I showed up at the hospital to surprise my husband during his shift. But the second one of his coworkers saw me, all the color left his face. Then his eyes filled with tears. “He hasn’t said a word to you, has he?” Ben and I had been married eleven years, and for every one of those years, I had shared him with the hospital. He was a remarkably gifted surgeon.

They also worked out a sizable private financial settlement with Carmen Ortiz and offered her old job back with full benefits.

Carmen politely turned down the hospital’s job offer when we got together for coffee at my kitchen table a few weeks later.

“I signed up for an accelerated nursing program that starts this January, Hannah,” Carmen told me with a proud smile.

“Lucas always said I had the gentlest hands when I took care of him, and I want to honor his memory by helping sick kids.”

Paul Miller turned his past misconduct over to the ethics committee on his own and was given a nine-month license suspension along with mandatory supervision.