Kylie C Bieber
July 2025
Kylie C
Bieber
,
BSN, RN, CCRN
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)
University of Iowa Health Care
Iowa City
,
IA
United States
She is all about helping our son have the best days possible.
When our son was 4 months old, I brought him to the emergency room after an already very complicated health history over the previous month. Upon bringing him in, we found out that he had multiple blood clots and that his heart was no longer functioning properly. He was quickly admitted to the PICU, and his treatment began.
It was a very rocky first night, and my husband and I really thought we were going to lose him. He managed to make it through that night, but on our third day in the hospital, first thing in the morning, our baby went into cardiac arrest. Nurses quickly began chest compressions, and they were able to get him on ECMO remarkably fast. Following this event, our son's heart could no longer support itself, and he had a BIVAD placed to pump his heart for him. He was put on the list to wait for a heart transplant.
Due to the pump, he is unable to leave the PICU and is still there waiting for a heart as I write this. It's been a long journey for us with many ups and downs. Throughout this entire experience, he has had many incredible nurses, but one in particular has made a significant impact on all of our lives. Kylie has been a major light in our lives since we first met her, and she has brought so much joy to a situation where it's so easy to find none.
Kylie has been there since day one. She wasn't his assigned nurse, but she was the charge nurse the night he was admitted and helped a lot with his care since he was a bit of a handful. I later found out that she was one of the first nurses to perform chest compressions on our son when he coded. She, along with a team of people, of course, helped save his life.
Kylie first stood out to me when she was our son's ECMO specialist. She was one of the few he had during his time on ECMO who acknowledged us and answered questions if we had them, and that really stood out to me. Once our son had his BIVAD placed and was off ECMO, it wasn’t long until Kylie was his bedside nurse.
In the beginning, I had a hard time remembering almost anyone that we interacted with because there was so much going on. When we first had Kylie, though, I immediately recognized her. I had learned her name because of the impact she had.
From the very start, Kylie, as our son's bedside nurse, did things that really made a difference for us. There wasn’t any specific grand gesture, but so many little things that she does every day she’s here that have helped us so much.
Early on in our son's experience, he had to have an EEG placed to monitor brain activity. Once he was done with it, all of the EEG leads were removed, but he was left with little bits of glue all over his head. One day, after noticing a particularly large and hard chunk of glue stuck on the side of his head, Kylie spent a very long time carefully combing the glue out of his small amount of hair and washing it. It seems like something so insignificant, but her taking the time to do that was so profound to me.
My husband and I both agreed that it was the first time we really felt like someone cared about our son beyond the scope of what a nurse’s job is. It was so simple, but after seeing him go through so much in such a short amount of time, it meant the world to me.
Since then, Kylie has been our son's bedside nurse many times, by far more than anyone else, and it's always great to wake up in the morning and find out that she's the nurse for the day. One of the best things Kylie does for us is help our experience feel less clinical and bring it a little closer to regular life.
For me, Kylie has been a true friend throughout our son's time in the PICU. She is always happy to chat with me and gladly answers any questions I have, and she does so in a way that is so easy to understand. I feel like I ask a lot of questions, some directly related to our son and some about nursing in general or things unrelated entirely, and she is always willing and happy to answer them. She is great to talk to and has made my experience spending all day, every day with my son in the hospital much more tolerable, if not enjoyable.
As for my son, Kylie is his absolute favorite person aside from maybe us, his parents, but I’m not even so sure about that. He gives her the biggest smiles every time he sees her, whether she's his nurse for the day or just popping in to say hi. She's his favorite for good reason. Kylie will come and play with him and spend time with him doing things that aren’t specifically related to his health care. She’ll help him play with toys and make silly faces at him, and he absolutely loves it. She is all about helping our son have the best days possible.
One of his favorite things to do is go on wagon rides around the unit. He’s very social and loves saying hi to all the nurses. She always makes sure he gets out and about and is always happy to help out, even when she's not his assigned nurse for the day. Her enthusiasm for getting our son out on walks every day has also set a precedent for everyone else who is his nurse. They all know he likes to go on daily walks because of how often Kylie has taken him, so it’s much more likely to happen now, even if she isn’t there.
Kylie has done so much to bring joy to our son's experience in the PICU. Even though right now he’s only seven months old, he knows enough to have likes and interests, and Kylie does so much to help him have fun. He really does love her, and you can tell she cares about him, too.
Kylie’s depth of knowledge is also so apparent to me and is a comfort when it comes to the more serious situations. She has been present for nearly all of the big things that have happened. Most recently, our son developed an infection and became septic. Over the three days Kylie was his nurse that week, he went from happy and smiley to miserable and gasping for air. On the last day she was there that week, he was not doing well at all and was getting worse.
They told us he would need to be re-intubated, which was not great news to hear. It was worrying to see him in so much distress, but the fact that Kylie was there was such a relief to me. She knows him better than anyone aside from me and my husband, so she knew exactly when things needed to happen in order to best help him.
I truly cannot put into words how grateful I am that Kylie happened to be his nurse when all of this was going on. She was so calm and on top of everything, and it was, as seriously as I could mean it, a relief and a comfort having her there. I just knew that even though things seemed really bad, it was all going to be okay.
Kylie truly is an incredible nurse. There are so many things that she has done for us that have made such a huge difference and go far beyond what is required of her. She has done so many meaningful things for us that it would be impossible to capture them all.
