“Tell your wife goodbye,”

said the nurse. Mayowa Adelekun waved from behind a window as a gurney holding his wife, Erin, was hoisted into a medevac helicopter. Rotors roaring, the aircraft lifted off from the roof of Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis and headed 30 miles west to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, where a trauma team was waiting.

Nine days earlier, Mayowa and Erin had been giddy with joy at the birth of their daughter, Adenike. A post-delivery photo taken in this same hospital shows her resting on Erin’s chest, swaddled in a blanket and wearing a pink cap. Mom beams from under a puffy hair cover. Daddy leans awkwardly into the shot, his facemask pulled down to show his proud grin.

Mother and daughter had gone home healthy—but now Erin had returned with a life-thre

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