Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, Andrew, let's start with you.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Madison was born and soon thereafter diagnosed with cataracts. Is
that something that they made you aware of during the
pregnancy or was this a surprise or a shock to you.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
It was definitely a surprise for us, I want to say.
Shortly after her birth and even after going to the pediatrics,
they didn't notice it. It was actually just kind of a
fluke chance that Brandy was breastfeeding and it happened to
look down and saw something in her eye. Took her
to the doctor. Doctor looked in and it's like, oh, yeah,
she does have cataracts. Let's refer you to an optometrist.
(00:36):
Optometrists looked at it, It's like you need to see
a specialist. So then they sent us to Children's where
we met doctor Paul, And yeah, it caught us completely
by surprise. Nobody saw it coming. So it was definitely
turned our heads when it happened.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now, did you google the situation and find out that
it's a leading cause of infant blindness? Did you go
down that road?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Absolutely, I want to say, we definitely went down that.
I have a whole and we're almost like a Google expert.
If you will with it. We discovered as much as
we could about it to prepare us for other people's
stories with it, to help us get ready for it.
One thing with it though, while we were googling it,
that was our only resource to really tap into. We
didn't find any other parents or anybody that we could
(01:20):
talk to family wise either that was going through this,
so it was all very new for us.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
So it sounds like it's a pretty rare occurrence that
a child has cataracts, is that right?
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well?
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Children, yes, typically you see it with the older folk,
maybe in the sixty seventies or whatever age range it is,
but when it comes to children, completely rare. So trying
to find others in that exact position too with children
very very difficult and very rare.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So you were told your child, your daughter has cataracts.
They said it was going to require surgery. That had
to be tough, handing a little baby that's just months
sold over to the surgeon for a very delicate process that,
by the way, is available using a machine here called
Ingenuity three D, which is something really marvelous.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
But that had to be difficult. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
If she was born in October and then the middle
of December was her first surgery, so you're just talking
about a few months old she was. And even after
that surgery, two weeks later she had another surgery because
they did one eye at a time, and I still
remember them just wheeling her out of the room and
just how heart wrenching it was to see something so small, fragile,
(02:35):
delicate being taken away to go get a surgery that
was potentially gonna save her life in a sense, because
she was going to be blind if she didn't get
the surgery. Like one thing with her cataracts that we
came to find out was she actually had an even
rare form of cataracts. It was a y shaped cataract,
So a baby to have cataracts was already rare, and
(02:57):
then for the type that she had made it even rare.
So luckily we had such a great doctor through Children's
and we jumped on it as quick as we could,
and we feel because we were so quick, it really
helped her vision. So trying to muster up that courage
to have her go through the surgery in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It was difficult.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Mom.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
What about you that day when you had to hand
medicine over to the surgeons.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
It was my biggest nightmare, like watching her get wheeled
away by somebody else. It just it breaks your heart,
like you never want your child to go through it,
and watching your child go through it and to be taken,
it's like there's nothing you can do as a parent
and it's the hardest thing to see.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Well, immediately after surgery, could they tell if it was successful?
What was the conversation like with the surgeons?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
It was. I want to say it was pretty successful
because like right after the surgery, she was starting to
look at things and kind of show more interest in things.
But it wasn't unt till she got her glasses that
like we really knew that it was a success.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Dad, What about you?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
They're weaving in your daughter to surgery, but you also
have a wife there that is really going through it
as well as the father. How tough were those conversations
and tell us about that time period when she was
actually in surgery.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
That time period was definitely rough all around, especially being
the father figure trying to be that rock that is
there for not only my wife but eventually that my
daughter as well, trying to be strong from them. It
was rough and just before the surgery, trying to be
strong for her, having the doubts of.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Do we need to do the surgery? Is she going
to be okay with it?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Because since we're those Google experts, if you will, you
also see the bat that comes with it. Oh, some
somebody so young going through surgery, they could potentially die
for maybe the antithesu or something under the surgery. So
trying to give her the comfort of everything is going
to be okay.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
She needs this surgery to be okay.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
She could see again, she could live a normal life
if she gets the surgery.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
So I kept.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Going back to that to muster the strength to be
strong for her. And then during surgery, just being in
the room and waiting and waiting for any type of
news of oh my gosh, was it okay? Did it
go successful? When can we see our daughter? Luckily, everything
went smooth. It felt like an attorney while we were
(05:28):
in the room. But when doctor Paul finally came in
through the door and told us, hey, it was a
great success. I'm very happy with it, it was just
a huge weight off of our shoulders. And then shortly
after we actually heard Maddie crying in the hallway as
there wheeled her in, it's like, oh, there's that voice there.
It's like, I can't wait to go see her, pick
her up and just tell her it's going to be okay.
But when they wheeled her in and seeing the eye
(05:49):
patch and the tape and everything on her, it's like, oh,
my poor little girl. It's like, I'm so sorry we
had to do this to you. It's because we feel
partially responsible for even though it's just luck of the draw,
however it happened with her. They reassure us that it
was nothing that we did or could have done to
prevent it. But still you see her in that state
and it's just you feel responsible for it.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
It's like, oh, I did this to you. I'm so sorry, kid.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Let me try to make it right and make it
up to you.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, obviously it's still very fresh in your minds, as
surgery wasn't all that long ago. But tell us about
where Madison stands now about her eyesight and her future.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Are there more surgeries in the future or is she
good to go?
Speaker 4 (06:30):
H Madison today is completely thriving. Her pediatrician says she's
kind of above her milestones. She's smart as can be,
she can figure out things very quickly. She loves to
watch TV. In the future, we do plan to have
lenses put in permanently so she won't need as much
of or won't need as strong of a magnification in
(06:54):
her glasses. But there are still more surgeries to go.
