Chance at Life

<p><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Chance At Life</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> (80000 words) is upmarket fiction in the setting of a chronic dialysis unit where patients and staff struggle with life's limitations and their own mortality featuring a</span><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> machine malfunction that kills a patient a black-market kidney transplant and a patient who decides to withdraw from dialysis and throws herself a going away party. </span><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Although this novel can stand alone it has series potential. The target audience includes readers who enjoy inspirational stories about people thriving amid adversity.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The story is told through the viewpoints of three characters-young nurse Rachel her mentor Elizabeth and dialysis patient Darnell. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>After Rachel drives a weary Darnell home post-treatment (a risky violation of clinical judgement and professional boundaries) and then holds a dying patient's hand instead of starting CPR she has put her beloved career in jeopardy. The techs she supervises despise her and she wonders if she's cut out to be a nurse. Her personal life disintegrates when she discovers that she is pregnant and her fiancé hits her when she refuses to get an abortion. She moves out and begins a friendship-turned-romance with Darnell. After her mentor Elizabeth discloses her own kidneys are failing the two discuss the merits of rejecting dialysis in exchange for a dignified death. When Darnell is beat by police and hospitalized he endures a near death experience in the ICU. His bond with Rachel grows stronger after she suffers a miscarriage. After growing angry about Elizabeth's decision to forego dialysis her friend and nephrologist Max breaches confidentiality laws and informs her daughters who talk her into accepting dialysis as an option. Subsequently she and Max form a romantic relationship and agree to live out as many years as they can together. After Darnell's beloved but troubled brother is shot and killed Rachel convinces him to accept his brother's kidney. The two couples thrive and grow finally happy among the raging Covid pandemic lockdown of 2020.</span></p><p></p><p></p>