The Sky Was Falling: A Young Surgeon's Story of Bravery, Survival, and Hope by Cornelia Griggs

Author:Cornelia Griggs [Griggs, Cornelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1

April Fools’ Day starts with another overnight ECMO cannulation, but thankfully this one has nothing to do with Covid, just the more typical heart failure. Still, the child will take up a precious circuit. I never imagined that resource allocation would even enter the calculation in our decision to provide lifesaving treatment to a child. But in this case, her chances of survival are super slim at most. Did we make the best decision using a circuit for this child, on the rare chance that she would become eligible for a heart transplant? That was her only hope for survival. But the idea of putting a child on the heavy immunosuppression required to keep a transplanted organ alive is terrifying too, given the current climate. We warned the patient’s mother about all of these risks, that the chances were slim. “Please, please do whatever you can to keep my baby alive,” she pleaded. What parent, when faced with the life-or-death decision to save their baby’s life in the middle of the night, would choose otherwise?

I’m allowing myself some hope today that resource allocation considerations will soon lessen. In March, Covid cases were doubling every three days in New York. Now the rate is slowing: they’re doubling only every seven days.

The morning after the cannulation, I walk across the skybridge to Starbucks and find Erica, my favorite barista, working. She sees me in line and flashes her signature half smile, which means she’s going to start preparing my regular cold-brew coffee order before I even get to the register. My conversations with Erica are a reliable bright spot in my day, and the hard-boiled eggs and cheddar protein box is my main source of nutrition. I’ve just about lived off of them since med school. When they recently started putting little everything-bagel seasoning packets inside, it was a total game changer for me.

“Helloooooo, Cornelia,” Erica sings when I get to the front of the line.

“Helloooooo, Erica,” I answer. “How in the world are you happy right now?” I laugh.

“Listen, I’m alive and I’ve got a job and that’s what’s good for today, all right?”

“If you say so,” I reply.

“It’s bad up there?”

“Children’s side, not as terrible, but the adults, they’re hit hard,” I say.

“You got this,” Erica says as she hands me my drink.

“Just keep bringing the caffeine and we will all get through,” I say with a smile.

As I walk back across the skybridge nursing my cold brew, a hilarious text comes through from Marsha. Somehow Eloise and Josephine have gotten into a stash of old pasty sunscreen. They’ve caked their faces and hair in a goopy white slime while playing “salon” in the bedroom. The adults have just discovered the giant mess they’ve made. The video on my phone shows the girls giggling uncontrollably in a pile on the floor as Marsha discovers them, gasps at their appearance, and then breaks into laughter. Suddenly, Eloise and Josephine are belting out “Happy Birthday” to one of the stuffed animals on the ground, a giraffe.

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