Throughout the last couple of years, I've found myself in conversations with people expressing that I'm in my dream job. Working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, I get the privilege of partnering with families and coworkers in caring for some of the uniquely sickest patients. I've resuscitated infants, gotten kids out of bed for the first time after weeks of being on a ventilator, sent kids to the OR to get life-saving transplants, put babies in parent's arms after being unstable for days, delivered hard news, and seen kids get miraculously healed. It's the good and the hard stuff of life. And I love it.
Being in such a vulnerable space, I get to meet some of the most amazing families in wild ways. And in December 2022, I met two of them--the Reiffs and the Monsruds. Starting at the beginning of December, Beckett Reiff came into our unit critically ill after coming down with the flu. He had just missed his freshman year football banquet where he received some impressive awards and now he was in our unit, intubated, with talks of ECMO. It took less than 24 hours for him to end up on ECMO and I just happened to be his nurse the night they wheeled him out of his room at 1am to go to the cath lab to be put on what is effectively heart and lung bypass. A machine to do the work of two of his most vital organs. Things weren’t looking great for Beckett that night even after coming back on ECMO and that wouldn’t be his only hard day. But that night I also met his mom and dad. And I see where he gets his grit from. The next couple of weeks were truly a fight for Beckett’s life and a fight to maintain hope. A consequence of Beckett being on such extensive life support is that he lost his right leg—a truly life or limb decision. But a few weeks down the road, I was there again when Beckett, who had since gotten off the ventilator but remained on ECMO, insisted that sitting on the edge of the bed wasn’t enough and that he was ready to stand. The first time in a month. I had never taken care of someone as sick as Beckett the night that I was with the Reiffs and I’ve never met a teenager with such an incredible amount of kindness and tenacity. He’s the kind of kid that’s bound to be an Olympian.
Also in December, just down the hall, I took care of a sweet 5 month old babe named Owen. What started as a fairly regular respiratory diagnosis got complicated as the month went on. Owen was intubated, extubated, intubated, extubated, but never breathing all that comfortably. A CT scan would reveal that he had an undiagnosed anomaly called a vascular ring. His aorta (the body’s largest blood vessel) was wrapped around his trachea and tightly compressing his airway. It was a disheartening December for both of these families, but they were in the right place.
It was a gift to care for the Reiffs and the Monsruds. What made it even more incredible is they found out (after sharing many days in the PICU together) that they had a mutual friend and similar community. They shared stories of shared faith and shared experience, both families of parents and two sons, one at home and one critically ill living in a hospital for a month. I popped back and forth between caring for Beckett and Owen that month. Finally, come January, hope was on the rise. Beckett came off ECMO and then CRRT (continuous dialysis). He was making record speed on his recovery. Owen finally got shipped off to his cardiac repair after battling two different respiratory illnesses in December and needing to be in top shape for heart surgery.
Though it’s disappointing any kid would have to go through months like that, I’m so glad we had the resources we did to give them the best life-saving care possible. So that’s why I’m riding the Courage Classic this year, and also why my fundraising goal is $1,000. We have around 50 people on our team and if we raise $50,000, we get the privilege of deciding where that money goes. For our team, that means right back into the specific department we work within, to promote positive outcomes and exceptional care for kids like Beckett and Owen and the support for their families battling through intensive diagnoses. It’s an incredible team we work with and an incredible team we ride with. Anything you can contribute financially will do just that as well so we can continue to provide for these families in these life-changing ways.
