Chapter 8: Reunion

Chapter 8: Reunion is the eighth chapter of Breathe Deeply.

Characters

 * Ryo
 * Oishi
 * Sei Inaba
 * Yuko Kazama
 * Yuko's Father (unseen but mentioned)

Synopsis
A person is effectively deemed brain dead and his organs are to be donated. As this is prepared, he reacts much to Ryo’s shock. He then hears they have to wait ten more minutes, for brain death.

A meeting adjourns and the application process for human ES cells is to be begun. Oishi is praised before he notices that it is snowing outside. He remembers burying likely his father before the ground was covered by construction work.

Ryo is stunned to see Sei being wheeled in on a hospital stretcher. He hears that Sei has drowned and his heart has stopped. He is called in to go and check the brain activity of a patient and he appears horrified at recollecting finding a young woman on the hospital bed, Yuko.

Sei is observed and it is stated if there is still no respiration in two days he will be declared brain dead, with all the attached organ removal implications. Ryo asks for more time, Sei is a friend of his. Special treatment cannot be given, and the conversation continues that since Sei does not have a donor card then his family should be contacted for them to give consent.

In sheer desperation after pleading with Sei to wake up, Ryo shouts that Yuko is still alive to no avail. Turning to a nurse, Ryo asks her to inject Sei with some estrogen and that he will take all the blame for it.

Receiving a file it transpired in June 1991 that Yuko experienced a heart attack which stopped it for a few minutes. This resulted in severe brain damage where Yuko fell into a persistent vegetative state. Her father begged them to issue a death certificate.

Sei regains consciousness and the nurse informs Ryo of this. Sei has made his way outside and walks barefoot in the snow towards a train track. He turns, a doorway takes him to the inside of a hospital where he is astonished to see Yuko there awake.