Surviving Lasts a Lifetime: A Parent’s Journey through Medical Trauma

Surviving Lasts a Lifetime: A Parent’s Journey through Medical Trauma details the journey of a young mother who survives a near death experience against all odds. It chronicles the survival, recovery, and the difficult task of moving on, and integrating a new normal. Astrid wrote letters as a “guide to life” for her children in case she would not live to teach them to her own children, as the trauma brought into sharp focus life’s great questions about love, family, and purpose.

This book is a source and inspiration for other survivors, parents, caregivers, medical professionals, and mental health professionals dealing with such a devastating chapter to give them strength facing their own challenges. It is intended as a reminder that people are surviving all around us, and that surviving lasts a lifetime, and does not necessarily fit neatly into society’s stringent guidelines and expectations for coping with any given trauma.