Aaron Tracy

All the doctors are standing around, looking very worried and protesting, Dahl says, but their minds are made up.

To make matters worse, it's a crazy snow day in New York.

But then Neil's longtime agent, Harvey Orkin, suddenly materializes with a car.

Dahl continues.

I love this detail.

Loyalty is such an important theme in Dahl's work.

Think of Matilda and Miss Honey, Sophie and the BFG, Charlie and Grandpa Joe.

You can just feel how much it means to Dahl that this guy, this agent, who's not even a close friend, has nevertheless shown up in a snowstorm to save them.

Harvey drives them to Presbyterian Hospital.

I know it well.

It's where I had both of my kids.

Here, the doctors evaluate Theo and operate on him for a subdermal hematoma, which is a kind of swelling caused by bleeding into the brain.

And they put it right, Dahl says.

A huge, huge relief.

Still, Theo will stay in the hospital inside an oxygen tent for the next two weeks.

It's a terrible period.

Theo goes temporarily blind from cerebrospinal fluid accumulating around his brain, which requires another operation.

Remember, he's only four months old.

Each operation is incredibly dangerous.

Neil somehow stays relatively calm through it all.