About the Book

One baby. Five lives. A baby is born dangerously premature, and the four adults trying to save him struggle with hard questions in a no-easy-answers world. The decisions they make will change their lives.

The one-pound baby’s eyes are still fused, and he can’t breathe without help from a machine. His mother can’t look at him without thinking about the choice she made—to abort his twin who had Down’s. His father, a vet with Gulf War syndrome, doesn’t trust doctors anymore, but he can’t save his son without help. Although the neonatologist is doing his best, he worries about the ethics of resuscitating one this premature. Half die. Half the survivors have disabilities. The baby’s nurse believes a disabled child is just as precious as any other. She doesn’t believe in abortion, but her conviction is about to be tested. She’s a carrier for muscular dystrophy, and she may be pregnant.

When the preemie develops a life-threatening infection and his mother’s postpartum depression drives her to attempt suicide, it will take everything these people have to save the baby, themselves, and each other.