July 10, 2024 • 37 mins
In this week's episode, I'm speaking with Brian Heilig, who has an amazing story of the birth of his son Greyson. Greyson was born as a micro-preemie baby, and his will to survive along with a doctors quick actions ensure that he is a thriving 7 year old today. Brian wrote a book on what he and his family went through, and we touch on some of those details and more. This is is Brian's story
Eat Poop & Grow Book & more about Brian:
http://brianheilig.com
Eat Poop & Grow Book & more about Brian:
http://brianheilig.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Nobody Are somebodies all right? Ischadvice? It's Nobody's or Somebody's podcast.
Welcome to this week's episode, abrand new one for you here, and
I'm glad to share this one withyou. My conversation with Brian Helig.
I'm thinking, I hope I didn'tbutcher his last name. I always butcher
last names or first names. Iam sea had VC of Somebody's are Nobody's
(00:24):
podcast? I always butcher names.But this is a great conversation I've had
with Brian, thanks to the lovelyunpaid promoter Marie for bringing him to me.
He tells a story about basically havinghis son born in emergency situation in
Mexico when he was down there vacationingwith his with his wife at the time,
(00:45):
and he details all the events thathappened for his son being born premature.
His son was a micro premium baby, and it's a it's a big
story, a big event, allwith a happy ending. Grayson, their
son is now set years old anddoing quite well and surviving and thriving.
But he has this unique experience documentedin a book that he wrote called Eat,
(01:08):
Poop and Grow. It's out therenow on Amazon, and he explains
the reason behind the title. Atthe end of the podcast, you're going
to hear how he arrived at thename of the book, which is very
cool. I'll let him tell youin his own words, how that came
together and how. We won't giveall the story away. We do touch
on what was happening, how hegot how circumstance led to have them have
(01:33):
their child in Mexico, and howthey got back to the US safe and
sound, and how things all turnedout, and where he's at now with
his book. So, without furtherado, my conversation with Brian begins now
here on Nobody's Are Somebody's podcast withme Chadvice. Thanks so much, Brian,
and here we go, and Brian, it's good to talk to.
It's good to every conversation. Howare you. I'm good, I'm good.
(01:55):
Thanks for having me. It's fun. Not a bro, It's going
to be fun. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I can't wait to
dig into your story a little bitwith the time that we have here.
So basically, you're an author,you wrote a book, but what the
book is about your story is prettyfascinating, so I can't wait to hear
bits and pieces of that without givingaway the whole book of course, too
very good. Appreciate it, Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. So
(02:15):
I guess before we start the book, I guess, before we start talking
about the book, talk to meabout you and who you are and where
you are. Yeah, yeah,for sure. I was born in Chicago,
raised in the suburbs. Met mywife in high school and we've been
together ever since. We have ourlife, kind of growing up together.
(02:36):
At one point we tried to havekids and it wasn't happening. Wasn't happening
for years. Then we both gotchecked out. She was pretty thing less
eggs and they were just weaker,if you will. And now we're like
thirty eight years old. So itwas a choice that she said, you
know, let's try IVF, andso we did. In the States,
(02:59):
we tried IVF and it just didn'twork, not fun, and then we
a friend of mine turned us onto I didn't know this concept existed,
but it was like you could fosterto adopt, and so we got our
foster certification and right away we hadlittle baby Eva. She was like seven
days old and we were able tofoster her with hopes to adopt, but
(03:21):
that didn't go the way we wanted. So that was five months that five
months old we had to give herback, which is just crazy. Can
you mention briefly why that was,if you don't mind or what. Yeah,
for sure, yeah, she herparents. Although they didn't do something
that they should have or they didsomething they should have, it wasn't like
super dramatically. You think about alot of the cases that we talked about
(03:46):
in class were you know, drugaddicts that were just having babies and then
not doing what it took to gettheir baby back. It was easy to
have another kid, you know.These people were just it was a young
couple. They had literally but thekid was born in New York. They
drove the floor to the kids.Seven days old. They she went into
publics, you know, the grocerystore, and he for whatever reason,
(04:09):
left the kid in the car andwent into you know, like home depot
or something, and somebody called thecops. And think those things had been
happening at that time. So thejudge was like, you know, they
lost their state, they lost therights to their kids, which makes sense
at the time. Yeah, atthe time, and then so right away
because they were doing everything they neededto do. They were doing way above
(04:30):
and beyond what they needed to do. So we kind of figured early on
that it's we're not going to beable to adopt her. They're doing what
they need to do to get theirkid back, which is a good story
for them in a happy ending forthat obviously, to have a family reunited.
I get that. You always theyalways try to get them reunited with
their birth parent, right. Butin two months we were supposed to give
(04:51):
her back, you know, thecourt date you know, came and the
judge was still just super pissed off. So he said, three more months.
Like what we knew, we weren'tgoing to have her, but three
more months. Go keep her therefor three months. You guys can attach
to her, she can get attachedto you. Wow, that's that's difficult
to say the least. So yeah, so then we were out. We're
like, no more kids, We'rejust not going to have them, you
(05:12):
know. And I got an opportunityto go back to Mexico to work with
the same crew that I that Iworked with before. And one of the
caveats that Diana had because she didall the research, was one of our
friends that lived there was an acupuncturistfor the IVF doctor and Cancun who had
a very high success rate. Sothat is like, I'll move there if
(05:33):
we can go yeah, And I'mlike, that's up to you, babe.
I'm down, but you know ifyou I mean, it's not easy.
Guys could not handle ibs and soI hear you're right, yeah,
lo and behold that. You know, she got pregnant and then all hell
broke loose about halfway through, whichhas been our story. So you know,
(05:56):
I guess that what years is?How long ago is this now?
So this was twenty sixteen when wemoved. In twenty seventeen Grayson was born,
so he'll be seven next month.Oh wow, very very cool.
You said you moved down there forwork. What was your work? What
were you doing to move down toMexico? So real quick backstory on that.
In two thousand and five, Iwas working one hundred hours a week
(06:17):
and the doctor said, wrote aprescription to go on vacation, just stressing
out. So we went through Portaviyerto Mexico. We did a timeshare presentation
and to get out of it,I thought, I got it. I'm
going to tell him I'll buy itif you give me a job, and
they said, okay, I'm likewhat they got it? Yeah. In
two thousand and six, we movedto Mexico and I started working for that
(06:38):
company selling timeshare and then from therenot easy, not easy, one hundred
percent commissioned foreign country. I lefta really good, you know job that
it was super secure and everything,but it ended up being an amazing experience.
And that's when we tried having kidsand it didn't work. We had
(06:58):
come back to the States and thenthe same crew in via Arta said hey,
we're going to get the band backtogether and we're going to do cancuon
are you in so same thing incant Coon, same company. Yeah,
And it's been good for you,Like you enjoy doing that work. I
mean, like you said, onehundred percent commission, so you got to
really work it, like you kindof like you're selling houses or you're selling
you know, time shares, you'reselling vacations. So how do you find
(07:20):
that is there's a lot of negativityabout that industry, a lot about that
that's those things. So do youfind there is a legitimate ways to make
money at that? Can you actuallysell decent actually above the ground actual time
shares or can you give me somebackground on that? Sure? I mean
it's different here in the States thanin Mexico and Mexico, you know,
(07:40):
unfortunately, there's not a ton ofrules. There's no HR you don't have
to have your real estate license andso forth, so you can choose to
kind of sell it above board orbelow board. And you know, I
couldn't. I just couldn't sleep atnight if I did it, you know,
the wrong way. Yeah. Yeah, so I was above board the
whole time, but it wasn't untilI get in the state. After Grayson
(08:01):
was born, Dinah said, hey, you got to find a job.
So we're in Florida and Orlando islike the timeshare capital of the world.
And she found a job for meat at where I'm now currently working as
a sales trainer. So we're thereare so many laws and rules and regulations
and so forth that you actually haveto be a good salesperson to be able
(08:22):
to do this and be successful andso, you know, or else you'll
just get fired if you go belowboard, right, and so it's been
like super rewarding to be able tohelp these kids, you know, create
careers, and there's all the storiesyou don't hear about timeshare, Like,
(08:43):
you know, a couple came backand said, you saved our marriage.
You know. Another couple said,you know, you know, our family
now is actually talking and we're creatingmemories and you know because of the time,
sure, because of going there.Right, So the good experience is
that you really don't hear about correctanywhere. Yeah, that nobody talks about.
