes as Blackjack had instructed him. There wasn't the slightest hint of a quaver in his hand movements. Astro moved like a well oiled, precession machine, which in fact, he was.

Dr. Tezuka noticed a strange look in Astro's eyes. His usual cheerful personality was gone, and pure concentration showed in his face. It was like he was all machine and nothing remained of the cute little boy that Astro was made to mimic.

“Spatula!” Astro requested, and once again Pinoko selected the medical tool and placed it into his hand. Astro located the bleed, and Pinoko picked up a tray holding pieces of vein graft, along with tweezers and held the try up for Astro, who began to suture the damaged blood vessel. Kurō watched as the boy android operated. He felt slightly inadequate, Astro's handling of the surgical instruments was beyond perfection. Dr. Tezuka looked up at the monitors and saw that Hoshie's vitals were still stable.

Astro opened the membrane at the second site and repeated the operation. Blackjack used the suction tube to remove excess blood as Astro sutured closed the patch on the second artery. He then proceeded to operate on the third area that Kurō hadn't identified. Astro worked quickly and methodically Blackjack marveled at how the robot's speed and accuracy with the scalpel were so much superior to his own.

“I'll close the incisions now.” Dr. Tezuka said as Astro finished with the last repair.
Pinoko cleaned the incision area and carefully bandaged it. As they wheeled Hoshie out of the O.R. and toward the recovery room, Astro held her hand and placed his other hand over her head. He was aware of his surroundings as he walked, but he drifted away into a waking trance.

Hoshie opened her eyes as Tobio approached. Astro handed her the funnel cake with one hand, as he held the cone of cotton candy in the other. He stuck his tongue out to take in a mouthful of the sugary snack.

“Where do you want to go next, son?” Hoshie asked.

“Can we go on the carousel?” Astro asked.

“That one, I think I would enjoy.” Hoshie said.

The two of them walked across the fairgrounds and arrived at the round building that housed the carousel. Hoshie handed two tickets over to the attendant and they mounted the raised platform. Astro climbed onto a large white horse on the outside circumference of the carousel while Hoshie sat on a low bench across from him at the inside of the ring. Inside the revolving ring of the ride, a steam calliope started up playing “Entry of the Gladiators” as the ride began to revolve.

Astro leaned over on his horse and stretched out his arm trying grab hold of a brass ring hanging from a stand about a foot or so away from the ride. Other riders on the horses along the outside circumference also attempted the same, and one a few places ahead of Astro actually did capture a souvenir. Astro's horse rose and fell as the ride revolved, its timing was out of sync with the carousel's rotation, and on their fifth turn around the horse was at its apex as they passed the ring. Astro's outstretched fingers barely grasped the metallic circle, and he managed to capture it for his own.

Hoshie saw him and yelled out to him, “Good for you, Tobio! You can exchange the ring for a prize!”

The ride slowed, and stopped. Hoshie took her son by the hand and they walked up to the prize booth at the ride's exit. Tobio selected a small stuffed animal as his prize, and clutched it with a steel grip as they walked away from the carousel.

[tailz]

[QUOTE=tailz;222026]lol. Yeah! I remember that! (Btw, you're forgetting someone important. !)

I remember seeing that for the first time back in summer last year. It was cute.

And yes, it was a cellphone reminder for the Black Jack movie they were showing in theaters in Japan at the time. ^^!

I found it. Kuo-YI posted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpbvN_M7lOM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWpbvN_M7lOM&app=desktop[/QUOTE]

Cute! Thanks for sharing it! I needed a laugh again cause I'm feeling a bit feverish lately.

Also, I'm pretty sure that's not Kuo-Yi's video, unless she speaks Spanish. Did you check out their channel yet? Doesn't seem too Kuo-Yi-ish to me at all. I thought she speaks Mandarin?

[Windswept Cloak]

I don't have a Youtube channel

I just found that video clip off somewhere on a certain website.