- Oh, I got you!
Reese, she was a spitfire.
She was the type of girl that when she walked into the room,
she made her presence known,
if you happened to miss her entrance.
She was happy and let the world that she was happy.
Just such a strong and bold presence.
And just such a joy.
Halloween 2020, Reese woke up sick.
She was snotty, stuffy, just not her usual self.
With it being a Saturday, we decided to go ahead
and take her in to the pediatrician.
She was diagnosed with croup,
which is a common misdiagnosis for button battery ingestion.
We gave her a steroid shot and were sent home
for the weekend.
The following day, we realized there was
a button battery missing in our home.
Upon realizing it was missing,
we immediately went to the emergency room
and told them our suspicions,
where they confirmed that she had in fact
ingested the battery.
She went in for emergency surgery to remove it,
and we were in ICU for a couple of days.
We were released to go home.
I decided let's go back to the pediatrician
and get a set of eyes on her just before the weekend.
That Friday, that's when they did the CT scan,
and confirmed that a hole had been created.
It's called a fistula.
It is where there's a hole from the esophagus
and through the tracheas.
Once a button battery is removed,
it actually continues to burn for days.
And during the time from when we left the hospital
and getting back to that CT scan,
it had burned a hole through her esophagus
and through her trachea, creating the fistula.
She also came back sedated.
That morning was the last morning
that we saw her fully awake and fully as herself.
That evening, I had stepped downstairs to grab dinner
and I got back up to the floor
and I was walking down the hallway
and there were no nurses, which is not a normal thing.
And I remember thinking oh my goodness,
there's a kid not doing good.
And I turned the corner and realized it was my kid
that wasn't doing so good.
I heard them say starting compressions.
She was gone for eight to 10 minutes.
I watched all the life saving measures that they take.
And thank goodness we were able to get her back.
Hi there.
I know.
It's time to go back to sleep, okay?
Can you go back to sleep?
I remember standing against the glass,
begging,
yelling at her to fight.
But we didn't get her back.
From there I got to hold her again,
for the first time in 40 days.
But she was blue
and she was lifeless
and she was gone.
(solemn music)
Daily life is very different for us now.
I have a nine-year-old that no longer has a little sister.
My husband and I no longer have our baby.
You know, we're a family member short.
I had never heard of anyone ingesting
a button battery before.
Obviously as a parent, you know ingesting anything
is not okay, but I never knew what could happen.
I hope to get law changes.
I spend lots of time reaching out to different congressmen,
telling Reese's story, hoping that at one point
we can get a bill to the hill,
and get these changes to help protect our children.
I would like to see battery compartments become more secure.
Ideally, I would like to see a screw added
to all devices that have button batteries in them,
so that you're actually having to
take a screwdriver to the screw
and to take that apart.
That way there's not a remote can drop
and the back busts off and it's that simple.
In Reese's room at Texas Children's,
there was this plaque and it said,
"He has a plan and I have a purpose."
It sat under her Christmas tree, and I just knew,
you know, there was a plan for this,
and Reese has a purpose, you know.
And we're gonna get through it.
And her and I and my husband and my other daughter
are gonna stand together as a family
and warn people
about the dangers.
She's not here, but she does still have a purpose.