Nobody wants to talk about, righton both sides. So exactly,
(09:05):
that's good to hear that. Yeah, it's it's you know, it's like
anything else. I think if youpurchase it for the right reasons and you
use it, you know, yeah, you lose it. Yeah, yeah,
it does what it's supposed to do. It's just you know, I
think with anything, you know,cars or anything, you know, you
have good salespeople, you have badsalespeople, and you know, right,
(09:28):
yeah, definitely for sure. SoI'm guessing the crux of your book was
obviously what happened in Mexico, whichwas having your baby there and things not
turning out at that time the wayyou wanted. Unexpected things were happening.
I don't know how much do youtell you want to go into that here,
because like obviously people you want peopleto get the book and that's where
the main details are. But canyou share anything about that that kind of
(09:50):
brings you into why you wrote abook basically, like why was significant enough?
Obviously it's the significant to your family, but talk to me about a
little bit what happened and then whywrite a book about it would be significant
to you for other people? Yeah? Absolutely, So you know when this
all went down, I mean,nobody plan. Nobody has a birth plan
to have a premature child, youknow, and much less a micropremi,
(10:13):
which Grayson was. But you know, Dinah had developed severe preclamsia at about
twenty five weeks, which you know, her blood pressure shot up and so
forth, and it could not itwould not come down. So the doctor
said, we have to deliver thebaby to save Diana's life, you know.
And so we're quite catapulted into thiswhole world. And although there's a
(10:35):
lot of care in Mexico that isphenomenal, you know, it's the nick
you is about and I didn't knowthis, but about thirty years behind technology
wise, and so you know,when this was all happening, I was
reaching out to close friends and family, letting them know what was happening,
and you know, the mom's cameflew right out. But then that spread
(10:58):
real quick, and so everybody kepttexting and what's happening, and you know,
Facebook messaging, and we just couldn'tget back to everybody in time,
and so we went live on Facebookand just had kind of an interview with
one of our friends to let peopleknow what was happening and get everybody on
the same page. And that's whenwe had a huge influx of nurses from
(11:20):
all over the world saying, listen, he's not really in the best position.
You know he was he was ina bed with some ran wrapping the
heat lamp. You know, there'sno proper incubators there. And so they
started putting the idea in our headthat you know, if you can move
him to the States, that wouldbe ideal, and we just were blown
away, like I cannot bath himtaking this little tiny thing and who's fighting
(11:43):
for his life there and doing whatyou can and just picking up like we're
just going to go to the States, which is you know close enough,
Yeah, Florida, I'm assuming toFlorida, right was that the idea.
Yeah, we went to Miami.Yeah, to Miami. Yeah. So
in all of that, uh,we did that that one Facebook in the
comments, you know, there's hundredsand hundreds and hundreds of people, and
(12:05):
one of the comments from one ofour friends was, you know, you
should write a book about this.It's just that people are people were tuning
into us like the Truman Show,like every day they from what's happening with
the high leaks, you know,and so that just kind of was like
a funny thing like ha ha,yeah, it's it's it is crazy,
it's it's a it should be abook kind of a thing. But the
(12:26):
story continued to develop and it wasan absolute miracle and how everything picked and
tied together and the way that ourpeople in the community, I'm talking the
worlds it came together for us.It was it was something incredibly special.
So we had it in our sitesat some point in the future to write
(12:50):
a book about it. And itwas about three years after Grayson was you
know, born that you know,we kept saying to some good someday,
some day I'm going to write abook. Some day I write a book.
I write a book. People saythat all the time I write a
book about my life, there's somethinginteresting, right, but you there's something
like obviously kept inside your mind.You were thinking about it right over and
over, absolutely, and people wouldalways say, hey, you should write
(13:13):
the book. It's just so Ican't. I think back to those days
and it was just incredible, youknow. And so I happened to be
at church and the pastor said,hey, have you ever asked what God
wants you to do with your life? And I thought, well, that's
different. I know. I alwaysjust wanted to do what I wanted to
do, you know, And sohe said, let's try it. And
(13:33):
it was almost instantaneous. I gotthis, write the book, speak about
it, transform lives, and andthen I got to work straight away.
I wrote the first word to turnin, the first sentence, to first
paragraph, the first chapter, andso on and so forth, until you
know, it took three years almostto complete the writing, the editing,
(13:58):
the book, design, formatting,the whole thing, getting it actually published.
And the goal really is to haveawareness and all, like, all
the net proceeds are going to gotoward putting proper incubator into Mexican hospitals.
Because the percentage of babies that survive, especially at his amount of weeks that
(14:18):
he was born versus the States isI mean, it's it's single digits versus
you know, ninety's almost noncomparable.I can imagine. Yah, they just
don't have the technology. And soso there you go. I spent you
know, I don't know how manydays waking up before in the morning even
(14:39):
to write for fifteen to twenty minutes, you know, going to work an
hour early to have quiet time,and you know, try to type this
out. And and my goal wasa year to write it, but it
took twenty six months. Well Ican imagine because you're, like you said,
you're working still and you're now raisingalso a newborn baby as well.
You got to be president for thatand trying to write a book too,
(15:00):
so you're just out of a littlebit more on your plate too, which
which is ironic because you left thatone hundred hour week job to kind of
get away from all the extra pressuresand stuff that was on your plate now
to kind of like, well,I'm putting this on my plate now.
But obviously it was a labor oflove in many ways, so that's why
it was Maybe it came a littlebit more easier to you, and you
didn't feel the stress of it obviouslynot that too much, obviously the stress
(15:20):
around it, but I mean youstill push through it, you still found
a way to get it done.Yeah. It was also during the whole
process, you know, it wasI don't know how many bockses of Kleenex
I went through reliving it all,you know, And and I didn't account
for all the research that I hadto do and to try to get the
timelines right and the pictures that Ihad to look at for time stamps and
(15:43):
try to remember all this kind ofstuff and what people wrote and text message
in what's apps that I looked at. But so it took you know,
I thought it would be a year. You know, I did the math
on how many words per minut it, you know, I got all technical
with it. But after the firstyear I was about halfway. And so
we continued and pressed on and itbecame extremely therapeutic as well, you know,
(16:10):
to be able to talk that likeI am right now with you.
A year ago, I would Iwould say Mexico and start losing it,
you know. PTSD fin like thewhole thing, understand it's very therapy therapeutic
for you. As you mentioned too, did your I know you wrote it,
but did your wife, Diana,did she help you with the writing
of it? Did she give yousome ideas for concepts or change it or
(16:32):
timelines? But she involved? Ordid she let you kind of have this
project? So that was interesting becausewe we we both together loosely put together
kind of the outline. But sheshe never read the book until any part
of it until the last possible momentfor editing. She just couldn't do it.
(16:52):
She would start and just couldn't doit, you know, and it
was just too emotional, too real, too raw to open up that you
know, that wound and and butbut finally I said, babe, this
is it. You've got. It'sgoing to the editor, but I want
your input especially you've got to readwhat I said, make sure it's all
accurate, not that I wouldn't be, but for also, can you really
(17:15):
convey her feelings and emotions through thattoo? It's your it's your respective,
which is great, but can youconvey both or do you want to?
That's important too, right, absolutely, and I needed I needed her on
a few pieces. But also itis kind of unique because a lot of
the nicky books out there are children'sbooks, and they kind of make it
(17:36):
a lighter situation, even though it'sthe darkest time of your whole entire life,
which is very much needed, youknow, a little levity in it
all. There's very few books thatare the real, raw, true emotion
of what you go through, andeven fewer that is from the dad's perspective,
right, is what I'm finding out. So she actually, as she
(17:59):
was reading it, didn't have aclue on some of the stuff that I
went through, you know, becauseshe was well, she was out of
it too, right, She's tryingto recover, and she's being told this
and that, and I can imaginethat you're spending time with the baby.
He's not in the exact room asyou, guys. So she's recovering,
you're trying to deal with that.She wants to have a part of that
too as well as she can.So it's all over the place. I
mean, her recollection also must be. And what she was going through is
(18:22):
totally totally different. Absolutely. Youknow, there was a period of several
days where she wasn't in the ICU, so she had no idea what we
were dealing with on the outside,you know, and you don't want to
tell her at the same time too, because you kind of wanted to see
where it's going to go to makesure everything's good, right, So totally,
totally Yeah. When she read thebook, she's like, holy cow,
(18:44):
ahead idea, Yeah, how closethis was, or how the how
touch and go this was? Yeah. I can imagine that in itself would
be a huge shock and kind oflike reliving it all over again for her
too, even though the baby's therewith you and everything we have a happy
ending, thank god, still relivingthat for her reading the book, I
can see why she didn't want toeven maybe just dig into it at all,
just kind of like, no,I'll trust your words and leave it
there. Yeah, you got it. I mean I never really I've heard
(19:07):
of PTSD, but I never reallythought it was you know, real.
