Code Blue

Paul Delmas tapped the casing twice with his fingertip, waited for the roller’s low rumble, then pulled the white strip before the machine had finished cutting it. The patient’s name appeared at an angle: SALOMÉ AÏT-BENALI, AGE 24, CARDIOLOGY 3B. Beside the barcode, the ink had bled across the last digit of her birth date.

During his cardiac arrest, he met his grown son. He has no children.