Dylan Griswold

“But that last clinic appointment, that last time I saw Katie, I could look at her and see heaven. I don’t ask you to understand or even believe me, but I could see it. Just as clear as I can see Death. I saw heaven through Katie. It’s not that I think I see it; I know I see it, just as I see heaven in the eyes of my bratty kid or any of my other hundreds of patients. I know there’s value. I know there’s love. I know that there’s a loving God welcoming Katie into heaven. I could see it. I can’t explain it. I can’t begin to ease the stabbing hurt in Katie’s family. I won’t even try. But there is heaven.”
― Daniel Fulkerson, Nothing Good Happens at … the Baby Hospital: The Strange, Silly World of Pediatric Brain Surgery

“We suffer to get well. We surrender to win. We die to live. We give it away to keep it.”
― Richard Rohr, Breathing Underwater

“The reason we do anything one more time is because the last time did not really satisfy us deeply. As English poet W.H. Auden put it in “Apropos of Many Things”: “We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the present and let our illusions die.”
― Richard Rohr, Breathing Underwater

“The Baby Hospital forces you to ask the big question. It forces you to ask about Death and heaven and God. “Truly I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for Me” (Matthew 25:40).147 Some of the children at the Baby Hospital certainly qualify as the “least of these.” “Let’s not get tired of doing what is good” (Galatians 6:9).148 It’s a privilege to care for children. It’s a privilege to be called during the worst time in a family’s life. It’s a privilege to be entrusted with the life of a baby. It’s a privilege to be expected to study, to overcome the bureaucracy of medicine, and to feel capable of commanding an OR. It’s a privilege to operate on the central nervous system. I can see Death. And I can see Heaven. I wish I could understand the tapestry of the universe, of existence, of nature. But I can’t. But I can see some things. I can see that there is a Song of Creation. I can even hear it. I can hear it in a child’s laugh, my favorite sound. It’s beautiful. Yes. It’s worth it. Because of this:”
― Daniel Fulkerson, Nothing Good Happens at … the Baby Hospital: The Strange, Silly World of Pediatric Brain Surgery