It is real. It is real. Yeah, we felt it. I
mean, it's crazy. We couldbe watching a medical show, let's say,
and they have a nick you sceneand we're both looking at each other
crying. You know, it's likebam, I hear those bells and it's
just like we're done. So itbrings you back for her to relive.
(19:30):
It was just it was tough.She was she was trying to read it
in starbuok like I couldn't do itbecause people are looking at me, you
know a meth Yeah, I canunderstand. Not the place to do it.
Yeah. Let me ask you thisthough, with regards to the hospital
itself, the one in Mexico,did they have any issues with you?
I guess wanting to move the baby, I guess to the States, even
(19:51):
you know, because even for thebenefit for your child, though, did
they have an issue like as faras cooperating with you to do that,
and did they have an issue atall with you you? I assume that
you mentioned this specific hospital in thebook. Do they have any issues on
that front? I guess that's howit would make them look. Was there
any kind of pushback from the Mexicoor the Mexican hospital. Yeah? So
in the book, and just foryou know, legalities, I didn't name
(20:15):
the the okay, gotcha, ButI did get permission to use the doctor's
name and so forth, and someof the doctors. But it was it
got to a point where we reachedout to the Miami hospital. And here's
one part of One of the majorpieces of it of our frustration was when
(20:36):
you reach that level in Mexico,like we know enough Spanish to just be
dangerous, Like we don't, we'renot we don't speak Spanish, we're not
fluent. But when you get intomedical Spanish, it's I can't imagine.
Yeah, we would have we wouldhave translators come and they're like, I
don't know this word in Spanish,much less English, Like I don't know
what to tell you. I don'tI've never heard it before. I don't
even know how to describe what they'redoing with your baby. I can't.
(21:00):
So when we when we reached outto Miami, they're you know, everybody
speaks Spanish at that hospital. Absolutelythey were. They were able to communicate,
and at one point doctor Campbells inMexico was like, you know,
it would be better to move him, and if you can do it,
I would recommend it. That's good. He was able to advocate for that
(21:22):
and didn't take it as a personalagainst the hospital, like, oh,
no, we have the care becauseI canna understand the hospital being like,
no, no, we don't wantto give up care of this because it
looks bad. You know, it'sjust a human life, but to them
it's a pr thing, right,so they don't want to be like,
no, we can't treat your babyhere at this hospital. I could see
them having pushback. Yeah, itwas, it was. It was an
incredible experience to because we were dealingwith the hotel, I mean the hotel,
(21:48):
the hospital director and everything all theway the whole time, and everybody
was for the baby and his survival. So they put all politics atide and
they were incredible about supporting our decisions, supporting us, helping us through whatever
they needed to do to navigate this. And they were I can't speak highly
(22:11):
enough about the staff and the teamat that hospital in Mexico. It was
it was just all for the rightreasons, all to save the baby.
That's good to hear. It's goodto hear. A couple of things on
that. So I assume I'm notgoing to make you talk about this or
give it away for the book.I want people to read this and check
it out if they're listening to thispodcast, obviously, So in the book,
(22:32):
I would assume you go into detailsabout how the actual transfer was made,
like the actual days or weeks orhopefully wasn't that long. But I'm
just saying the actual transfer because that'ssomething people myself included would want to know,
is how the transfer actually physically happened. So I'm not going to ask
you to go into details how ithappened. I assume that's in the book,
right, absolutely, in extreme detail. Yes, it's good. It's
good to hear it's in the book. Not that it happened, obviously,
(22:53):
but it's good that it's in thebook for people to check out. So
you mentioned the proceeds of this bookgoing to that hospital in Mexico, So
obviously they're aware of that. Imean the hospital in Mexico. Sorry I
should I keep saying Mexico. Whereaboutsin Mexico? Was the hospital again?
Was it in Cancun? Okay,so in Cancun? So the hospital Cancun.
(23:15):
They're obviously appreciative of that. Didyou have any other considerations for where
the proceeds of this book would go? Or is this like, as soon
as I write a book, youknow what, if I sell any copies,
it's going to the Cancun hospital.How did that? How'd you arrive
at that decision? Basically we hadsee this is where you're gonna get me
now. We had so much help. It was like a tremendous outpouring of
(23:42):
help from everybody from all over theworld. And the thought and I mean
I'm talking like help, like tryingto help find a Nike you that would
take him, help with prayers,help bringing food, help with money,
(24:03):
donations, so much money that theydonated for us that the thought of taking
money from this was just I couldn'tfathom it. So the idea is from
the beginning, was all the netproceeds have to go back to the first
incubator we want to do is thathospital. You know, the doctor was
(24:29):
just completely out of his mind aboutthe mobile equipment that they brought from Miami.
So to be able to have thefirst we want to call them G
units, you know, for Grayson, that's our yah, put a G
unit. We want to put aG unit at that in that hospital first.
But also the hopes is and andI don't know how, I really
(24:51):
am just trusting that as I getthis word out, the right people are
going to come into the play tothen create and raise awareness to put incubators
in Mexican hospitals in all major cities. You know, and then in the
country throughout the country, because evenin Yerta, you know, I mean
Cancun is a massive, huge,you know, quote metropolitan city in Mexico.
(25:15):
But if they don't have the equipment. A friend of ours had a
baby in Porto Aerta and same exactthing. They have the same care in
the nick you as in can Coon. So to be able to start to
help babies and save babies' lives,I think if we just save one baby's
life, you know, it wouldbe absolutely more than worth it. Yeah,
(25:37):
absolutely absolutely. Did you ever thoughtof maybe keeping the money for a
foundation for him and his name aswell? Or is it always the hospital?
Right off the bat, it wasalways the hospital. Graythan is doing
so phenomenal. He's he's dealt withmore life than most of us already.
You know. He at three yearsold, he was diagnosed with autism on
(25:59):
top of all anything else. Sobut but he's just such a joy to
us in our lives and other people, and so yeah, it's it's always
just been about how can we helpother babies? Yeah, for sure,
definitely a miracle baby. I'm gladyou guys are doing that for sure too.
Yeah, So let me ask youthis. Then he's he's seven now
(26:21):
right, yeah, seven next month? Do you obviously at some point he's
going to know the book exists andit's going to be out there. Do
you have an idea of how youwant to present that to him his stories
in this book when he gets tobe a teenager. Do you want him
discovered on his own dad wrote abook about you or about our experience?
I should say, but how doyou want to kind of have you even
thought about this? How you wantto present that to him one day?
Well, we have already old him. You know, Daddy wrote a book
(26:45):
it's about you. You know,he's not really grasping that concept, but
we do. We do. Onething that's kind of fun is we do
have an option. Obviously you canget the book on Amazon, but if
you go to my website you couldactually have the app. And if you're
in the US, who have thebook signed by Grayson and myself. It's
fun to see. I think Grayson, we got to sign a few more
(27:07):
books now and he runs like ameet and yeah, like a celebrity signing.
That's awesome. So he definitely knowsthe book exists, but he doesn't
know that concept that I mean,we're very We've been so public with our
life and his life that there's there'snothing that we're really ever going to hide.
As soon as he can start tograsp the concept, he loves to
(27:30):
read, by the way, ironically, so you know, you know,
at some point I really hope thathe does take this on and reads it
and understands, you know, notonly what a miracle he is, but
the amount of people, sorry,the amount of people that came together Tuesday
(27:52):
his life. It's just incredible.From people seeing the original Facebook live,
which is what you were doing,just updated, it's incredible. You're story
just thinking about the fact that youhave people just to update your friends and
family who you couldn't get out toin time because there's so many people,
like you said, which is great, they're all wondering about you, what's
going on when you're there in kenKun, just to say, oh,
let's just do a Facebook live.It's just let everybody see it. And
(28:12):
then of course anybody can see thatfrom all over the world. And then
from that to just like giving anupdate to where it's come how the support
has come in from, like yousaid, all over the world, not
just across America but across everywhere.It's just amazing to see that the little
idea just to help your friends andfamily understand what's going on turn into this
whole big support system for you.Is just incredible. Yeah, absolutely,
(28:34):
it was. It was. Itwas just overwhelmingly incredible. It was just
that I sometimes get more emotional aboutthan what we went through. You know,
like you just it makes you wantto be a better human being.
