I was overwhelmed with happiness when Mom’s new doctor told me that her condition had finally stabilized. It felt like a sharp thorn had been pulled straight out of my chest. Because honestly, after what happened at the previous hospital—the sudden attack, the unexplained collapse that no one could clearly account for—I had been living with a constant, suffocating fear for her safety.

It felt like something bad could happen again at any moment, like danger was always just one breath ...