Actually here’s the exact answer in 2.1:
Quote:
DR. BROWN: There was, uh, a point in the surgery.
[Dr. Brown sits in a chair.]
DR. BROWN: (CONT'D) After the vessel burst.
[Ephram sits on the couch.]
DR. BROWN: (CONT'D) Where I could have tried something else. A more complex version of the same procedure. But we would have had to start all over again. [beat] I just kept thinking about that night. He was sitting on that couch right where you are. Pleading with me. Making me promise something I never should have promised. And so, [beat] I just stopped. I stopped trying.
EPHRAM: So he would have lived?
DR. BROWN: Probably. But he wouldn't have been the same boy that you knew. At best, he would have been barely functioning. Both physically and mentally handicapped. Dependent upon those who loved him for everything. At worst, he would have been under breathing apparatus until the Harts themselves were forced to make the same decision I did. [beat] I knew that the only way to keep my promise to him was... to let him go.
[A long beat.]
EPHRAM: So you've been living with this all summer and you haven't told anybody?
DR. BROWN: His wishes were confidential.
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