What defines a worthy life?And who do we trust to decide?
In 24 hours, Vanessa Thompson crosses the bridge between her everyday life and the chaos of delivering a devastatingly premature baby. While Vanessa is not alone, her fiancé struggles with his own demons, anticipating prejudice from the very doctors who hold the future—and his son—in their hands. Despite the odds for baby Julian, the couple asks the medical team to do everything possible to keep their son alive.
Due binds together the stories of critically-ill baby Julian, his shell-shocked parents, and those who journey with them in the the Neonatologist who sets so much in motion by sparing Julian’s parents from bad news, the custodian who knits blankets for sick babies during her two-hour bus rides to the hospital, the pharmacist who second-guesses a critical dosage, the receptionist who goes the extra mile for every family in the ICU waiting room even as her salary can’t cover childcare for her own, the hospital chaplain fearful that God has stopped taking his calls.
As the reader meets these characters and others one thing becomes values cannot be judged from the outside.
The author’s medical expertise shines. The insight and intellect is unmatched. The perspectives and heartache eye opening. Incredible book, beautifully and professionally written.