Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Kristen Burns son Bryson. Kristin now works at
Children's Hospital. So, Kristen, you found out during your pregnancy
that you had issues with Bryson. Tell us about those?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, So what we went in for our twenty week
anatomy scan. Our doctor was actually out of town that day,
but she told us we wouldn't see a doctor unless
there was something wrong. So they started doing some scans.
The ultrasound tech left said she was going to get
a doctor. Panic immediately set in for that, so another
doctor came in started scanning his brain and his heart.
(00:32):
Didn't really tell us much, but said there were some
issues and we needed to go see a specialist.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Sorry, I have my allergies. Excuse my allergies. But so,
in a nutshell, what were the issues with Bryson?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So, in a nutshell, in pregnancy, they just knew he
had some heart issues and brain issues.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Once he was born, we actually found out he had
a lot more.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He was born without a left lung, a left kidney,
a left ear, had spine issues, and several hard issues.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
What did that do to you as a family when
you got that kind of.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
News, It was devastating.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
He was our first, So you know, you always want
to have that perfect first pregnancy, and I feel like
that was kind of stolen from us, but you know,
it's your kid at that point, and you just do
whatever you have to do to make it through.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Tell us about the physical contact we were able to
have or not able to have with Bryson. It's in
such a tender condition, it's such a tender age.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, So there was about a month period where we
could not physically hold Bryson because of the nature of
his surgeries and how fragile he was and so, which
was really hard. Has you know, we have a three
month old baby. You want to be able to hold them,
and you know how much that that touch can help.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But we knew we would have to do what's best.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So we were actually out in the lobby talking with
our parents and some of the nurses came out and
they said, do you want to hold him? And I
was like what, and they're like, we think we can
make it happen, And so no words even said to
our family. My husband and I ran back and they
had about four or five staff members holding different lines
and chords and move in the bed so they could
(02:14):
move the chair because the lines wouldn't stretch that far,
and so I got to hold him, my husband, it's
like you're I'm gonna let you be the one that
holds him. And it only lasted about five minutes because
he started getting worked up and just stuff like that,
which is hard to see, but that five minutes and
the work that they did to make that happen was
(02:34):
truly amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Five minutes. You'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Never.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So he's had six surger rays and each time you're
handing over your precious baby into the doctor's here, that
tell us that had to be tough.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That was very tough, especially his fourth surgery.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
They told us there was about an eighty percent mortality
rate and we were just going to take every day,
you know, as it came, and we just yeah, we
at that point it was the only thing we could do.
That that surgery was the only option for us, and
so we knew we just had to put our trust
in the doctors and let them do what they thought
was best.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
You know, we tell people this is a great place
of hope. There's a lot of hope here at Children's Nebraska,
and way more leave fixed than they don't. But in
your case, it didn't end up that way. Tell us
about that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, so, I mean, we were originally told that Bryson
wasn't going to survive pregnancy, so we were truly taking
every day that we got, and we got seven and
a half amazing months with him, and that's all due
to the staff here at Children's. We had a lot
of great times, times that we never thought we would see,
see him smiling and cooing at us, getting him on
the floor to play stuff we never thought we would get.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So that was truly amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Tell us about some of the experiences here at children
some of the people that stepped into your lives.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Oh gosh, staff was amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
But our night shift nurses after a.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
While, we you know, we really like want to dress
him in clothes, you know, and so our night shift
nurses were amazing. And there's people that donate clothes here
to Children's. And we came in one day and he
was all dappered out. He had a plaid, sure, some overalls,
but it was so nice to come into not seeing
all of his lines and his bare chest, but to
see him covered up and looking like, you know, the
(04:24):
sweet little boy that we knew. There's other nurses that
would leave us, you know, inspirational quotes on the board.