Kylie has truly made a difference for us in our experience here in the PICU. When she's here, our days just seem so much better. I'm so grateful that we've been able to have her as our nurse for so much of my son's time here. She is so fun and caring and does so much to make things better just by being herself.
It was a very rocky first night, and my husband and I really thought we were going to lose him. He managed to make it through that night, but on our third day in the hospital, first thing in the morning, our baby went into cardiac arrest. Nurses quickly began chest compressions, and they were able to get him on ECMO remarkably fast. Following this event, our son's heart could no longer support itself, and he had a BIVAD placed to pump his heart for him. He was put on the list to wait for a heart transplant.
Due to the pump, he is unable to leave the PICU and is still there waiting for a heart as I write this. It's been a long journey for us with many ups and downs. Throughout this entire experience, he has had many incredible nurses, but one in particular has made a significant impact on all of our lives. Kylie has been a major light in our lives since we first met her, and she has brought so much joy to a situation where it's so easy to find none.
Kylie has been there since day one. She wasn't his assigned nurse, but she was the charge nurse the night he was admitted and helped a lot with his care since he was a bit of a handful. I later found out that she was one of the first nurses to perform chest compressions on our son when he coded. She, along with a team of people, of course, helped save his life.
Kylie first stood out to me when she was our son's ECMO specialist. She was one of the few he had during his time on ECMO who acknowledged us and answered questions if we had them, and that really stood out to me. Once our son had his BIVAD placed and was off ECMO, it wasn’t long until Kylie was his bedside nurse.
In the beginning, I had a hard time remembering almost anyone that we interacted with because there was so much going on. When we first had Kylie, though, I immediately recognized her. I had learned her name because of the impact she had.
From the very start, Kylie, as our son's bedside nurse, did things that really made a difference for us. There wasn’t any specific grand gesture, but so many little things that she does every day she’s here that have helped us so much.
Early on in our son's experience, he had to have an EEG placed to monitor brain activity. Once he was done with it, all of the EEG leads were removed, but he was left with little bits of glue all over his head. One day, after noticing a particularly large and hard chunk of glue stuck on the side of his head, Kylie spent a very long time carefully combing the glue out of his small amount of hair and washing it. It seems like something so insignificant, but her taking the time to do that was so profound to me.
My husband and I both agreed that it was the first time we really felt like someone cared about our son beyond the scope of what a nurse’s job is. It was so simple, but after seeing him go through so much in such a short amount of time, it meant the world to me.
Since then, Kylie has been our son's bedside nurse many times, by far more than anyone else, and it's always great to wake up in the morning and find out that she's the nurse for the day. One of the best things Kylie does for us is help our experience feel less clinical and bring it a little closer to regular life.
For me, Kylie has been a true friend throughout our son's time in the PICU. She is always happy to chat with me and gladly answers any questions I have, and she does so in a way that is so easy to understand. I feel like I ask a lot of questions, some directly related to our son and some about nursing in general or things unrelated entirely, and she is always willing and happy to answer them. She is great to talk to and has made my experience spending all day, every day with my son in the hospital much more tolerable, if not enjoyable.
As for my son, Kylie is his absolute favorite person aside from maybe us, his parents, but I’m not even so sure about that. He gives her the biggest smiles every time he sees her, whether she's his nurse for the day or just popping in to say hi. She's his favorite for good reason. Kylie will come and play with him and spend time with him doing things that aren’t specifically related to his health care. She’ll help him play with toys and make silly faces at him, and he absolutely loves it. She is all about helping our son have the best days possible.
One of his favorite things to do is go on wagon rides around the unit. He’s very social and loves saying hi to all the nurses. She always makes sure he gets out and about and is always happy to help out, even when she's not his assigned nurse for the day. Her enthusiasm for getting our son out on walks every day has also set a precedent for everyone else who is his nurse. They all know he likes to go on daily walks because of how often Kylie has taken him, so it’s much more likely to happen now, even if she isn’t there.
Kylie has done so much to bring joy to our son's experience in the PICU. Even though right now he’s only seven months old, he knows enough to have likes and interests, and Kylie does so much to help him have fun. He really does love her, and you can tell she cares about him, too.
Kylie’s depth of knowledge is also so apparent to me and is a comfort when it comes to the more serious situations. She has been present for nearly all of the big things that have happened. Most recently, our son developed an infection and became septic. Over the three days Kylie was his nurse that week, he went from happy and smiley to miserable and gasping for air. On the last day she was there that week, he was not doing well at all and was getting worse.
They told us he would need to be re-intubated, which was not great news to hear. It was worrying to see him in so much distress, but the fact that Kylie was there was such a relief to me. She knows him better than anyone aside from me and my husband, so she knew exactly when things needed to happen in order to best help him.
I truly cannot put into words how grateful I am that Kylie happened to be his nurse when all of this was going on. She was so calm and on top of everything, and it was, as seriously as I could mean it, a relief and a comfort having her there. I just knew that even though things seemed really bad, it was all going to be okay.
Kylie truly is an incredible nurse. There are so many things that she has done for us that have made such a huge difference and go far beyond what is required of her. She has done so many meaningful things for us that it would be impossible to capture them all.
Kylie has truly made a difference for us in our experience here in the PICU. When she's here, our days just seem so much better. I'm so grateful that we've been able to have her as our nurse for so much of my son's time here. She is so fun and caring and does so much to make things better just by being herself.