At the Gates of Death
…Where am I? What's wrong with me? What world am I on? Why can't I breathe? Why? I'll surely die! I'll die! How long have I not been breathing? They're not taking any notice! And they won't! I'll die... I'll die... How can it be? How can I live without breathing? This is the end! (I fathomed that I was already dead and that my feeble consciousness had sparked for the last time for a few moments before fading forever and plunging into the dense darkness of icy eternity!) I lay there submissively, without breathing, in expectation of my inevitable end. It was pitiful, of course, to say farewell to life so stupidly, lying on a table in the resuscitation unit of the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, but I could no longer do anything or apply myself because I had somet