Mm hm, for sure. Haveyou thought about writing a different book,
a follow up book after that ashis life goes on, or just to
(28:55):
kind of say what the results ofthe end, because I I don't Again,
I don't want you to get awaythe end of your last book,
but I'm going to assume that weknow it ends positively. But do you
want to give an update on howyour progress with this book has helped or
change lives at all? Do youthink about doing that as a second piece
of that or is this book giveyou gave it everything you had and all
your blood, sweat and tears aroundthat or you don't with the book right
(29:15):
as far as that subject goes out, I would I kind of want to
say both. But where the storyends it naturally ended at a place that
was unexpected. I expected that therewould be much more to it. And
I'm being cryptic on purpose, youknow, because absolutely, but there's there
(29:38):
is absolutely one or two more booksin me go. People are reading this
book, and I mean they're sayingthings like I just started it before bed,
and then they're like, it's twoin the morning and I'm not going
to bed. Yeah, that's notyou don't want to start. That's not
a bedtime book. We'll put itlike that, right, And then they're
(29:59):
like, that's I flip through more. I want more, you know.
So yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's what people are saying. And
I'm super grateful because that was,you know, absolutely our life. It
was as true to details I couldpossibly make it painstakingly, like almost minute
by minute. Yeah, yeah,for sure. I can understand that too.
(30:22):
And like you said, it's painfulto go through to write the book
and relive those moments and realize eventhough you're not in those moments anymore,
going back to that, I can'timagine. But of course you went through
it. You guys both went throughit and got through it. So the
book is out there for people whoneed it who are going through it or
who just want to hear a goodhuman story. That's what it's all about,
and that's what attracts people because theyneed to know what's going on and
kind of shed light on things thatmaybe people don't realize because not a lot
(30:45):
of people go on vacation to havea baby or something. Things happen when
they go to Mexico whatever, andyou get stuck and you have to have
and healthcare is different there as opposedto in the States, obviously, so
you can see the realities of thattoo. So I can imagine that book
could have been a lot bit biggerthan it was. I don't know how
many pages it is, but Ican imagine you can go into a lot
of different details on that if youwanted to or had the time or energy.
(31:06):
Oh yeah, absolutely. And ironically, at that exact time, there
was another couple from the States whowas on vacation. You know, we
lived there, but they were onvacation and then had their baby unexpectedly,
and they happened to be from Chicagolike us, Like it was so crazy,
weird, and then they were dealingwith the same challenges that we were
as far as yes, the medicalsystem is extremely different. Insurance, it's
(31:26):
just absolutely yeah, you need wellfor them, they need travelers insurance.
If they don't have that, they'reup. They're up a paddle without a
creek or boats or whatever you wantto say. Yeah, it's a whole
different ballgame at that point, sadly. So, yeah, it's different than
living there for sure. If you'rejust you know, just stopping by,
you know, it's not that's thelast thing you want to have happened.
I get it, absolutely yeah.And I don't know if it's the flight,
(31:48):
the altitude or what. But rightafter because we did Diana's baby shower
right before this all went down inFlorida, so we had flung floorists came
back or everything starts welling and goingcrazy, and you know, we don't
know if it was because of thator if it would have just happened anyway,
but it was just you know,maybe this is a thing after a
certain period of time, if you'rehigh risk pregnancy, that you might not
(32:10):
want to fly. I don't know. I am not a doctor. No,
I hear you, because me neither. I played one. But no,
but yeah, that's a slip joke. I've heard that flying there's a
certain time in a pregnancy, upto a certain amount of months, you
can't fly anymore, especially if you'rehigh risk. I don't know what it
is, but you're right about that. That is a thing. So for
sure, for sure anything the lastcouple of things, I'll ask you then
(32:31):
before this time runs out. Soyou said you've seen some things develop and
change at that hospital Cancun and eventuallywant to get to that G unit,
which is great. I mean thename is amazing alone. But have you
seen from the book and the saleshave you seen a difference from when you
first sold a copy to now?I don't know when you first released it,
what year it was, Maybe weshould mention that too, how long
ago it's been out there, Buthave you seen personally difference? Have you
(32:54):
gone to that hospital since then tocheck things out, what's going on as
far as like seeing the aftermath ofthat. So the book was released three
months ago, Okay, a prettyshort time. Okay, it's just out
there. People can grab it.Yeah, just out there. So the
step one was write the book.Step two is talk about it. So
(33:14):
I'm just I'm blessed to be ableto do podcasts and talk. I was
on WGN radio on Father's Day andwe're just we're just getting this word out
right now and people are purchasing itand giving their reviews. And the doctor
in Mexico and Cancun Campos, Iactually happened to know his son, so
(33:36):
his son speaks English, and Itold him the goal and the g unit
and he's just super thrilled. Hehas been at that hospital for a long
time. He tells it that obviouslywhat you said absolutely and so yeah,
I don't know. I don't havethe feedback now as far as you know
to answer your question. And asit made a difference, I just know
(33:59):
that it will. I just don'tknow exactly how yet. But yeah,
it's just starting to because it isI didn't realize there was three months,
which is which is great. It'sjust but now you're just starting to see
something happen. So over time,I'll give it a year or so.
It'd be good to chat with youagain in a year, maybe a year
and a half from now and seehave you noticed these differences from the book
and has the hospital noticed it too, which is what the goal is?
Right, that's correct, exactly.Yeah, And you know, I mean
(34:21):
graatthan he he has his passport,like we're ready to go back and deliver
the g unit. And I justimagine that day when Grace is able to,
you know, look at doctor Camposand you know, and just thank
him, you know, for allthat he did. Because the Miami hospital
said that doctor Campos kept him alive. But in Miami he'll no thrive,
(34:45):
you know. So yeah, he'she's incredible. So I just envision that
day and I think it'll just besuper special. Absolutely will be too,
for sure. And I'm glad thatthe doctor, doctor Campbells let you you
know, use his name, hisactual name, so he can get the
kind of acknowledgement too for all hedid for your son and what he continues
to do there obviously too for otherfamilies, and of course from Mexican people
(35:07):
as well too who live there obviously, and then for people traveling, like
he just takes care of people,which is great to hear. You don't
hear those stories enough? Absolutely,yeah, yep. So people can get
your book. You said, it'son Amazon. It's also at your website.
I don't want to butcher your lastname. I'll get you to say
it to your website. Give usyour website name, and where can people
find the book besides Amazon? Yeah, absolutely so it's Brianheilig dot com.
(35:30):
I'm gonna say hell egg, soI want to make sure it's it's high
leg. Yeah, there's an Iany in there, Brian hell high like.
Can you spell it out for peoplejust who are listening. Yeah,
absolutely so is Brian with and IB R I A N. And last
name is H E I L IG dot com. From the site,
you have the option you could goand have if you're in the US.
Again, we can ship anywhere inthe US. It's for Grayson and I.
(35:52):
Just sign it or it'll link youstraight to Amazon right where you can
buy it there from Amazon get allover the world too, which is great.
What's the name of the book?We never I don't think I asked
you that. I should probably mentionthe name of the book. That would
be great. Yeah, it's justyour name. It's Brian exactly. It's
Breathe, Eat, poop and grow. Oh nice. How did you I
(36:15):
know how you arrived at that title, but how did you did you have
other titles in mind? I'm alwayscurious about how things come to the point
they're at. So before the lastfive minutes to let me ask you about
the name. Yeah, no,I did from day one when we said,
hey, we're going to write thebook, it had to be this
title. And actually the picture onthe front is a picture of Grayson holding
Diana's hand, and so I lookat that. I'm looking at the book.
(36:38):
Unfortunately, people listening to this won'tsee that, but it's great.
I love the cover. That's verycool. Wow, we use the actual,
you know, picture of her,So from day on that picture.
Yeah, and and so breathing poopand grow came from. That's all he
had to focus on with the eat, poop and grow, and he was
on a ventilator, so it wasit just caught on where we told them
(37:00):
you got to breathe poop and girlbreathe poop and girls kind of our mantra,
and it just had to be thebook. Absolutely, that's perfect.
That's great to hear, Brian.I appreciate the chat. I appreciate the
time being open and sharing your story. I can't wait to hear about more
of it as the book progresses,as it's out there for longer, to
see where it goes and where itgoes for the hospital can Coon of course
(37:23):
shout out to the doctor Campos andthe team in Cancun, at the hospital
in Mexico, and of course theones in Miami as well too who facilitated
that transfer for your baby to bealive and be with you here today and
talking about So I appreciate you,like I said, coming on here and
just being so open and sharing yourstory. Yeah, well, I really
appreciate the time chat. It's beenphenomenal and thank you, thank you really
(37:44):
awesome, Brian, thank you.You've been listening to the Nobody's or Somebody's
podcast with me chad Vice, andthis podcast has been voted the number one
podcast by people that don't vote
Nobody Are somebodies all right? Ischadvice? It's Nobody's or Somebody's podcast.
