And she said: “Okay.

That I can do.”

Part Nine: What Was Actually Wrong

I am going to explain the medicine, plainly, because I had to learn it and because the entire moral weight of what happened rests on it.

What my son had is called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.

It means brain injury caused by an interruption in oxygen and blood flow.

In his case the cause is not in dispute: the placenta separated, and for a period of time before he was delivered he did not have what he needed.

It is graded I, II and III.