Brooke sits down with producer Andres for an episode that feels like both a reunion and a turning point. Andres shares the first major trauma of his life, open-heart surgery at six years old, the moment he was told he was pronounced dead on the table, and what he remembers about the time that followed. From there, the conversation moves into how early medical trauma can echo for decades, shaping fear, avoidance, and the way the body reacts long after the crisis ends. Brooke and Andres also talk honestly about spirituality, the stories we are allowed to hold without being challenged, and how healing can change the charge around a memory, even if it never disappears. In the second half, Andres tells the story of his daughter Rio’s birth, the shock of an immediate NICU emergency, and how a lifetime of survival taught him how to stay calm when his child needed him most.

We explore:

• Near-death experience, memory, and what can be hard to explain

• Medical trauma, triggers, and nervous system responses that linger

• Spirituality, belief, and making room for different experiences

• NICU realities, parenting under stress, and the power of support

• Perspective without toxic positivity, and why choice still matters

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Content Disclaimer:
This episode includes discussion of child loss, near-death experience, pediatric heart surgery and medical trauma, vomiting and pain, anxiety and OCD, spirituality and belief, traumatic birth and emergency C-section, NICU hospitalization, infant surgery and medical procedures, feeding tubes, and discussion of other critically ill infants and infant death.

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