Welcome to this week's episode, abrand new one for you here, and
I'm glad to share this one withyou. My conversation with Brian Helig.
I'm thinking, I hope I didn'tbutcher his last name. I always butcher
last names or first names. Iam sea had VC of Somebody's are Nobody's
(00:24):
podcast? I always butcher names.But this is a great conversation I've had
with Brian, thanks to the lovelyunpaid promoter Marie for bringing him to me.
He tells a story about basically havinghis son born in emergency situation in
Mexico when he was down there vacationingwith his with his wife at the time,
(00:45):
and he details all the events thathappened for his son being born premature.
His son was a micro premium baby, and it's a it's a big
story, a big event, allwith a happy ending. Grayson, their
son is now set years old anddoing quite well and surviving and thriving.
But he has this unique experience documentedin a book that he wrote called Eat,
(01:08):
Poop and Grow. It's out therenow on Amazon, and he explains
the reason behind the title. Atthe end of the podcast, you're going
to hear how he arrived at thename of the book, which is very
cool. I'll let him tell youin his own words, how that came
together and how. We won't giveall the story away. We do touch
on what was happening, how hegot how circumstance led to have them have
(01:33):
their child in Mexico, and howthey got back to the US safe and
sound, and how things all turnedout, and where he's at now with
his book. So, without furtherado, my conversation with Brian begins now
here on Nobody's Are Somebody's podcast withme Chadvice. Thanks so much, Brian,
and here we go, and Brian, it's good to talk to.
It's good to every conversation. Howare you. I'm good, I'm good.
(01:55):
Thanks for having me. It's fun. Not a bro, It's going
to be fun. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I can't wait to
dig into your story a little bitwith the time that we have here.
So basically, you're an author,you wrote a book, but what the
book is about your story is prettyfascinating, so I can't wait to hear
bits and pieces of that without givingaway the whole book of course, too
very good. Appreciate it, Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure. So
(02:15):
I guess before we start the book, I guess, before we start talking
about the book, talk to meabout you and who you are and where
you are. Yeah, yeah,for sure. I was born in Chicago,
raised in the suburbs. Met mywife in high school and we've been
together ever since. We have ourlife, kind of growing up together.
(02:36):
At one point we tried to havekids and it wasn't happening. Wasn't happening
for years. Then we both gotchecked out. She was pretty thing less
eggs and they were just weaker,if you will. And now we're like
thirty eight years old. So itwas a choice that she said, you
know, let's try IVF, andso we did. In the States,
(02:59):
we tried IVF and it just didn'twork, not fun, and then we
a friend of mine turned us onto I didn't know this concept existed,
but it was like you could fosterto adopt, and so we got our
foster certification and right away we hadlittle baby Eva. She was like seven
days old and we were able tofoster her with hopes to adopt, but
(03:21):
that didn't go the way we wanted. So that was five months that five
months old we had to give herback, which is just crazy. Can
you mention briefly why that was,if you don't mind or what. Yeah,
for sure, yeah, she herparents. Although they didn't do something
that they should have or they didsomething they should have, it wasn't like
super dramatically. You think about alot of the cases that we talked about
(03:46):
in class were you know, drugaddicts that were just having babies and then
not doing what it took to gettheir baby back. It was easy to
have another kid, you know.These people were just it was a young
couple. They had literally but thekid was born in New York. They
drove the floor to the kids.Seven days old. They she went into
publics, you know, the grocerystore, and he for whatever reason,
(04:09):
left the kid in the car andwent into you know, like home depot
or something, and somebody called thecops. And think those things had been
happening at that time. So thejudge was like, you know, they
lost their state, they lost therights to their kids, which makes sense
at the time. Yeah, atthe time, and then so right away
because they were doing everything they neededto do. They were doing way above
(04:30):
and beyond what they needed to do. So we kind of figured early on
that it's we're not going to beable to adopt her. They're doing what
they need to do to get theirkid back, which is a good story
for them in a happy ending forthat obviously, to have a family reunited.
I get that. You always theyalways try to get them reunited with
their birth parent, right. Butin two months we were supposed to give
(04:51):
her back, you know, thecourt date you know, came and the
judge was still just super pissed off. So he said, three more months.
Like what we knew, we weren'tgoing to have her, but three
more months. Go keep her therefor three months. You guys can attach
to her, she can get attachedto you. Wow, that's that's difficult
to say the least. So yeah, so then we were out. We're
like, no more kids, We'rejust not going to have them, you
(05:12):
know. And I got an opportunityto go back to Mexico to work with
the same crew that I that Iworked with before. And one of the
caveats that Diana had because she didall the research, was one of our
friends that lived there was an acupuncturistfor the IVF doctor and Cancun who had
a very high success rate. Sothat is like, I'll move there if
(05:33):
we can go yeah, And I'mlike, that's up to you, babe.
I'm down, but you know ifyou I mean, it's not easy.
Guys could not handle ibs and soI hear you're right, yeah,
lo and behold that. You know, she got pregnant and then all hell
broke loose about halfway through, whichhas been our story. So you know,
(05:56):
I guess that what years is?How long ago is this now?
So this was twenty sixteen when wemoved. In twenty seventeen Grayson was born,
so he'll be seven next month.Oh wow, very very cool.
You said you moved down there forwork. What was your work? What
were you doing to move down toMexico? So real quick backstory on that.
In two thousand and five, Iwas working one hundred hours a week
(06:17):
and the doctor said, wrote aprescription to go on vacation, just stressing
out. So we went through Portaviyerto Mexico. We did a timeshare presentation
and to get out of it,I thought, I got it. I'm
going to tell him I'll buy itif you give me a job, and
they said, okay, I'm likewhat they got it? Yeah. In
two thousand and six, we movedto Mexico and I started working for that
(06:38):
company selling timeshare and then from therenot easy, not easy, one hundred
percent commissioned foreign country. I lefta really good, you know job that
it was super secure and everything,but it ended up being an amazing experience.
And that's when we tried having kidsand it didn't work. We had
(06:58):
come back to the States and thenthe same crew in via Arta said hey,
we're going to get the band backtogether and we're going to do cancuon
are you in so same thing incant Coon, same company. Yeah,
And it's been good for you,Like you enjoy doing that work. I
mean, like you said, onehundred percent commission, so you got to
really work it, like you kindof like you're selling houses or you're selling
you know, time shares, you'reselling vacations. So how do you find
(07:20):
that is there's a lot of negativityabout that industry, a lot about that
that's those things. So do youfind there is a legitimate ways to make
money at that? Can you actuallysell decent actually above the ground actual time
shares or can you give me somebackground on that? Sure? I mean
it's different here in the States thanin Mexico and Mexico, you know,
(07:40):
unfortunately, there's not a ton ofrules. There's no HR you don't have
to have your real estate license andso forth, so you can choose to
kind of sell it above board orbelow board. And you know, I
couldn't. I just couldn't sleep atnight if I did it, you know,
the wrong way. Yeah. Yeah, so I was above board the
whole time, but it wasn't untilI get in the state. After Grayson
(08:01):
was born, Dinah said, hey, you got to find a job.
So we're in Florida and Orlando islike the timeshare capital of the world.
And she found a job for meat at where I'm now currently working as
a sales trainer. So we're thereare so many laws and rules and regulations
and so forth that you actually haveto be a good salesperson to be able
(08:22):
to do this and be successful andso, you know, or else you'll
just get fired if you go belowboard, right, and so it's been
like super rewarding to be able tohelp these kids, you know, create
careers, and there's all the storiesyou don't hear about timeshare, Like,
(08:43):
you know, a couple came backand said, you saved our marriage.
You know. Another couple said,you know, you know, our family
now is actually talking and we're creatingmemories and you know because of the time,
sure, because of going there.Right, So the good experience is
that you really don't hear about correctanywhere. Yeah, that nobody talks about.
Nobody wants to talk about, righton both sides. So exactly,
(09:05):
that's good to hear that. Yeah, it's it's you know, it's like
anything else. I think if youpurchase it for the right reasons and you
use it, you know, yeah, you lose it. Yeah, yeah,
it does what it's supposed to do. It's just you know, I
think with anything, you know,cars or anything, you know, you
have good salespeople, you have badsalespeople, and you know, right,
(09:28):
yeah, definitely for sure. SoI'm guessing the crux of your book was
obviously what happened in Mexico, whichwas having your baby there and things not
turning out at that time the wayyou wanted. Unexpected things were happening.
