10.

The intervention had gone very badly. During the placement of the arterial valve, an inappropriate clinical gesture triggered a complication with a stroke, thwarting all initial predictions.

A team of surgeons had to be brought in urgently to perform open heart surgery in a room that was not equipped for such a case. A massive transfusion was also needed. All this took the whole day.

She was then placed in cardiac resuscitation and put into an artificial coma.

A few days later, I was able to visit her. Surrounded by a multitude of machines with screens from which tubes and pipes were emitting all sorts of beeps and different sound alerts, she was able to recognize me and whisper a few words.