Brecken’s Hospital stay at 6 weeks old
First off, I wanted to let you know that I decided to break this into two different posts. I wrote it all in one and quickly realized that it was way too long for one post. I also know that this is going to bring back quite a few emotions as I reflect back on what happened in January of 2020. I scrolled back on my Facebook updates from when Brecken was in the hospital, and was able to get a lot of details about the time.
Here is my first update, which explains a lot.
We ask that you say a prayer for our baby boy. As many of you know, Brecken spent the first 11 days of his life in the NICU due to a lack of surfactant in his lungs. Thankfully, he was given an injection of surfactant when he was 3 days old and was restored to health and sent home.
We spent the next several weeks at home with our sweet baby boy, enjoying our time together as a family of 4 all under one roof. It was perfect--everything we hoped it would be. Ellie fell into her role as big sister so naturally and absolutely adored her baby brother.
On Wednesday, January 8th (2020), I took Brecken and Ellie to John’s work so that the gymnasts could meet him for the first time. On the car ride home, I heard Brecken make a sputtering noise in his car seat... he sounded like he was having trouble breathing. I pulled over the car and went to check on him. When I got to him, he was completely purple in his car seat. I pulled him out and held him in my arms. I ran around to the drivers side and sat down, trying to make the best decision on where to go and what to do from there. I had Ellie and Sonny (our dog) in the car as well, so I decided to go home and see how he was doing. I held him in my arms the rest of the drive home crying and pleading that he would be okay. When we got home, I went to change his diaper and when I laid him down, he was limp, pale, clammy, and sweaty.
I was in a panic, unsure what to do, so I called our pediatrician’s office. She connected me to 911 immediately and we went to the hospital in an ambulance. At that time, he was stable, so the ambulance ride was slow—no flashing lights or anything. No one knew just how sick he was at this point…
He spent about 4 hours in the emergency room before he was transferred to the pediatric floor. (We were waiting for a room to open up). In hindsight, those 4 hours were precious and could have cost him his life. I am so grateful that he survived them and got the urgent help that he did once transferred to the pediatric floor.
Once on the pediatric floor, Brecken was immediately put on the maximum amount of breathing support they could provide. He went into respiratory failure and within 10 minutes of being on the pediatric floor in Lincoln, a decision was made to transfer him to Children’s Hospital in Omaha in order to get the care that he needed. Within an hour, the transport team from Children's arrived. They did everything they could to get him stable for the ambulance ride to Omaha (a one hour drive).
The transport team made the decision to give him a paralytic, sedate him, and intubate him (put him on a machine that is breathing for him).
It all happened so fast. I remember when I called John to tell him what had happened, he was so confused because Brecken had just been at the gym and was perfectly fine. It came on very suddenly. I rode with Brecken in the ambulance to Omaha, while my parents watched Ellie. John left work and met us in Omaha after stopping at home and packing bags for a hospital stay.
The ambulance was freezing! It was the beginning of January, the heat was off, and air could get into the ambulance through the drive. Brecken was only wearing a diaper, and I couldn’t help but think how freezing he must have been. However, the transport team said it was best to keep him cold.
Things were pretty rocky on the ride to Omaha. The transport team tried best to stay calm for me, but I could tell that Brecken’s levels were dangerously low and they were getting nervous. When we were about 5 minutes away from the hospital, they started to run low on oxygen for him. As we got closer to the hospital, they turned their lights on. When they arrived at the hospital, they rushed through the doors, running with Brecken to get him more oxygen before he ran out. It was scary, and at that point I think I only began to realize just how serious things were.
Brecken was taken up into a room and was immediately surrounded by doctors and nurses. He was the baby with nearly every doctor and nurse on the floor there, just trying to keep him alive. They had to insert a PICC line in his leg, which took several hours. John and I weren’t allowed in the room during that time, so we laid in the hallway and made phone calls to update our family’s on the situation.
Shortly after, we learned that Brecken tested positive for a strain of Coronavirus (HKU1), which lead to Severe Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. We had never even heard of Coronavirus at the time, and COVID was just beginning to be talked about on the news while we were there.
When we first arrived, an incredible doctor who specialized in cases like Brecken’s estimated that he would be there for at least a month. We kept hearing doctors and nurses say, “he is really really sick”. It was really hard and terrifying.
We were told by his doctor that he probably wouldn’t be alive today if he hadn’t been brought to Children’s Hospital. I am so grateful we acted as we did and that I trusted my instincts to get him to the hospital as quickly as we did.
Brecken remained sedated, on a paralytic, and intubated for a full week, monitoring his oxygen, carbon dioxide levels, and heart rate very closely. He had several "episodes", where his oxygen levels would change dramatically. Those were absolutely terrifying.
For the first part of Brecken’s hospital stay, John stayed the night with Brecken in Omaha, while I drove back and forth to stay the night at home with Ellie. John saw the majority of these “episodes” happen—a lot of them in the middle of the night. The kind of episodes where nearly every doctor and nurse rushes to his room to do everything they can to stabilize him. I was only in the room for a few of these episodes, and they were really, really difficult to witness as a parent. They made me feel so helpless—just standing there pleading with God that he was in the best of hands.
After being in the hospital for 5 days, he was classified as having "Mild" Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, instead of "Severe". This was HUGE news! He still wasn’t out of the woods and he still had a long road to recovery, but this step allowed us to feel encouraged that healing was coming.
I will stop there with part one of Brecken’s story. If you were a part of our lives during this time, I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart for the prayers and love sent his way. He needed each and every prayer. We know our God is good and was holding Brecken as he worked to heal his little body. We are so grateful for you all and the love, kindness, and generosity shown to our sweet baby boy and our family.
(Part 2 coming soon.)