chapter 1 (cont.)

     Two months later the news came too late. Clair was six months pregnant and losing her grip on life. Dr. Rudison granted Harold a malignant blessing�he could only save the baby.

     Even with the doctor�s grim prognosis, Harold believed that his wife and child would endure their dismal plight. He asked to hold his wife�s hand during the delivery thinking his presence would somehow curb her hopeless fate, but the doctor refused him admission to the delivery room. Dr. Rudison and his medical team were unsure of the exact dilemma facing them and opted not to have a panic-stricken husband and father to look after in case they reached their own climax of anxiety.

     Ultrasound couldn�t determine where Clair ended and the baby began, thereby making a Caesarean section impossible. Clair was slowly fading. They had to induce labor immediately.

     Dr. Rudison sat on a stool at the foot of Clair�s bed working feverishly to deliver her baby before she took her final breath. Nurses held her hand, monitored her vital signs, and gently raised her body up to a sitting position every time the doctor commanded a push. Interns and specialists hustled around the bed with surgical instruments, swabs, vials, and needles from long counters and metal pushcarts, responding like robots to the doctor�s commands.

(free preview cont.)