We had a doctor come in and say that their
church prayed or rosary for our son. Another resident came
in and said, you know, having treated Bryson helped him
with some of his exams. Some stuff that he had
never seen before he saw on Bryson, and so he
helped a lot of.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
People as parents. Did you feel picked on, No.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Not at all, not at all. Unfortunately, just happens.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
You know, there's there's no explanation sometimes for things that
have and you know at the time it was hard
to believe that. But I mean we've seen truly great
things come out of his life and the experiences that
the staff got to have with him, and so we're
happy with that.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
As you look back and from when Bryson was born
until as you put it, got his angel's wings, now
that you look back on it, that's been about nine years.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Is that right he was, yeah, night, he'll be he
would be nine in December.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, as you look back on that, what are your
what are your thoughts now nine years forward?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Oh, I don't know, It's it's tough.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I have a nephew that is the same age, so
I see him running around and we always wonder what
he would be like. And then our six year old son,
we've always told about Bryson, and he feels like he
knows Bryson, even though he was not born when Bryson
was around, but he truly feels connected to Bryson. And
so our our outlook has changed, you know, a little bit.
(05:59):
And obviously the further you get away, the grief never
goes away, but it changes. It's a lot easier to
talk about now than it was, you know, a couple
of years ago. So it does get easier to talk about,
but it's never hard to talk about our experience here.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
We always talk about the difference between Children's Hospital. You know, people, babies,
children can get care a lot of places, but there's
a different way they do things here at Children's Nebraska.
What are some of those differences in your opinion.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I would say just the staff has the true passion,
true passion to take care of kids, and you can
tell when people don't. And everyone here has that passion
and you're not going to find that at any other
hospital besides the Children's Hospital, and especially here at Children's Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So, speaking of passion. Let's talk a little bit about
your passion. That's a nice place to segue here because
because of your story, you developed an interest in being
here and what goes on at Children's Nebraska and tell
us where that's led you.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, so I've always loved kids and wanted to work
at Children's, but after our experience with Bryson and just
the staff and everything, it was like, it was my
dream to work here someway, someday, somehow, some capacity, I
was going to work here. And at the time, my
background was in physical therapy as a physical therapy assistant,
(07:20):
which they don't hire here because of the complexity of
the kids.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So I was like, I'll find another way.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So now I work here as on the physician and
Faculty Affairs team, recruiting all the nurse practitioners, physician assistants,
and the certified registered nurs sesetist. So it's cool to
bring those people on site. You know, see their passion
when I interview them and can really tell that they
have the passion to work here.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
This place has an amazing track record for attracting the
best in their fields. Tell us about that when you
talk to potential doctors, nurses, what are those conversations like,
what are they interested and what did they want to know?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Honestly, a lot of them they just come in and
they already talk about their desire to work with kids,
and that that right there, I mean just shows you.
But then seeing them walk through the hospital. I give
them all tours of the hospital and of the different units,
and just seeing their faces light up when we have
a random interaction in the hallway of a kid in
physical therapy riding a bike through the hallway, you know,
(08:25):
you see their faces light up and you're like, okay,
like they're they're meant to be here.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
If you had a message that you would could say so,
or if you had something you could say to our
listeners listening right now to the radiothon, why would you
encourage them to pick up the phone and give to
the radiothon for your children's Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I would say, I mean anything, any amount that they
can donate here is amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Child.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
You know, every child gets treated here, they don't get
turned away, and we were benefits of that. We had
a secondary excuse me, medicaid policy. We left here without
a bill. And if you saw what that bill was.
It's because of people that donate to the Radiothon that
can help make that possible.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Know, your story unfortunately had a sad ending, But I'm
sure there are some people you would like to think
along the way. If you had a thank you note
that you could write to the people that invested in
your life and invested in Bryson's young life while you
were here, what would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Oh, God, that might make you christy. I don't know
if there's any words to thank them for the time
that we got with him. I mean, like I said,
to be told that he wasn't going to survive, to
the seven and a half months that we got, I
mean truly their dedication to our son and to us
(09:50):
and caring for us the entire time.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I don't know if that thank you is ever enough
This is Kristen Burns son Bryson. Kristin now works at
Children's Hospital. So, Kristen, you found out during your pregnancy
that you had issues with Bryson. Tell us about those?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yeah, So what we went in for our twenty week
anatomy scan. Our doctor was actually out of town that day,
but she told us we wouldn't see a doctor unless
there was something wrong. So they started doing some scans.
