Book Details

Aneurysm---a medical catastrophe

A middle-aged woman on snowshoes in the mountains of Idaho. A fighter jet pilot at the apex of his career. Drawn together by the same medical misfortune, one finds the other's friendship amidst the debris of their mutual calamities.
This is the true story of two strangers whose lives intersect because of simultaneous ruptured cerebral aneurysms. Their descent into darkness and slow journey back into life will touch your heart.

 

Book Excerpt

Ruptured cerebral aneurysms kill two-thirds of their victims. What about the survivors?
From out of nowhere I was broadsided by a blow to the base of my skull as if I had been struck with a sledgehammer.
The jet pilot was suddenly knocked off his feet by an explosion of pain in his head.
An answer to prayer is what a miracle is.
These truths did not imply that I planned to capitulate to destiny without a fight.
The aneurysm's over-distended wall was pulsating with malignant hemorrhagic potential with every beat of Mike's cooled-down heart.
I don't know at what point I became aware of the angel. Perhaps it was when I was lying face down on that ugly shag carpet waiting for my skull to explode.
The colonel was unaware that his collar bone had snapped as his body jerked and twisted in a generalized convulsion.
It slowly dawned on me that dying wasn't all that hard. It was the struggle to come back to life that hurt.

 

About the Author

Margaret Watkins

Margaret Watkins is a retired intensive care physician. She has written these two parallel and intersecting stories from the provocative point of view of both doctor and patient. The cataclysmic course of ruptured aneurysms is explained in scientific yet simple terms as she and Colonel Robbins descend into the nightmare of near-fatal illness and return to lives transformed by their experience. The author lives on a small ranch in the mountains of central Idaho with her husband, Robert Jarrett, and their dogs and horses. She has published a book of short stories, TRANS---PLANTED, and a book about her trip to Mount Everest, OFF TO TIBET. The latter are available by USPS from the author at email iloveidaho@att.net.

Also by Margaret Watkins

MOLE DOG
Off To Tibet
Trans-Planted