You know, it is a process. We see the optomologists
every two to three months and so it's a lifelong
challenge with it.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Well, without the surgery, it would have been a whole
different life from Madison. Tell us, what does the people
hear The doctors here at Children's Hospital at Children's Nebraska
have meant to you.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
They've meant the world to us. Every time that Madison
went into surgery, it was hard even on us as parents.
They were there not only for Madison, but for us.
And every time that Madison came into surgery, they allowed
her to keep her favorite stuffed animal, her favorite blanket,
and to go into the o r with them to
give her comfort, and she had them when she woke
(07:44):
up for comfort. They were just phenomenal people. She had
one nurse that actually had the same name as her Madison.
On both surgeries, that nurse actually brought her a stuffed
animal each time she had her surgery and we still
have them today and it was just so sweet to
see how connected somebody that is just a nurse Scott
(08:07):
with Madison.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
There are people listening right now. Maybe you haven't decided
whether or not to donate to our radiothon knowing your
story having been what you've been through, what would you
tell people that Children's Nebraska means to you and why
they should pick up the phone and give.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
One of the biggest things that of what they mean
for us is they literally restored Madison's site. If we
had done nothing, just let her be let the cataract's
form and get worse, she would have been completely blind
and with the age of when she got the surgery,
if she didn't get at that point, she never would
have developed on how.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
To use her eyes.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
So they literally gave her site, and that I think
just it means the world, especially as a father, it
means a world.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
But they literally gave her site. To tell us about
your relationship with your doctor.
Speaker 4 (08:57):
Uh, doctor Paul, He's phenomenal. He goes above and beyond.
There were times that Madison had a surgery and he
was going on vacation instead of leaving on vacation. He
came in over the weekend just to meet with us
and to check her eyes one last time before he left.
He goes above and beyond, and he keeps such an
open communication and he doesn't say, well, it could be
(09:21):
this way or it could go this way. He wants
a for sure answer before he gives you anything. So
he doesn't just shoot at the hip. He doesn't do
both eyes for the surgery for a reason. He goes
one eye at a time so he could take his
time and do it correctly the first time. He just
he's a phenomenal doctor. He goes so above and beyond
(09:42):
in every single way. He's phenomenal. Like I can't even
tell you how amazing he is as a person and
especially as her doctor. I truly trust him with my
daughter's life, and nobody else has that besides me.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Now we're going to use this in the script. How
do you say his last name?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know? Jane? No, yeah, yes, it's Uhwaski.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He kind of batched it on an interview with Fox.
He had correct us, and it made us feel really bad.
It's like, because we do have a pretty strong relationship
with them, but when we watched it and he had
a correct Us were like, oh crap, we'll get that
doctor Paul.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
He'll be an our leader. Anything else you'd like to add.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I guess to touch on more with her surgeries as well.
She had three surgeries, the one for each ey for
the cataracts, but then a few months after uh so,
we had in December. In February, she had to have
another surgery on her left eye because the pressure built
up so much into it. And one thing that I
kind of always hold has a regret with that is
during that time from December to February, while we didn't
(10:55):
have the answers of the pressure, Maddie was just having
very difficult time in general. She was crying a lot.
Just you could just see that she was just in
a great discomfort and pain. And we thought it might
have just been colic again or some other teething, or
we tried all sorts of methods to help soothe her.
But when we went to doctor Paul again and he said, yeah,
(11:15):
the pressure in her eye is very very high, we
kind of got to get her into surgery tomorrow. It
just made me feel so bad that all that frustration
I had with her, just knowing that it wasn't her fault.
It's like, oh, you suffered a whole month and a
half with that pressure, and it's like we didn't do
her part to help you. So if there's ever any
other parents like in that type of a situation, it's like,
(11:37):
try not to beat yourself up or hold on to
that type of regret. It's just I don't want to
say these things happened, but it did in her case,
and it's just I still feel bad about how I
felt them, But just try to let other people know
that you don't have to feel bad, you don't have
to beat yourself up over these oversights.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Yeah, I think keep in mind though, because of your actions,
you did the right thing by your daughter and look
at her now. So I like to give you just
a moment that say, you have a greeting card in
front of you, a thank you card, and let's ask you, Brandy,
and you were writing a note to those who you
came into contact with, who you still come into contact with,
(12:16):
the doctors, the staff. What would that short thank you
note say?
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I would tell them that they gave us the biggest
blessing that we as parents could never have given our child,
like Andrew said, they gave our daughter vision. She literally
has a future now where she can use her eyes
and see things, and it's something I could never have
done as a parent. So I thank them at the
highest level of gratitude that I could ever have for them.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
We use in the Radiothon the term and we don't
say it lightly, but we use the term miracle maker,
and we're asking people to become miracle makers by donating.
Having gone what you've gone through, Andrew, do you believe
in miracles?
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Absolutely, Just with how everything transpired, Like not to go
on too much of a tangent, but like a little backstory,
we just retired from the military. We lived in Maryland,
she was pregnant, We moved out to Nebraska, gave birth here,
and shortly after we noticed the cataracts. After we started
going down the road to get the cataracts fixed, we
(13:20):
came across Children's. It kind of felt like everything happened
for a reason that it really felt like we were
guided on the path of having this miracle happen. If
we didn't just take that chance of moving to Nebraska,
we never would have came across children She might still
be blind or she could have had a botch surgery.
This it really does feel like a genuine miracle.