The Burn Ward at Dawn

In 2004, Dr. Sylvia Martínez worked the overnight shift at the burn unit of Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Her patients — soldiers medevaced from Fallujah and Mosul — lay wrapped in gauze, their bodies ravaged by IED blasts. The ward smelled of iodine and grief. Through the long night hours, Sylvia changed dressings, administered morphine, whispered reassurances to young men who called out for their mothers.…