I don't know how much do youtell you want to go into that here,
because like obviously people you want peopleto get the book and that's where
the main details are. But canyou share anything about that that kind of
(09:50):
brings you into why you wrote abook basically, like why was significant enough?
Obviously it's the significant to your family, but talk to me about a
little bit what happened and then whywrite a book about it would be significant
to you for other people? Yeah? Absolutely, So you know when this
all went down, I mean,nobody plan. Nobody has a birth plan
to have a premature child, youknow, and much less a micropremi,
(10:13):
which Grayson was. But you know, Dinah had developed severe preclamsia at about
twenty five weeks, which you know, her blood pressure shot up and so
forth, and it could not itwould not come down. So the doctor
said, we have to deliver thebaby to save Diana's life, you know.
And so we're quite catapulted into thiswhole world. And although there's a
(10:35):
lot of care in Mexico that isphenomenal, you know, it's the nick
you is about and I didn't knowthis, but about thirty years behind technology
wise, and so you know,when this was all happening, I was
reaching out to close friends and family, letting them know what was happening,
and you know, the mom's cameflew right out. But then that spread
(10:58):
real quick, and so everybody kepttexting and what's happening, and you know,
Facebook messaging, and we just couldn'tget back to everybody in time,
and so we went live on Facebookand just had kind of an interview with
one of our friends to let peopleknow what was happening and get everybody on
the same page. And that's whenwe had a huge influx of nurses from
(11:20):
all over the world saying, listen, he's not really in the best position.
You know he was he was ina bed with some ran wrapping the
heat lamp. You know, there'sno proper incubators there. And so they
started putting the idea in our headthat you know, if you can move
him to the States, that wouldbe ideal, and we just were blown
away, like I cannot bath himtaking this little tiny thing and who's fighting
(11:43):
for his life there and doing whatyou can and just picking up like we're
just going to go to the States, which is you know close enough,
Yeah, Florida, I'm assuming toFlorida, right was that the idea.
Yeah, we went to Miami.Yeah, to Miami. Yeah. So
in all of that, uh,we did that that one Facebook in the
comments, you know, there's hundredsand hundreds and hundreds of people, and
(12:05):
one of the comments from one ofour friends was, you know, you
should write a book about this.It's just that people are people were tuning
into us like the Truman Show,like every day they from what's happening with
the high leaks, you know,and so that just kind of was like
a funny thing like ha ha,yeah, it's it's it is crazy,
it's it's a it should be abook kind of a thing. But the
(12:26):
story continued to develop and it wasan absolute miracle and how everything picked and
tied together and the way that ourpeople in the community, I'm talking the
worlds it came together for us.It was it was something incredibly special.
So we had it in our sitesat some point in the future to write
(12:50):
a book about it. And itwas about three years after Grayson was you
know, born that you know,we kept saying to some good someday,
some day I'm going to write abook. Some day I write a book.
I write a book. People saythat all the time I write a
book about my life, there's somethinginteresting, right, but you there's something
like obviously kept inside your mind.You were thinking about it right over and
over, absolutely, and people wouldalways say, hey, you should write
(13:13):
the book. It's just so Ican't. I think back to those days
and it was just incredible, youknow. And so I happened to be
at church and the pastor said,hey, have you ever asked what God
wants you to do with your life? And I thought, well, that's
different. I know. I alwaysjust wanted to do what I wanted to
do, you know, And sohe said, let's try it. And
(13:33):
it was almost instantaneous. I gotthis, write the book, speak about
it, transform lives, and andthen I got to work straight away.
I wrote the first word to turnin, the first sentence, to first
paragraph, the first chapter, andso on and so forth, until you
know, it took three years almostto complete the writing, the editing,
(13:58):
the book, design, formatting,the whole thing, getting it actually published.
And the goal really is to haveawareness and all, like, all
the net proceeds are going to gotoward putting proper incubator into Mexican hospitals.
Because the percentage of babies that survive, especially at his amount of weeks that
(14:18):
he was born versus the States isI mean, it's it's single digits versus
you know, ninety's almost noncomparable.I can imagine. Yah, they just
don't have the technology. And soso there you go. I spent you
know, I don't know how manydays waking up before in the morning even
(14:39):
to write for fifteen to twenty minutes, you know, going to work an
hour early to have quiet time,and you know, try to type this
out. And and my goal wasa year to write it, but it
took twenty six months. Well Ican imagine because you're, like you said,
you're working still and you're now raisingalso a newborn baby as well.
You got to be president for thatand trying to write a book too,
(15:00):
so you're just out of a littlebit more on your plate too, which
which is ironic because you left thatone hundred hour week job to kind of
get away from all the extra pressuresand stuff that was on your plate now
to kind of like, well,I'm putting this on my plate now.
But obviously it was a labor oflove in many ways, so that's why
it was Maybe it came a littlebit more easier to you, and you
didn't feel the stress of it obviouslynot that too much, obviously the stress
(15:20):
around it, but I mean youstill push through it, you still found
a way to get it done.Yeah. It was also during the whole
process, you know, it wasI don't know how many bockses of Kleenex
I went through reliving it all,you know, And and I didn't account
for all the research that I hadto do and to try to get the
timelines right and the pictures that Ihad to look at for time stamps and
(15:43):
try to remember all this kind ofstuff and what people wrote and text message
in what's apps that I looked at. But so it took you know,
I thought it would be a year. You know, I did the math
on how many words per minut it, you know, I got all technical
with it. But after the firstyear I was about halfway. And so
we continued and pressed on and itbecame extremely therapeutic as well, you know,
(16:10):
to be able to talk that likeI am right now with you.
A year ago, I would Iwould say Mexico and start losing it,
you know. PTSD fin like thewhole thing, understand it's very therapy therapeutic
for you. As you mentioned too, did your I know you wrote it,
but did your wife, Diana,did she help you with the writing
of it? Did she give yousome ideas for concepts or change it or
(16:32):
timelines? But she involved? Ordid she let you kind of have this
project? So that was interesting becausewe we we both together loosely put together
kind of the outline. But sheshe never read the book until any part
of it until the last possible momentfor editing. She just couldn't do it.
(16:52):
She would start and just couldn't doit, you know, and it
was just too emotional, too real, too raw to open up that you
know, that wound and and butbut finally I said, babe, this
is it. You've got. It'sgoing to the editor, but I want
your input especially you've got to readwhat I said, make sure it's all
accurate, not that I wouldn't be, but for also, can you really
(17:15):
convey her feelings and emotions through thattoo? It's your it's your respective,
which is great, but can youconvey both or do you want to?
That's important too, right, absolutely, and I needed I needed her on
a few pieces. But also itis kind of unique because a lot of
the nicky books out there are children'sbooks, and they kind of make it
(17:36):
a lighter situation, even though it'sthe darkest time of your whole entire life,
which is very much needed, youknow, a little levity in it
all. There's very few books thatare the real, raw, true emotion
of what you go through, andeven fewer that is from the dad's perspective,
right, is what I'm finding out. So she actually, as she
(17:59):
was reading it, didn't have aclue on some of the stuff that I
went through, you know, becauseshe was well, she was out of
it too, right, She's tryingto recover, and she's being told this
and that, and I can imaginethat you're spending time with the baby.
He's not in the exact room asyou, guys. So she's recovering,
you're trying to deal with that.She wants to have a part of that
too as well as she can.So it's all over the place. I
mean, her recollection also must be. And what she was going through is
(18:22):
totally totally different. Absolutely. Youknow, there was a period of several
days where she wasn't in the ICU, so she had no idea what we
were dealing with on the outside,you know, and you don't want to
tell her at the same time too, because you kind of wanted to see
where it's going to go to makesure everything's good, right, So totally,
totally Yeah. When she read thebook, she's like, holy cow,
(18:44):
ahead idea, Yeah, how closethis was, or how the how
touch and go this was? Yeah. I can imagine that in itself would
be a huge shock and kind oflike reliving it all over again for her
too, even though the baby's therewith you and everything we have a happy
ending, thank god, still relivingthat for her reading the book, I
can see why she didn't want toeven maybe just dig into it at all,
just kind of like, no,I'll trust your words and leave it
there. Yeah, you got it. I mean I never really I've heard
(19:07):
of PTSD, but I never reallythought it was you know, real.
