Chapter 23 - The Hospital Changes Too
Dr. Brooks invited me to a hospital safety meeting three years later.
I hesitated.
Emma said:
“Go.”
“Why?”
“So they don’t let somebody pretend to be another mom.”
Good reason.
The hospital had already changed systems.
Higher verification for portal proxy changes.
Clearer caregiver identities.
Separate logs.
More direct child-patient questioning when developmentally appropriate.
Medication reconciliation protocols strengthened when caregivers changed.
No details needed.
I told administrators:
“The system did not cause what Margaret did.”
Important.
“She exploited trust and legitimate caregiver access. But once her messages began contradicting my behavior, a verification call to me through a second channel might have exposed it sooner.”
They listened.
No lawsuit empire.
No billion-dollar settlement.
The hospital waived some charges and implemented quality improvements.
I chose not to sue.
My attorney said I had options.
I wanted energy elsewhere.
That was my decision.
Dr. Brooks later became medical director of the pediatric survivorship program.
Emma adored telling people:
“My doctor got promoted because she’s bossy.”
Dr. Brooks answered:
“Accurate.”
Serial scans remained stable.
Appointments became less frequent.
Nobody used the word cured casually.
We used:
Stable.
No evidence of progression.
Doing well.
Emma appreciated precise language.
She had inherited my obsession with evidence.
Or maybe learned it from surviving people who tried to rewrite her reality.
At fifteen, she volunteered at a hospital art program.
Not as inspirational “cancer kid.”
She hated that phrase.
May you like
“I’m a person who had a tumor.”
Exactly.
