(gentle music)
>> We are the O'Brien family.
We have three girls and our son, Lemuel, who has CHD.
Lemuel was born on May 10th,
and in the hospital the pediatrician came by
and told us that she had heard a heart murmur.
And we really didn't think much of it.
I have a heart murmur.
Our oldest has a heart murmur, benign, no issues.
They told us to follow up with our pediatrician.
So we went and we had his first appointment, had his echo.
And then Dr. Nies walked in, and he was just like,
"Okay, let me get some information from you guys
"before I tell you what's going on."
And I was shocked,
and I think Dr. Nies saw that on my face
'cause she just stopped.
She kind of came up, laid her hand on my knee,
and she was just like,
"I'm a mom, I know how hard this must be."
We have four kids,
and I feel like we've been through hard things,
but this was definitely a shock.
>> We had a procedure done with a catheter
to address his aortic stenosis
and discovered with Dr. Hannah Fraint
that he had supravalvular aortic stenosis,
which could only be addressed through open-heart surgery.
So Dr. Brett Mettler and his team did open-heart surgery.
Meeting him was just a memorable moment for us.
Because we kind of expect world-renowned type of surgeons
to be a certain way.
But Dr. Mettler crushed that for us.
He was humble, he listened.
He was honest with his own experience.
He teared up in telling stories about difficult experiences.
>> Mrs. O'Brien: We already knew that he
had the credentials, but I think as a mom I needed to just
know that he was going to care for the whole of Lem.
>> In the PACU prior to the procedure,
Dr. Goswami came in as the attending anesthesiologist
and it came to a point where they had to take him,
and we couldn't fight anymore.
And so the way Dr. Goswami took our son
from us in his own arms, afterwards I just told Jeremy,
I was like, "He's a dad."
There was nothing...
There's nothing...
Just medical about it.
There was compassion and empathy and love and care.
And so it sounds really silly,
but when your child's going to have an open-heart surgery,
you wanna know that he's carried well.
You wanna know that he's placed well.
You wanna know that he's warm.
You wanna know that he's cared for.
And so after the procedure,
because of some of the rules of the pandemic,
only one parent could go to the ICU bed.
And so we had to determine who was going
to go see him first.
One of the things that most heart families know
is that getting through it is one thing,
but seeing your child for the first time
in that condition is the most difficult.
But we couldn't experience that together.
So Dr. Nies stood in for us.
Dr. Nies went with me to see him.
And that was a huge, huge blessing.
>> I just remember even that first night,
I have my son back even though he is way down
on a hospital bed, so my instinct is it's my job now
to kind of like take care of him, but I don't know how.
And then there's, the night nurse was just like,
"Mom, I need you to put your earplugs in.
"I need you to go to sleep because we're gonna
"need you tomorrow and I've got him."
And I remember rolling over at different times
of the night and she would just
be standing by his bed, rocking his bed.
And it was just one of those moments of
it's not just medical care.
But it was always the next step.
It was always just the care and the tenderness.
So I would say everybody from the parking attendant
to the surgeon to the anesthesiologist
to the nurses in the PICU.
I mean, it was just.
As you've seen from the emotions,
that in and of itself has overwhelmed us.
>> I just think if we had a chance just
to speak to families that were thinking about it
or trying to make a decision,
maybe there's just a way for us to communicate
that it's more than just a brand or a name
or a hospital building.
There's a family and a community
of parents who have walked through this that are available
to serve you and walk with you in that journey.
Give me a kiss.
(lips smacking)
>> Can you say, "Bye bye."
>> Bye bye.
>> Bye bye, blow kisses.
>> Say, "thank you."
Thank you. >> You wanna say thank you?
(baby vocalizing)
(soft guitar music)
♪ All the other tears ♪
♪ Writing resolutions without fear ♪
♪ Leave them on the floor or open on your door ♪
♪ Just keep blinding facing forward ♪
♪ There's too much to be explored ♪
♪ Things that we cannot ignore ♪
♪ Jumping violently we stand ♪
♪ Forget about tomorrows on your year, little darling ♪
(soft guitar music)