Brecken’s Story

Site created on January 13, 2020

We ask that you say a prayer for our baby boy.

As many of you know, Brecken spent the first 11 days of his life in the NICU due to a lack of surfactant in his lungs. Thankfully, he was given an injection of surfactant when he was 3 days old and was restored to health and sent home.  
We spent the next several weeks at home with our sweet baby boy, enjoying our time together as a family of 4 all under one roof. It was perfect--everything we hoped it would be. Ellie fell into her role as big sister so naturally and absolutely adores her little brother.
On Wednesday, January 8th I took Brecken and Ellie to John’s work so that the gymnasts could meet him for the first time. On the car ride home, I heard Brecken make a sputtering noise in his car seat... he sounded like he was having trouble breathing. I pulled over the car and went to check on him. When I got to him, he was completely purple in his car seat. I pulled him out and held him in my arms. I ran around to the drivers side and sat down, trying to make the best decision on where to go and what to do from there. I had Ellie and Sonny (our dog) in the car as well, so I decided to go home and see how he was doing. I held him in my arms the rest of the drive home crying and pleading that he would be okay. When we got home, I went to change his diaper and when I laid him down, he was limp, pale, clammy, and sweaty.  
We called 911 and went to the hospital in an ambulance. He spent about 3 hours in the emergency room and was then transferred to the pediatric floor when a room opened up. There he was immediately put on the maximum amount of breathing support they could provide. He went into respiratory failure and within 10 minutes of being on the pediatric floor in Lincoln, a decision was made to transfer him to Children’s Hospital in order to get the care that he needed. Within an hour, the transport team from Children's arrived. They did everything they could to get him stable for the car ride.  
The transport team made the decision to give him a paralytic, sedate him, and intubate him (put him on a machine that is breathing for him). 

Brecken has something called the Coronavirus, which lead to Severe Pediatric Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.
We are incredibly grateful for the amazing team of doctors are nurses who are caring for him. We absolutely believe that he is where he needs to be and is getting the best care possible.  
He has been through so much in the first 7 weeks of his life, but we know he is so strong.

They are estimating he will be here for a month or more. We keep hearing things like, “he is really really sick”. He is stable, but oh man, this is hard. We were told by his doctor that he probably wouldn’t be here today if we hadn’t brought him in. I am so grateful we acted as we did and that I trusted my instincts to get him to the hospital as quickly as we did.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for the prayers and love sent his way. He needs each and every prayer. We know our God is good and is holding Brecken as he works to heal his little body. We are so grateful for you all and the love, kindness, and generosity shown to our sweet baby boy and our family.
We ask that you continue to pray. We believe in the power of prayer and fully believe in his healing. He is our little fighter!

Newest Update

Journal entry by Rachel Robinson

At 12:53 pm Brecken went "on holiday" from his paralytic.  He is tolerating it well and his levels have remained stable with no "episodes".  
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