It is real. It is real. Yeah, we felt it. I
mean, it's crazy. We couldbe watching a medical show, let's say,
and they have a nick you sceneand we're both looking at each other
crying. You know, it's likebam, I hear those bells and it's
just like we're done. So itbrings you back for her to relive.
(19:30):
It was just it was tough.She was she was trying to read it
in starbuok like I couldn't do itbecause people are looking at me, you
know a meth Yeah, I canunderstand. Not the place to do it.
Yeah. Let me ask you thisthough, with regards to the hospital
itself, the one in Mexico,did they have any issues with you?
I guess wanting to move the baby, I guess to the States, even
(19:51):
you know, because even for thebenefit for your child, though, did
they have an issue like as faras cooperating with you to do that,
and did they have an issue atall with you you? I assume that
you mentioned this specific hospital in thebook. Do they have any issues on
that front? I guess that's howit would make them look. Was there
any kind of pushback from the Mexicoor the Mexican hospital. Yeah? So
in the book, and just foryou know, legalities, I didn't name
(20:15):
the the okay, gotcha, ButI did get permission to use the doctor's
name and so forth, and someof the doctors. But it was it
got to a point where we reachedout to the Miami hospital. And here's
one part of One of the majorpieces of it of our frustration was when
(20:36):
you reach that level in Mexico,like we know enough Spanish to just be
dangerous, Like we don't, we'renot we don't speak Spanish, we're not
fluent. But when you get intomedical Spanish, it's I can't imagine.
Yeah, we would have we wouldhave translators come and they're like, I
don't know this word in Spanish,much less English, Like I don't know
what to tell you. I don'tI've never heard it before. I don't
even know how to describe what they'redoing with your baby. I can't.
(21:00):
So when we when we reached outto Miami, they're you know, everybody
speaks Spanish at that hospital. Absolutelythey were. They were able to communicate,
and at one point doctor Campbells inMexico was like, you know,
it would be better to move him, and if you can do it,
I would recommend it. That's good. He was able to advocate for that
(21:22):
and didn't take it as a personalagainst the hospital, like, oh,
no, we have the care becauseI canna understand the hospital being like,
no, no, we don't wantto give up care of this because it
looks bad. You know, it'sjust a human life, but to them
it's a pr thing, right,so they don't want to be like,
no, we can't treat your babyhere at this hospital. I could see
them having pushback. Yeah, itwas, it was. It was an
incredible experience to because we were dealingwith the hotel, I mean the hotel,
(21:48):
the hospital director and everything all theway the whole time, and everybody
was for the baby and his survival. So they put all politics atide and
they were incredible about supporting our decisions, supporting us, helping us through whatever
they needed to do to navigate this. And they were I can't speak highly
(22:11):
enough about the staff and the teamat that hospital in Mexico. It was
it was just all for the rightreasons, all to save the baby.
That's good to hear. It's goodto hear. A couple of things on
that. So I assume I'm notgoing to make you talk about this or
give it away for the book.I want people to read this and check
it out if they're listening to thispodcast, obviously, So in the book,
(22:32):
I would assume you go into detailsabout how the actual transfer was made,
like the actual days or weeks orhopefully wasn't that long. But I'm
just saying the actual transfer because that'ssomething people myself included would want to know,
is how the transfer actually physically happened. So I'm not going to ask
you to go into details how ithappened. I assume that's in the book,
right, absolutely, in extreme detail. Yes, it's good. It's
good to hear it's in the book. Not that it happened, obviously,
(22:53):
but it's good that it's in thebook for people to check out. So
you mentioned the proceeds of this bookgoing to that hospital in Mexico, So
obviously they're aware of that. Imean the hospital in Mexico. Sorry I
should I keep saying Mexico. Whereaboutsin Mexico? Was the hospital again?
Was it in Cancun? Okay,so in Cancun? So the hospital Cancun.
(23:15):
They're obviously appreciative of that. Didyou have any other considerations for where
the proceeds of this book would go? Or is this like, as soon
as I write a book, youknow what, if I sell any copies,
it's going to the Cancun hospital.How did that? How'd you arrive
at that decision? Basically we hadsee this is where you're gonna get me
now. We had so much help. It was like a tremendous outpouring of
(23:42):
help from everybody from all over theworld. And the thought and I mean
I'm talking like help, like tryingto help find a Nike you that would
take him, help with prayers,help bringing food, help with money,
(24:03):
donations, so much money that theydonated for us that the thought of taking
money from this was just I couldn'tfathom it. So the idea is from
the beginning, was all the netproceeds have to go back to the first
incubator we want to do is thathospital. You know, the doctor was
(24:29):
just completely out of his mind aboutthe mobile equipment that they brought from Miami.
So to be able to have thefirst we want to call them G
units, you know, for Grayson, that's our yah, put a G
unit. We want to put aG unit at that in that hospital first.
But also the hopes is and andI don't know how, I really
(24:51):
am just trusting that as I getthis word out, the right people are
going to come into the play tothen create and raise awareness to put incubators
in Mexican hospitals in all major cities. You know, and then in the
country throughout the country, because evenin Yerta, you know, I mean
Cancun is a massive, huge,you know, quote metropolitan city in Mexico.
(25:15):
But if they don't have the equipment. A friend of ours had a
baby in Porto Aerta and same exactthing. They have the same care in
the nick you as in can Coon. So to be able to start to
help babies and save babies' lives,I think if we just save one baby's
life, you know, it wouldbe absolutely more than worth it. Yeah,
(25:37):
absolutely absolutely. Did you ever thoughtof maybe keeping the money for a
foundation for him and his name aswell? Or is it always the hospital?
Right off the bat, it wasalways the hospital. Graythan is doing
so phenomenal. He's he's dealt withmore life than most of us already.
You know. He at three yearsold, he was diagnosed with autism on
(25:59):
top of all anything else. Sobut but he's just such a joy to
us in our lives and other people, and so yeah, it's it's always
just been about how can we helpother babies? Yeah, for sure,
definitely a miracle baby. I'm gladyou guys are doing that for sure too.
Yeah, So let me ask youthis. Then he's he's seven now
(26:21):
right, yeah, seven next month? Do you obviously at some point he's
going to know the book exists andit's going to be out there. Do
you have an idea of how youwant to present that to him his stories
in this book when he gets tobe a teenager. Do you want him
discovered on his own dad wrote abook about you or about our experience?
I should say, but how doyou want to kind of have you even
thought about this? How you wantto present that to him one day?
Well, we have already old him. You know, Daddy wrote a book
(26:45):
it's about you. You know,he's not really grasping that concept, but
we do. We do. Onething that's kind of fun is we do
have an option. Obviously you canget the book on Amazon, but if
you go to my website you couldactually have the app. And if you're
in the US, who have thebook signed by Grayson and myself. It's
fun to see. I think Grayson, we got to sign a few more
(27:07):
books now and he runs like ameet and yeah, like a celebrity signing.
That's awesome. So he definitely knowsthe book exists, but he doesn't
know that concept that I mean,we're very We've been so public with our
life and his life that there's there'snothing that we're really ever going to hide.
As soon as he can start tograsp the concept, he loves to
(27:30):
read, by the way, ironically, so you know, you know,
at some point I really hope thathe does take this on and reads it
and understands, you know, notonly what a miracle he is, but
the amount of people, sorry,the amount of people that came together Tuesday
(27:52):
his life. It's just incredible.From people seeing the original Facebook live,
which is what you were doing,just updated, it's incredible. You're story
just thinking about the fact that youhave people just to update your friends and
family who you couldn't get out toin time because there's so many people,
like you said, which is great, they're all wondering about you, what's
going on when you're there in kenKun, just to say, oh,
let's just do a Facebook live.It's just let everybody see it. And
(28:12):
then of course anybody can see thatfrom all over the world. And then
from that to just like giving anupdate to where it's come how the support
has come in from, like yousaid, all over the world, not
just across America but across everywhere.It's just amazing to see that the little
idea just to help your friends andfamily understand what's going on turn into this
whole big support system for you.Is just incredible. Yeah, absolutely,
(28:34):
it was. It was. Itwas just overwhelmingly incredible. It was just
that I sometimes get more emotional aboutthan what we went through. You know,
like you just it makes you wantto be a better human being.
