The career of a pediatric surgeon is often defined by life-or-death stakes, but for one doctor, a routine heart surgery on a six-year-old named Owen became the catalyst for a total life transformation. Owen suffered from a severe congenital defect that had left him “painfully thin,” yet he survived a grueling, successful operation. The triumph turned to tragedy the following morning when the surgeon found Owen’s hospital room empty of family; his parents, overwhelmed by medical debt and terror, had signed discharge papers and vanished, leaving behind a fake address and a son they believed would be “better off” without them. This act of desperate abandonment left the young boy with nothing but a dinosaur toy and a future as an orphan.
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