My daughter rocked a killer tan when she was a newborn. It was actually jaundice, but it made her look all devil-may-care bronzed. Strangers would peer under the hood of her car seat and remark on her golden complexion. “Hello, precious!” they’d say. “She’s such a beautiful color!” “Thanks,” I’d say, wanting to add, “It’s…

Kendall Smedley was just twelve years old when a latent snarl of malformed vessels in her brain—there since birth—ruptured and left her lifeless in the ER at a children’s hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. That night, whether by chance or providence, a respected neurosurgeon fresh out of a late-night surgery got the midnight page. At Kendall’s…