#BrysonStrong

As many of you know Bryson is in Primary Children's Hospital waiting for a new heart!  We don't know how long he will be in the hospital waiting but we are all #BrysonStrong!

Eric and Jennylin are taking turns staying with Bryson while he will be in the hospital.  This travel back and forth to Wyoming a couple of times a week and all of the expenses of being with him will certainly add up and is something not covered by Insurance.   Once Bryson gets his new heart then Bryson will be in the hospital for 2-3 weeks and then will need to stay living in the Salt Lake Area for a couple of months! Again all of this adds up.  We know Bryson and his family have a lot of support from all around the Country and we want to be able to help them through this time! (See below for the entire story for his Journey)

Bryson is a Honorary Member of the Bridger Valley Fire Department and absolutely loves firefighting.  He has loved all the shout outs from Departments across the Country who are BrysonStrong!! 

To follow his Story - Join the Facebook Group #BrysonStrong here : https://www.facebook.com/groups/2757724967601300/ 







Bryson's Story (As Told by his Dad)


On October 16, 2006 Bryson Grant Quinney was born by C Section at Evanston Regional Hospital. While in the hospital Bryson had a little spit up episode that caused the nurses to check his oxygen saturation levels because he remained a little blue after spitting up. Checking a baby's oxygen saturation was not and still is not an automatic thing in some states. They put Bryson on oxygen and monitored him. The next day his levels still remained low so Dr Nowicki was going to send us home on oxygen and follow up in about a week. A little while later he found out that a mobile echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound of the heart) team was up from the University of Utah checking patients at a nearby pediatrician's office. He wanted to rule anything out with the heart even though we were thinking his spit up episode caused him to aspirate some fluids into his lungs . Red tape would not allow this team to come into the hospital, so I checked Bryson out of the hospital and took him across the street to the pediatrician's office.

Once at the Dr's office we were waiting behind another teenage patient. After they were done I heard the mom say "did you see anything wrong?" The technician said that he was not the radiologist so he could not give official word but he said "off the record, I didnt see anything that stood out". Next up it was our turn. The tech said it would take 20 mins. He went to work and 45 min later finished up. I asked him to tell me if anything stood out expecting him to give the same spill about not being official. He said the Dr would be in touch and I asked for the "off the record" view and all he stated was that the Dr would be calling very very soon.

So I took Bryson back to the hospital and by the time I got there, Dr Nowicki stated he had called for a medical helicopter because Bryson's oxygen issues weren't related to the spit up episode. Bryson was born without the right side of his heart. He also had transposition of the great arteries (things were backwards), his aortic valve was narrowed and his tricuspid valve had issues. Immediately we were thrown into a whirl wind. Things that should have been caught in an ultrasound were not, it wouldn't have changed anything but we would have delivered down at the U of U where Bryson could have been taken right away to Primary Childrens. Also we could have gotten supplemental insurance for him because nothing was considered preexisting until birth.

So we ended up at Primary Children's where Bryson had his first open heart surgery at 7 days old. I remember asking the surgeon what the long term outlook was and his reply was "let's just get through the next 48 hours". That put a big dose of reality on the situation.

The night of his surgery he was in intensive care and the nurse convinced us to go get some sleep at the Ronald McDonald House. In the middle of the night the nurse called us saying Bryson had gone into full cardiac arrest but they were able to get him back. After surgery the heart was swollen so they left his chest open for 5 days to allow the swelling to go down. With his chest open they were able to put little paddles directly on his heart and shock it back to a normal rhythm. They talked about putting him on the heart lung bypass machine. Once on the machine only 50% of the kids come back off it. Thankfully he pulled through the night. I did find it cool to be able to see Bryson's heart when they changed the dressings that first week. After a lot of scares and ups and downs we went home just in time for Thanksgiving.

The first few years were spent with numerous stays in the hospital. Several helicopter rides from Evanston and Delta, Utah. His second open heart was at 6 months old and his 3rd when he was 2 and a half. The 3 surgeries replumbed his heart. All of us get our blood pumped to our lungs through the right ventricle and then back to our hearts. Bryson's blood passively flows back to his lung. So just because his heart is beating faster doesnt mean he is getting oxygen faster.

So we had about 6 years of relatively good health with things working fairly decent. Bryson would need to go on oxygen when he was sick but always came off of it. This past year or so things have been rougher. We recently found out the heart problems are causing liver damage and he requires oxygen all of the time. So we have arrived at the time for a heart transplant and are anxious for Bryson to start feeling better!