I collapsed from overwork and woke up in the ICU, and while my family used my money to fly to the Caribbean to scout my sister’s wedding venue, a stranger stood outside my glass door every night until the nurse handed my mother the visitor log and I watched the color drain out of her face.

I began working eighteen-hour days to finish the investor reports and compliance filings. My doctor had warned me that my blood pressure was dangerously high for a woman my age, but I felt I couldn’t slow down.

The Collapse

On the night of the incident, my head was pounding with a pressure I had never felt before. I reached for a glass of water, but my fingers wouldn’t move, and the words on my computer screen began to melt into strange shapes.

The security guard saw me fall through the office cameras at 11:52 p.m., and an ambulance arrived shortly after. By the time I reached the emergency room at Highland Park Medical Center, the situation was dire.

The hospital called my mother repeatedly starting at 1:20 a.m., but she didn’t answer until after 7:00 a.m. When she finally arrived with my father and Brianna, they stayed for only thirty-four minutes.

The ICU nurse, a woman named Sarah, told me later that Brianna wouldn’t even enter my room because she hated the smell of hospitals. My mother spoke to the doctor briefly and then immediately checked her watch.