The Beauty in Breaking

In the final chapter, Harper tells the story of baby Jenny, a girl just under two years old, whom her father brought in after she had a seizure. After conducting initial tests, Harper ordered Liver Function Tests (LFTs), mostly as a precaution, to perhaps reveal a metabolic issue that her initial assessment might miss. After examining test results and X-rays, Harper started to determine what was really going on: Baby Jenny had been beaten by her father. Harper writes, “When the update came that the father had been charged with abuse, that he had caused the retinal hemorrhages, cerebral contusion, multiple fractures, and liver laceration, we couldn’t say we were surprised” (266). Although the father’s behavior in the hospital did not betray him, Harper and her team had enough experience to identify why and how the body reacts to injury.

She then moves to the story of Mary Giannetta, a 78-year-old woman with diabetes and a heart condition, who lived just long enough in the emergency room for her family to say their last good-byes. Almost miraculously, Mary lost all cardiac activity but was still somehow breathing. Looking back on the experience, Harper recalls, “I marveled at how she had waited, how she had known.