The Cathedral of Science
Boston Children's Hospital rose like a beacon of red brick and glass against the evening sky.
The rooftop helipad was a flurry of wind and cold air as the surgical transport team met them. Oliver was whisked down the service elevator directly into the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit on the sixth floor.
Clara was met by Dr. Sarah Chen, the chief of pediatric cardiovascular surgery. Dr. Chen was a woman in her late forties with calm, intelligent eyes and hands that looked steady enough to carve stone.
"Mrs. Vance," Dr. Chen began as they walked rapidly down the corridor.
"Call me Clara Linwood," Clara corrected immediately, using her maiden name for the first time in three years. "I am not a Vance."
Dr. Chen nodded without missing a beat. "Clara. Oliver’s anatomy has been fully mapped via echocardiogram. The arterial switch is a complex procedure—we will detach the aorta and pulmonary artery, switch them to their correct anatomical ventricles, and reimplant his tiny coronary arteries. It is a four-hour operation under cardiopulmonary bypass."
"What are his odds?" Clara asked, her voice steady despite the terror gripping her chest.
"In our center, for a full-term infant stabilized in time? Ninety-eight percent," Dr. Chen replied with quiet, unwavering confidence. "He is a fighter, Clara. You gave him that chance when you walked out that gate."
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Clara signed the surgical consent forms at the nurse’s station with a hand that did not shake.
Ten minutes later, she watched the double steel doors of Operating Room 4 swing closed behind her son's gurney.
