The Payoff family comes together at this year’s CHOC Walk, on Sunday, Oct. 11, to support the Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Cole, the son of Chris Hilliard, Payoff’s VP of transparency and compliance.
The Payoff family comes together at this year’s CHOC Walk, on Sunday, Oct. 11, to support the
Children’s Hospital of Orange County and Cole, the son of Chris Hilliard, Payoff’s VP of
transparency and compliance.
Family and community are two very important words here at Payoff. But because actions speak louder, Team Payoff believes it’s necessary to live the love we have for others.
When we lace up our walking shoes on Sunday, Oct. 11, it will be to support a very special 4-year-old boy named Cole Hilliard, as well as the Children’s Hospital of Orange County that has rallied around him — and around countless other sick children in times of crisis.
Cole’s Story
Cole’s story begins in late 2010, when Chris and his wife, Linh, were eagerly anticipating the birth of their first child. After Linh’s water broke on Dec. 6, the couple packed their overnight bags and rushed to St. Jude hospital. They couldn’t wait to meet their son.
“We were in like 7:00 at night, and he was born about 11:30 the next morning,” Chris says. “So we went in and she was there all night, waiting for natural birth to keep going forward. She didn’t want to have any painkillers or that.”
Then Things Started to Go Wrong
But as the big moment drew near, Linh suffered a partial placental abruption and Cole experienced hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which means his brain was receiving very little blood and oxygen and can lead to complications like cerebral palsy.
In response, Cole’s body began shutting down organs to save the most important ones — the brain, heart and lungs. The doctors at St. Jude Medical Center had to operate on Linh right away if they were going to save Cole’s life.
“It really just started to move a lot faster when things started to go sideways,” Chris explains. “There definitely is a clarity that does come to you. But it’s more of, ‘How am I going to get past this moment?'”
You Want Definitives
When the Hilliards finally saw Cole for the first time, it was love at first sight.
“It’s one of the best experiences you’ll have in your entire life, when you first see your child,” Chris says. “And he was … This is where I may get in trouble with other parents and whatnot. … Kids are really not born attractive. … Babies are completely ugly most of the time when they’re born. But not my son. He actually was beautiful. … But he also had like 37 wires in and out and on different parts of his body. They were using his umbilical cord as IVs [and a] constant blood pressure monitor, heart rate monitor, oxygenation monitor on his foot.”
Dr. David Hicks, who was the head of neonatology at CHOC at the time, praised St. Jude’s NICU but told the Hilliards about a treatment offered at CHOC that could benefit Cole.
“[The doctors] temper your expectations and say [a treatment will] ‘… have the best outcome possible,'” Chris explains of the transparency he and his wife encountered at the hospital. “So it’s not, ‘[the child will] be normal’ or anything like that, it’s just ‘have the best outcome possible.'”
“You want definitives. As a parent, you’re like, ‘He’s going to be OK, he’s not going to be OK. It’s zero or one. It’s one or the other. … On the day, you just want to hear everything’s going to be OK and you’re going to get to take your baby boy home.”
The Cooling Cap
Less than two hours after being born, Chris and Linh’s son was transferred via ambulance — along with 8 doctors and a video uplink — to CHOC. “They have like this mobile incubator cart thing,” Chris explains. “[It’s a] transfer unit that is literally like a mobile hospital for babies.”
Once at CHOC, under the supervision of Hicks, Cole underwent a cooling cap treatment that was crucial to avoiding brain injury while Cole’s organs gradually restarted.
“This cap is amazing,” Chris says. “They run chilled liquid through there and they bring the brain temperature down to 94 degrees for four days. And basically, during that time, it’s there so there’s no injury — they actually call it an insult [instead of an injury] — to the brain at this time. … Children that don’t have that will often develop really bad things. Different mental deficiencies. … and [are} just not be able to be just, you know, a kid.”
With the cooling cap in place, the CHOC team worked around the clock to aid Cole in his fight.
“There was someone who was there from the very beginning — his nurse, Kellie Passaretti,” Chris says. “She still comes to his birthdays and things like that. She’s amazing. … We’ll go and visit her at the NICU as well.”
“Unless you’ve witnessed a NICU nurse in action, you can’t really fathom how amazingly selfless these people are. Because you’re talking about a group of women and men who literally spend their entire days either holding the hand of a child who’s dying, or trying to help a seriously injured, seriously sick child get better.”
“And they get to see the parents at the best of times and at the worst of times. But there’s not much in between. You’re either going to leave the NICU and go on. Or you’re not.”
A Sign
With the efforts of Dr. Hicks, nurse Kellie and the rest of the CHOC staff, Cole steadily improved. Chris says he remembers one day in particular that marked clear progress for him and Linh and the hospital staff.
“There was a point in which we were worried that [Cole] was going to have to … go through dialysis. Because he wasn’t urinating,” Chris says. “And there’s a large clear bag that they had hanging just below him that has that. And one day we were standing there and — this is going to sound weird but — he peed. Like 40 mL.”
“And we’re like, ‘Oh my god!’ We’re down on the ground, taking pictures of the bag. We’re crying. Because that meant that his kidneys had started to come back, at least a little bit.”
It’s Not an If, It’s a When
Finally, on Jan. 2, 2011, Chris and Linh received the best New Year’s gift possible: They got to take their son home — without any additional machines or equipment.
Today Cole is a happy and energetic boy who loves dinosaurs, swimming and being a big brother to his 3-year-old sister, Sophie. Generally speaking, he’s a healthy and normal 4-year-old. But some aspects of his health will remain closely monitored indefinitely.
“I really want him to have as much of a normal life as possible,” Chris says. “We go in every quarter and have to go through these different blood panels. He knows he’s got to go in and give blood. [Eventually] he’s going to need a kidney transplant. It’s not an if, it’s a when. So I would really like, by the time he needs it, for it to be like a one and done thing.”
“Because most people that go through kidney transplants oftentimes have one, or two, or potentially three, depending on where they’re at in their life. But there’s been a lot of amazing advances in the last 5 to 7 years … By the time [Cole] gets to that, I’m hoping that medical science is really to the point where it’s a one and done thing.”
The Impact of CHOC
This is one of the many reasons the Hilliards give back to CHOC in multiple ways, including speaking engagements and participation in the annual CHOC Walk. Payoff is proud to be a sponsor at this year’s event and, to support the organization’s commitment to local families and the potential for more life-saving and life-changing advancements in pediatrics.
“One of the biggest things that I’m extremely happy about with Cole, and with Sophie, is that they really do care about other kids and other people,” Chris explains. “For him, and for Sophie too, it’s just recognizing that everybody’s different, but really, we should show every single person, as much as we possibly can, the compassion we’d like to be shown.”
Join Team Cole and register to participate in this year’s CHOC Walk, or make a donation to CHOC as a Sleeping Bear, by visiting this page.
