Birthday bash for “Queen Bee,” a rock star at Riley

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

As 16^th birthdays go, this one is definitely unusual.

Certainly not how Brilea “Queen Bee” Southard planned to celebrate.

But here she is, marking this momentous day in the hospital. The same place she celebrated her 15^th birthday and all the days in between.

Brilea has been inpatient at Riley Hospital for Children for 410 days straight. She arrived via LifeLine helicopter the early morning hours of Dec. 21, 2023, after a devastating car accident injured her and several members of her family.

The Terre Haute family had been out looking at Christmas lights on Dec. 20 when an oncoming driver collided with their minivan.

Brilea, sitting in the vehicle’s middle seat with her mom, was critically injured, though she didn’t know how serious it was at the time. She had suffered an aortic dissection (a tear in the inner layer of the aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body), in addition to multiple broken bones and crushing injuries to her abdomen.

Her little brother, Grayson, who was seated in the minivan’s back row along with a family friend, was in another Riley Hospital room, suffering multiple fractures and a deep gash to his head. Their mom, Paula Allen, was airlifted to IU Health Methodist Hospital, where she would remain for 20 days recovering from serious injuries. The children’s grandmother, who had been in the front passenger seat, was airlifted to another Indianapolis hospital.

Their dad, Justin Allen, suffered a minor injury to his foot but was trapped in the wreckage. The family friend in the back seat also suffered minor injuries. Brilea’s then-22-year-old sister, Faith, who was not in the vehicle, was by her sister’s side in the days and weeks after the accident.

WHERE IS BUN BUN?

Brilea was the most severely injured, yet it was she who called 911 that night before crawling out of the crushed vehicle. She remembers being in the back of the ambulance that took her first to a Terre Haute hospital, but recalls little after that before waking up in the pediatric intensive care unit at Riley intubated and unable to speak.

In time, she would be able to write on a tablet what her voice could not say: Bun Bun.

Bun Bun is her affectionate name for a stuffed bunny that she has treasured since receiving it for her first birthday. Bun Bun was in the car that night. Family members were able to retrieve it and bring it to her in the hospital, where it remains today.

She would go on to have more than 25 surgeries, many led by Riley pediatric surgeon Dr. Cartland Burns.

“She had like a 4 percent chance of surviving, but by the grace of God and Dr. Burns, here she is,” Faith said.

“Dr. Burns saved her life,” Justin agreed, as he, his wife and Brilea’s siblings gathered to share their story.

SPECIAL DELIVERY

The surgeon is one of an army of caregivers at Riley who have walked this journey with Brilea and her family, all of them celebrating the milestones she has achieved.

Dr. Hank Knouse, a hospitalist covering the rehab unit and developmental pediatrics/complex care, is another. A physician with a soft heart, he left Riley one day to bring back chicken nuggets and a Coke Zero from Chick-fil-A for Brilea when she was able to eat.

“I dropped it off and ran,” he chuckled, not wanting to make Brilea feel awkward. “Every once in a while, I’ll do something like that for patients when I have time,” he said, “especially on the rehab unit when they are there for such a long time.”

It was a gesture that meant a great deal to Brilea and her family, but Dr. Knouse waves off any praise.

“All the grace goes to her,” he said. “She’s a rock star. To be as mentally tough as she is every day is impressive. She’s probably one of the most resilient people I’ve ever met, especially at her age. It’s been so impressive watching her and her family go through the ups and downs but never give up … after what can be a life-ending injury.”

“He’s that great of a doctor,” Justin continued about Dr. Knouse. “He’s also the one that advocated for her to go to Taylor Swift’s concert. He’s kind of a rock star himself.”

That’s right, the one and only time Brilea has left the hospital since December 21, 2023, was to join tens of thousands of Swifties for one of the megastar’s Indianapolis shows in November, thanks to tickets donated to the Riley Children’s Foundation.

SWIFT MANIA

Accompanied by Riley team members and her mom, Brilea met that moment with all of the joy and energy she could summon, basking in the glow of the lights, the music and the feeling of being “normal” for a few hours.

“I loved watching Taylor’s dancers and the choreography,” said Brilea, a longtime dancer herself before the accident. “I remember the purple dresses the women wore. It was so pretty.”