Mm hm, for sure. Haveyou thought about writing a different book,
a follow up book after that ashis life goes on, or just to
(28:55):
kind of say what the results ofthe end, because I I don't Again,
I don't want you to get awaythe end of your last book,
but I'm going to assume that weknow it ends positively. But do you
want to give an update on howyour progress with this book has helped or
change lives at all? Do youthink about doing that as a second piece
of that or is this book giveyou gave it everything you had and all
your blood, sweat and tears aroundthat or you don't with the book right
(29:15):
as far as that subject goes out, I would I kind of want to
say both. But where the storyends it naturally ended at a place that
was unexpected. I expected that therewould be much more to it. And
I'm being cryptic on purpose, youknow, because absolutely, but there's there
(29:38):
is absolutely one or two more booksin me go. People are reading this
book, and I mean they're sayingthings like I just started it before bed,
and then they're like, it's twoin the morning and I'm not going
to bed. Yeah, that's notyou don't want to start. That's not
a bedtime book. We'll put itlike that, right, And then they're
(29:59):
like, that's I flip through more. I want more, you know.
So yeah, yeah, that's yeah, that's what people are saying. And
I'm super grateful because that was,you know, absolutely our life. It
was as true to details I couldpossibly make it painstakingly, like almost minute
by minute. Yeah, yeah,for sure. I can understand that too.
(30:22):
And like you said, it's painfulto go through to write the book
and relive those moments and realize eventhough you're not in those moments anymore,
going back to that, I can'timagine. But of course you went through
it. You guys both went throughit and got through it. So the
book is out there for people whoneed it who are going through it or
who just want to hear a goodhuman story. That's what it's all about,
and that's what attracts people because theyneed to know what's going on and
kind of shed light on things thatmaybe people don't realize because not a lot
(30:45):
of people go on vacation to havea baby or something. Things happen when
they go to Mexico whatever, andyou get stuck and you have to have
and healthcare is different there as opposedto in the States, obviously, so
you can see the realities of thattoo. So I can imagine that book
could have been a lot bit biggerthan it was. I don't know how
many pages it is, but Ican imagine you can go into a lot
of different details on that if youwanted to or had the time or energy.
(31:06):
Oh yeah, absolutely. And ironically, at that exact time, there
was another couple from the States whowas on vacation. You know, we
lived there, but they were onvacation and then had their baby unexpectedly,
and they happened to be from Chicagolike us, Like it was so crazy,
weird, and then they were dealingwith the same challenges that we were
as far as yes, the medicalsystem is extremely different. Insurance, it's
(31:26):
just absolutely yeah, you need wellfor them, they need travelers insurance.
If they don't have that, they'reup. They're up a paddle without a
creek or boats or whatever you wantto say. Yeah, it's a whole
different ballgame at that point, sadly. So, yeah, it's different than
living there for sure. If you'rejust you know, just stopping by,
you know, it's not that's thelast thing you want to have happened.
I get it, absolutely yeah.And I don't know if it's the flight,
(31:48):
the altitude or what. But rightafter because we did Diana's baby shower
right before this all went down inFlorida, so we had flung floorists came
back or everything starts welling and goingcrazy, and you know, we don't
know if it was because of thator if it would have just happened anyway,
but it was just you know,maybe this is a thing after a
certain period of time, if you'rehigh risk pregnancy, that you might not
(32:10):
want to fly. I don't know. I am not a doctor. No,
I hear you, because me neither. I played one. But no,
but yeah, that's a slip joke. I've heard that flying there's a
certain time in a pregnancy, upto a certain amount of months, you
can't fly anymore, especially if you'rehigh risk. I don't know what it
is, but you're right about that. That is a thing. So for
sure, for sure anything the lastcouple of things, I'll ask you then
(32:31):
before this time runs out. Soyou said you've seen some things develop and
change at that hospital Cancun and eventuallywant to get to that G unit,
which is great. I mean thename is amazing alone. But have you
seen from the book and the saleshave you seen a difference from when you
first sold a copy to now?I don't know when you first released it,
what year it was, Maybe weshould mention that too, how long
ago it's been out there, Buthave you seen personally difference? Have you
(32:54):
gone to that hospital since then tocheck things out, what's going on as
far as like seeing the aftermath ofthat. So the book was released three
months ago, Okay, a prettyshort time. Okay, it's just out
there. People can grab it.Yeah, just out there. So the
step one was write the book.Step two is talk about it. So
(33:14):
I'm just I'm blessed to be ableto do podcasts and talk. I was
on WGN radio on Father's Day andwe're just we're just getting this word out
right now and people are purchasing itand giving their reviews. And the doctor
in Mexico and Cancun Campos, Iactually happened to know his son, so
(33:36):
his son speaks English, and Itold him the goal and the g unit
and he's just super thrilled. Hehas been at that hospital for a long
time. He tells it that obviouslywhat you said absolutely and so yeah,
I don't know. I don't havethe feedback now as far as you know
to answer your question. And asit made a difference, I just know
(33:59):
that it will. I just don'tknow exactly how yet. But yeah,
it's just starting to because it isI didn't realize there was three months,
which is which is great. It'sjust but now you're just starting to see
something happen. So over time,I'll give it a year or so.
It'd be good to chat with youagain in a year, maybe a year
and a half from now and seehave you noticed these differences from the book
and has the hospital noticed it too, which is what the goal is?
Right, that's correct, exactly.Yeah, And you know, I mean
(34:21):
graatthan he he has his passport,like we're ready to go back and deliver
the g unit. And I justimagine that day when Grace is able to,
you know, look at doctor Camposand you know, and just thank
him, you know, for allthat he did. Because the Miami hospital
said that doctor Campos kept him alive. But in Miami he'll no thrive,
(34:45):
you know. So yeah, he'she's incredible. So I just envision that
day and I think it'll just besuper special. Absolutely will be too,
for sure. And I'm glad thatthe doctor, doctor Campbells let you you
know, use his name, hisactual name, so he can get the
kind of acknowledgement too for all hedid for your son and what he continues
to do there obviously too for otherfamilies, and of course from Mexican people
(35:07):
as well too who live there obviously, and then for people traveling, like
he just takes care of people,which is great to hear. You don't
hear those stories enough? Absolutely,yeah, yep. So people can get
your book. You said, it'son Amazon. It's also at your website.
I don't want to butcher your lastname. I'll get you to say
it to your website. Give usyour website name, and where can people
find the book besides Amazon? Yeah, absolutely so it's Brianheilig dot com.
(35:30):
I'm gonna say hell egg, soI want to make sure it's it's high
leg. Yeah, there's an Iany in there, Brian hell high like.
Can you spell it out for peoplejust who are listening. Yeah,
absolutely so is Brian with and IB R I A N. And last
name is H E I L IG dot com. From the site,
you have the option you could goand have if you're in the US.
Again, we can ship anywhere inthe US. It's for Grayson and I.
(35:52):
Just sign it or it'll link youstraight to Amazon right where you can
buy it there from Amazon get allover the world too, which is great.
What's the name of the book?We never I don't think I asked
you that. I should probably mentionthe name of the book. That would
be great. Yeah, it's justyour name. It's Brian exactly. It's
Breathe, Eat, poop and grow. Oh nice. How did you I
(36:15):
know how you arrived at that title, but how did you did you have
other titles in mind? I'm alwayscurious about how things come to the point
they're at. So before the lastfive minutes to let me ask you about
the name. Yeah, no,I did from day one when we said,
hey, we're going to write thebook, it had to be this
title. And actually the picture onthe front is a picture of Grayson holding
Diana's hand, and so I lookat that. I'm looking at the book.
(36:38):
Unfortunately, people listening to this won'tsee that, but it's great.
I love the cover. That's verycool. Wow, we use the actual,
you know, picture of her,So from day on that picture.
Yeah, and and so breathing poopand grow came from. That's all he
had to focus on with the eat, poop and grow, and he was
on a ventilator, so it wasit just caught on where we told them
(37:00):
you got to breathe poop and girlbreathe poop and girls kind of our mantra,
and it just had to be thebook. Absolutely, that's perfect.
That's great to hear, Brian.I appreciate the chat. I appreciate the
time being open and sharing your story. I can't wait to hear about more
of it as the book progresses,as it's out there for longer, to
see where it goes and where itgoes for the hospital can Coon of course
(37:23):
shout out to the doctor Campos andthe team in Cancun, at the hospital
in Mexico, and of course theones in Miami as well too who facilitated
that transfer for your baby to bealive and be with you here today and
talking about So I appreciate you,like I said, coming on here and
just being so open and sharing yourstory. Yeah, well, I really
appreciate the time chat. It's beenphenomenal and thank you, thank you really
(37:44):
awesome, Brian, thank you.You've been listening to the Nobody's or Somebody's
podcast with me chad Vice, andthis podcast has been voted the number one
podcast by people that don't vote
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com