The ultrasound tech left said she was going to get
a doctor. Panic immediately set in for that, so another
doctor came in started scanning his brain and his heart.
(00:32):
Didn't really tell us much, but said there were some
issues and we needed to go see a specialist.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Sorry, I have my allergies. Excuse my allergies. But so,
in a nutshell, what were the issues with Bryson?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So, in a nutshell, in pregnancy, they just knew he
had some heart issues and brain issues.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Once he was born, we actually found out he had
a lot more.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
He was born without a left lung, a left kidney,
a left ear, had spine issues, and several hard issues.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
What did that do to you as a family when
you got that kind of.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
News, It was devastating.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
He was our first, So you know, you always want
to have that perfect first pregnancy, and I feel like
that was kind of stolen from us, but you know,
it's your kid at that point, and you just do
whatever you have to do to make it through.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Tell us about the physical contact we were able to
have or not able to have with Bryson. It's in
such a tender condition, it's such a tender age.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, So there was about a month period where we
could not physically hold Bryson because of the nature of
his surgeries and how fragile he was and so, which
was really hard. Has you know, we have a three
month old baby. You want to be able to hold them,
and you know how much that that touch can help.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But we knew we would have to do what's best.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So we were actually out in the lobby talking with
our parents and some of the nurses came out and
they said, do you want to hold him? And I
was like what, and they're like, we think we can
make it happen, And so no words even said to
our family. My husband and I ran back and they
had about four or five staff members holding different lines
and chords and move in the bed so they could
(02:14):
move the chair because the lines wouldn't stretch that far,
and so I got to hold him, my husband, it's
like you're I'm gonna let you be the one that
holds him. And it only lasted about five minutes because
he started getting worked up and just stuff like that,
which is hard to see, but that five minutes and
the work that they did to make that happen was
(02:34):
truly amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Five minutes. You'll never forget.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Never.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So he's had six surger rays and each time you're
handing over your precious baby into the doctor's here, that
tell us that had to be tough.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
That was very tough, especially his fourth surgery.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
They told us there was about an eighty percent mortality
rate and we were just going to take every day,
you know, as it came, and we just yeah, we
at that point it was the only thing we could do.
That that surgery was the only option for us, and
so we knew we just had to put our trust
in the doctors and let them do what they thought
was best.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
You know, we tell people this is a great place
of hope. There's a lot of hope here at Children's Nebraska,
and way more leave fixed than they don't. But in
your case, it didn't end up that way. Tell us
about that.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, so, I mean, we were originally told that Bryson
wasn't going to survive pregnancy, so we were truly taking
every day that we got, and we got seven and
a half amazing months with him, and that's all due
to the staff here at Children's. We had a lot
of great times, times that we never thought we would see,
see him smiling and cooing at us, getting him on
the floor to play stuff we never thought we would get.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So that was truly amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Tell us about some of the experiences here at children
some of the people that stepped into your lives.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Oh gosh, staff was amazing.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
But our night shift nurses after a.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
While, we you know, we really like want to dress
him in clothes, you know, and so our night shift
nurses were amazing. And there's people that donate clothes here
to Children's. And we came in one day and he
was all dappered out. He had a plaid, sure, some overalls,
but it was so nice to come into not seeing
all of his lines and his bare chest, but to
see him covered up and looking like, you know, the
(04:24):
sweet little boy that we knew. There's other nurses that
would leave us, you know, inspirational quotes on the board.
