When I started nursing, I imagined nothing more upsetting than caring for sick babies. But I look after a child who, for no apparent reason, has cardiomyopathy—an enlarged heart. A teenager. I watch her face, the tiny prongs of oxygen in her nose. She looks at the X-ray the doctor holds up, showing the size of her heart taking up too much space. She will not live. “I have too much heart?” she asks.
