Chapter 3 - Forty-Three Seconds
The next crash in our daughter's heartbeat ended my hesitation. I revoked Ethan's medical power of attorney through the patient portal, named Dr. Keene as my decision-maker, and told Caleb to call 911. He did not ask permission twice. The ambulance crew arrived twelve minutes later, after blood spread beneath me and every emergency cart remained in OR-3. As they wheeled me past the VIP suite, applause rose around Serena's newborn son. Ethan stood beneath the sponsor lights, smiling with the baby against his chest. Caleb shouted that I was hemorrhaging. Ethan ran after us, but the elevator doors closed on his cufflinked hand. At Dallas General, surgeons delivered June by emergency C-section and repaired a placental tear. She breathed after forty-three seconds of resuscitation. I woke in intensive care, without my uterus, without Ethan beside me, and with a hospital social worker explaining that June might face months of neurological testing. Normal was no longer waiting outside my door.