We had a doctor come in and say that their
church prayed or rosary for our son. Another resident came
in and said, you know, having treated Bryson helped him
with some of his exams. Some stuff that he had
never seen before he saw on Bryson, and so he
helped a lot of.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
People as parents. Did you feel picked on, No.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Not at all, not at all. Unfortunately, just happens.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
You know, there's there's no explanation sometimes for things that
have and you know at the time it was hard
to believe that. But I mean we've seen truly great
things come out of his life and the experiences that
the staff got to have with him, and so we're
happy with that.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
As you look back and from when Bryson was born
until as you put it, got his angel's wings, now
that you look back on it, that's been about nine years.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Is that right he was, yeah, night, he'll be he
would be nine in December.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Yeah, as you look back on that, what are your
what are your thoughts now nine years forward?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Oh, I don't know, It's it's tough.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I have a nephew that is the same age, so
I see him running around and we always wonder what
he would be like. And then our six year old son,
we've always told about Bryson, and he feels like he
knows Bryson, even though he was not born when Bryson
was around, but he truly feels connected to Bryson. And
so our our outlook has changed, you know, a little bit.
(05:59):
And obviously the further you get away, the grief never
goes away, but it changes. It's a lot easier to
talk about now than it was, you know, a couple
of years ago. So it does get easier to talk about,
but it's never hard to talk about our experience here.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
We always talk about the difference between Children's Hospital. You know, people, babies,
children can get care a lot of places, but there's
a different way they do things here at Children's Nebraska.
What are some of those differences in your opinion.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I would say just the staff has the true passion,
true passion to take care of kids, and you can
tell when people don't. And everyone here has that passion
and you're not going to find that at any other
hospital besides the Children's Hospital, and especially here at Children's Nebraska.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
So, speaking of passion. Let's talk a little bit about
your passion. That's a nice place to segue here because
because of your story, you developed an interest in being
here and what goes on at Children's Nebraska and tell
us where that's led you.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, so I've always loved kids and wanted to work
at Children's, but after our experience with Bryson and just
the staff and everything, it was like, it was my
dream to work here someway, someday, somehow, some capacity, I
was going to work here. And at the time, my
background was in physical therapy as a physical therapy assistant,
(07:20):
which they don't hire here because of the complexity of
the kids.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So I was like, I'll find another way.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
So now I work here as on the physician and
Faculty Affairs team, recruiting all the nurse practitioners, physician assistants,
and the certified registered nurs sesetist. So it's cool to
bring those people on site. You know, see their passion
when I interview them and can really tell that they
have the passion to work here.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
So that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
This place has an amazing track record for attracting the
best in their fields. Tell us about that when you
talk to potential doctors, nurses, what are those conversations like,
what are they interested and what did they want to know?
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Honestly, a lot of them they just come in and
they already talk about their desire to work with kids,
and that that right there, I mean just shows you.
But then seeing them walk through the hospital. I give
them all tours of the hospital and of the different units,
and just seeing their faces light up when we have
a random interaction in the hallway of a kid in
physical therapy riding a bike through the hallway, you know,
(08:25):
you see their faces light up and you're like, okay,
like they're they're meant to be here.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
If you had a message that you would could say so,
or if you had something you could say to our
listeners listening right now to the radiothon, why would you
encourage them to pick up the phone and give to
the radiothon for your children's Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
I would say, I mean anything, any amount that they
can donate here is amazing.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
Child.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
You know, every child gets treated here, they don't get
turned away, and we were benefits of that. We had
a secondary excuse me, medicaid policy. We left here without
a bill. And if you saw what that bill was.
It's because of people that donate to the Radiothon that
can help make that possible.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Know, your story unfortunately had a sad ending, But I'm
sure there are some people you would like to think
along the way. If you had a thank you note
that you could write to the people that invested in
your life and invested in Bryson's young life while you
were here, what would you say to them?
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Oh, God, that might make you christy. I don't know
if there's any words to thank them for the time
that we got with him. I mean, like I said,
to be told that he wasn't going to survive, to
the seven and a half months that we got, I
mean truly their dedication to our son and to us
(09:50):
and caring for us the entire time.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
I don't know if that thank you is ever enough
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