“You don’t get mad when accidents happen now,” he observed.

I stopped wiping.

I had been living as if preventing every mistake might protect us from another catastrophe.

“I’m trying to remember what matters,” I told him.

He fetched a second towel and knelt beside me.

PART 11

The investigation produced a painful complication: not every failure had been deliberate.

The independent medical review found shortcomings in documentation and decision-making across several institutions.