From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily.

Today, a Times investigation into a hospital where doctors suspected that children with complex hard conditions

had been dying at higher than expected rates and were even children with low risk conditions

seemed to do poorly. Secret recordings shared with my colleague Ellen Gabler

revealed what was happening inside the hospital.

It's Friday, May 31st.

May 31st.

Well, in the sky, when she was born, how did it go?

First time I saw her, you know, I fell in love.

She came out and she just like, had her hands up by her face like she was posing. She came out posing.

She's like, you know, look, I'm pretty. Whatever she was going to do, she was going to be pretty doing it.

And so when did you realize that she might have a health problem?

Okay, so she went, I think it was around her three month appointment at her pediatrician's office.

And I noticed the one doctor, she said, well, her heart sounds off.

Like that rhythm is really off. And she said, it could be nothing, but I just want to just take a look, you know, just look more in depth.

So Ellen, how did you meet Skyler's parents, the judges?

So I met Tush and Thomas last year. I was looking into some problems I had heard at North Carolina Children's Hospital.

And I knew that their daughter was one of the kids who had had heart surgery there.

I went to the cardiologist's office and they did EKGs. And when that cardiologist came out and showed us the pictures of her heart, I can remember holding her very, very close to me.

Because I'm just like, no, I don't know.

And I remember calling my husband when I went and got in the car.

Yeah, I was at work and she called me, she was crying. And I was like, what's wrong? She was like, you know, it's all work.

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