Tell us your story.
My name is Barbara Wilson and my son is Wyatt Wilson. My
son died of cancer after six years, but we got those six
years thanks to Children's Hospital and Dr. Doug Hawkins. He
gave me six more years to watch my son grow. At the Ronald
McDonald House, I saw a 4 year old girl come in on a
Wednesday night and she'd passed away by Friday
morning. I understood how quickly things could change, so
those six years were everything to me.
My little boy was diagnosed at nine years old. He was born
on the 6th and he passed away on the 6th, two months shy of
his sixteenth birthday. During those six years, Children's
and Dr. Hawkins were there in every way one can imagine. I
tell everyone in my little county of Lewis how great everyone
is at Children's. They were my life. It was rough, he
relapsed and relapsed. I met the Palliative Care team,
wonderful people. The pain clinic was great. They came to our
home and took pictures for the pain clinic.
For every aspect of the child's and family's
life, Children's is there. You need a place to stay; they
have the Ronald McDonald house. You need counseling; they
have it there, too. I watched 19 children die from cancer,
but still there was hope. There were kids that made it. Out
of the many that passed away in our time there, I remember
two that made it. There is a purpose to it all.
What does Children's mean to you, your child and your family?
One thing I'd like to thank Children's for is Wyatt had
his ears tubed before he was diagnosed. He had them tubed
five different times in four different hospitals. The fifth
time was at Children's. You know of all the surgeries he had
in his six years there, they never took him away from me
crying. He was sedated, he wasn't heavily drugged. One time
he giggled when they took him away. When he got out of
surgery, there was no extra time waking him up from
anesthesia. He never had an awful feeling of being taken away
from mom. You couldn't say the same for other hospitals. At
Children's there was no more trauma than the actual surgery.
As he got older, Wyatt knew there was some pain involved.
After they introduced the upper spine epidural, that was
great for him. He didn't remember Children's as something
synonymous with pain because Children's worked with kids and
parents to eliminate stress and pain on both sides. That's
what they did. Children's treated us so well. We were treated
with the utmost respect in every aspect. There is just no way
I could ever repay Children's for the six years I got with my
son.