An 8-year-old heart transplant candidate was craving pickles, so a hospital chef taught her how to make them

The 8-year-old heart transplant candidate got a hankering for the briny bite once she started preparing for her procedure. Many cardiac patients are on fluid restriction, which can cause them to crave salty things.

She’s partial to a dill spear but also appreciates a pickle chip now and then.

The team at Boston Children’s Hospital, where Bayse is a patient, fully embraced her new obsession back in March, and a child life specialist from the Association of Child Life Professionals started decorating her peripherally inserted central catheter (aka PICC line) with pickle stickers.

Bayse began her treatment at home in Medway, Massachusetts, while she was still seven years old. Once school let out in June, she went inpatient at Boston Children’s, where she met chef and program manager of culinary services Sarah Bryce.

In her hybrid administrative role, Bryce leads tasty, interactive and often bedside experiences.

She uses cooking and food to engage with patients and (hopefully) make their time spent at the hospital a bit more fun. She’s done everything from cupcake decorating to bedside nachos and, now, in-room pickling.

“I’ve done pizza, which is probably the most asked for and the one I do the most,” Bryce says, later adding that she mainly works with kids ranging in age from four to 16. She’s also made waffles with a mini waffle iron to try to get patients excited about eating breakfast, decorated whole birthday cakes and sugar cookies, filled cannoli to order and even attempted to make soft pretzels, which Bryce says didn’t work out so well.

Bryce was a patient at Boston Children’s as a kid, and she remembers how impacted she was by some of the moments she shared with staff.

“I really wanted to make a difference,” she says of the decision to revisit the hospital in a non-patient capacity. Now, she’s studying to be a dietitian.

“I’ve worked in these rooms and I’ve seen what a difference it is for a child to eat — just trying to get them to eat something,” she continues. “It sounds so simple, right? But it really can be a huge difference.”

Bryce (left) and Bayse (right) pickling. Courtesy The Bayse Family

Bryce tells TODAY.com she received several emails from Bayse’s doctors and administrative caretakers about her craving for pickles.

After working with Bayse’s clinical dietitian, Bryce knew just the right activity to suggest when it came time to make her culinary rounds.

Bryce asked Bayse if she knew how pickles were made.

“She said, ‘No! I would have never thought about it,’ and I said, ‘What if we made some together?’” Bryce recalls. “Her eyes lit up and she was like, ‘We can do that?’” And Bryce replied, “We can do anything — if you say you want to do something, I’m gonna try my best to do it.”

Three days later, Bryce had found a refrigerator-stable recipe (she can’t bring equipment like induction burners into hospital rooms, so she had to get creative), prepped brine and brought all the necessary parts over to Bayse’s room.

A combination of homemade and store-bought pickles for Bayse's party. Courtesy Sarah Bryce

They ended up making seven different kinds of pickles, including cucumbers, garlic, onions and watermelon.

“She loves Ken’s Italian Dressing; we made a pickle with those,” says Bryce.

“My mouth was also watering,” Bayse says of the exciting moment she learned about the activity, adding that the resulting pickle party is now a fun hospital memory for her.

After the first mini taste test, the duo threw a pickle party where folks from several departments stopped in for a treat. And by the end, “The pickles were gone,” Bryce says. “All of them.”

Bayse used her expertise to guide visitors through the different varieties, helping them decide which to try first and which would be best as a follow-up.

She says she was most excited about her pickle juice ice cubes, which she served with lemonade to anyone who stopped in.

“It was the best two hours of my life,” Bryce says of the party.

“The fact that they’re so supportive of just knowing what the kids are interested in and like to do and then just going with that idea, they’ve really normalized the experience for Emerson here at Children’s Hospital,” Allison Bayse, the patient’s mom, tells TODAY.com. “Taking something like a PICC line that runs into your body and delivers medication and to put pickles on it and to like make it not scary is such a gift.”

The point of the culinary program, Bryce says, is to spread a little joy. Bayse took that intention and extended it to others.

Bayse welcomed folks into her room for a pickle tasting. Courtesy The Bayse Family

Bryce says Bayse does a “great job” getting other people involved in her activities. When the hospital debuted its lobby aquarium, Bayse created an under-the-sea-themed table — featuring Goldfish and blue candy, of course — for staff and visitors, as well as a fall-themed one earlier this month.

Bayse’s nurses and doctors have also dubbed her the “unit magician” — she performs magic tricks under the moniker “The Magnificent Cardio” for both patients and staff on her floor, and she broadcasts her magic show to anyone in the hospital who wants to watch but might not be able to leave their rooms.

Bryce (left) teaching Bayse (right) how to pickle. Courtesy The Bayse Family

“She’s modeling from these adults their care and interest in her, and she’s taking that and trying to give it back to the other kids here in the building,” says Bayse’s mom.

Pickling is an age-old practice used to preserve foods that would otherwise spoil. So, when asked what she would choose if she could pickle anything at all, food or not, Bayse thought for a moment and emphatically said, “Ketchup!”

The staff, on the other hand, said they’d choose to preserve Bayse’s magic.

CORRECTION (Sept. 24, 2024, 3:45 p.m.): An earlier version of this article mislabeled a staff member from the Association of Child Life Professionals. She is a child life specialist, not a nurse.