“It was magical,” added her mom. “Watching her get dressed up and sing along with thousands of teenage girls … it was a fantastic night.”

And while Brilea loved the experience, she admits that her true music crush is pop singer/songwriter Benson Boone. A large poster of the young musician adorns a wall in her hospital room, which is also decorated with LEGO flowers she painstaking put together.

Mom and daughter missed his concert when he was in Indianapolis last fall, but they could see the lights of the Downtown venue where he was performing from a Riley window and listened to his music on Brilea’s phone to feel like they were there with him.

Music is a big part of Brilea’s life, as are movies and games with her family and special visits to the Child Life Zone, where she recently got to meet Mickey Mouse.

“ANGEL” THERAPIST

Also among that army of Riley caregivers is physical therapist Abby Dunlap, “an angel,” the family says, who has helped Brilea fight through intense pain as she first learned to move her legs, then walk again. Early on, doctors had prepared the teen’s parents for the possibility of amputation.

Several surgeries and months of rehab got Brilea up on her own feet again, but it was grueling, Dunlap recalls.

“I remember the first time she kicked her leg up in bed against gravity, everyone in the room started crying,” the therapist said. “And now she is walking the hallway with her mom.”

To help someone regain their independence is an exceptional feeling, she said, but make no mistake, Brilea did the hard work.

“Seeing her grow as a person and as a woman over the past year has been so wonderful,” Dunlap said. “She is one of the strongest, if not the strongest, kids I know. Knowing the pain I put her through for her to get better, how much she’s done and how far she’s come is truly an inspiration. It’s why we love what we do as therapists. She is our purpose.”

Brilea’s biggest obstacle in going home now is the injury to and loss of a portion of her intestines. The goal is to keep what she has left healthy enough that she may someday be able to eat and drink again and not rely on intravenous feedings.

That day last spring when she was able to enjoy chicken nuggets courtesy of Dr. Knouse was one of just a few days in the past 13-plus months when she could eat.

BIRTHDAY CAKE CAN WAIT

So, at today’s birthday party, there is to be no cake, but that’s all about delayed gratification in Brilea’s mind.

“My intestines are still not healed; that’s the reason we’re still here,” the teen said. “I’ll do whatever it takes to save them.”

Because the alternative – relying on intravenous feedings forever – is not a life she wishes to contemplate.

“I’d like to eat my wedding cake when the time comes and eat the gender reveal cake whenever I have a baby,” she said. “In the long run, it will be worth it.”

For now, she and her family feel overwhelming gratitude, even as they have faced many hurdles over the past year. The support they have felt from their Terre Haute community, as well as friends and strangers around the nation, has lifted them up, as has their faith, which they have clung to like a lifeline.

“The entire Riley staff has been phenomenal,” said Brilea’s mom. “Do we want to live in the hospital? No, but we have to take the time to heal. I don’t understand why we are still in this season, but that’s not my place to question. I believe her story is meant to be heard, for people to know what our God can do.”

Their faith has carried them, they said, when they have felt weak in body and spirit.

“I’m not strong,” Paula said. “I don’t have anything strong left in me; it is literally a daily struggle. I do believe she will be fully healed. I don’t think he is going to bring her through all of this and abandon her.”

A hopeful attitude has been a blessing for sure, even as it sometimes wavers.

“LIVING A MOVIE”

“We try to be 90 percent positive, but we allow ourselves to have a little pity party sometimes,” she said. “When I sit and think about it, I feel like I’m living a movie, something you read about, but this is actually happening to us.”

She reminded herself this past Christmas, as they faced the pain of another holiday in the hospital, that her gift was right in front of her.

“Brilea was on death’s doorstep last Christmas (2023),” she said. “We could have spent all this time grieving my child. But she is here, and we are here together.”

As they celebrate Brilea’s sweet 16 today, they look forward to the day when they will be together at home. Brilea, who loves the visits by Riley’s therapy dogs, hopes to get one of her own someday. She plans to name it Riley.

And that, Dr. Knouse said, is what makes Brilea so special.

“She’s always looking toward the next day and not worrying about the past. She just keeps moving forward.”

Photos submitted and by Mike Dickbernd, IU Health visual journalist, mdickbernd@iuhealth.org