Three O'Clock in the Pediatric Ward

Maria Gutierrez hadn't slept in thirty-one hours. Her daughter Sofia, just seven years old, lay in the pediatric ICU at Denver Children's Hospital after an emergency appendectomy. The monitors beeped their steady rhythm. The hallway lights dimmed to their nighttime amber. Twice, the charge nurse had brought Maria a blanket and told her to rest in the recliner. She couldn't.…