Just a few months after Brooklyn Palian was born, she started having intense health issues—fevers and vomiting so severe that they would send her to the emergency department.
At 11 years old, a severe viral infection pushed her into liver failure. She needed a transplant to live. Brooklyn recalled asking a lot of questions at first, but as the reality of what lay ahead began to sink in, the fear caught up with her.
“I started screaming and crying and trying to get out of the hospital,” she says. “They had to put me in a medically induced coma before the surgery so that I wouldn't rip my IV out or anything.”
She was eventually transferred to MedStar Georgetown Transplant Institute, where Brooklyn’s care team and family would guide her through one of the most difficult experiences of her young life.
Brooklyn’s mom and dad were with her around the clock. Her Uncle Scott sat beside her and read aloud from “Harry Potter”—her favorite book series—doing all the voices of the different characters.
“Just being there is more than enough,” Brooklyn says, thinking about what got her through the surgery: the unwavering support of loved ones by her side.
The compassionate care Brooklyn received from her nurses stayed with her, too.
When Brooklyn suggested using the veins in her hand rather than her forearm, her nurse listened, got the IV on the first try, and warmed up the saline before flushing the line so it wouldn’t feel uncomfortably cold.
“No other nurse had ever done that,” Brooklyn says. “It might have been a small two-second thing for her, but it made all the difference in the world to me.”
These moments inspired Brooklyn, now 18, to pursue a nursing career of her own.
“My goal when I become a nurse is to do at least one small special thing for each patient,” she says.
Brooklyn is also grateful for something less often visible but just as vital: the generosity of donors who strengthen the services MedStar Health provides. Inspired by the care Brooklyn received, her family chose to give back by becoming philanthropic donors.
“It’s really amazing that people will take their own money and give it to people who can really use it,” she says. “That means a lot.”
You, too, can give back like Brooklyn’s family and honor the nurses who go the extra mile for patients every day at MedStar Health hospitals, offering compassionate care that transforms lives.