Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
Ahead of respiratory virus season, an Alberta mother shares her story about RSV after her youngest child ended up in hospital on oxygen after contracting the virus when she was just seven weeks old.
Katrina Bellavance’s daughter, Maxine, was born in December 2022. Just seven weeks into Maxine’s young life, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) tore through their home, first striking Bellavance’s two older children before Maxine contracted the virus .
“When she got sick, it came on very quickly,” Bellavance said.
The Calgary mother said her daughter went to sleep one night feeling fine. Around 3am, Maxine woke up coughing and struggling to breathe.
“You could see her whole stomach pull in when she was trying to breathe. And her neck, you could see it was struggling,” Bellavance recalled. “It was very scary.
“There is nothing worse than watching your baby struggle to breathe. It’s a terrible experience.”
Bellavance took her daughter to the emergency room and immediately, she was put on oxygen because her levels had dropped so low. She remained in hospital for several days on oxygen until she could breathe again on her own.
“It was a long few days,” Bellavance said. “It took everything out of her. She was limp and had no energy.
“It probably took at least a week after that before she cleared up the runny nose and had a bit more energy. She had a cough for a month after that.”
RSV is a respiratory virus that is particularly serious for young infants and older adults. It can lead to more serious illness, such as pneumonia, in children under two, those with heart or lung problems, people with weakened immune systems, people with conditions affecting their nervous system and people over 65 age
The symptoms are similar to those of a cold or flu. In babies, symptoms can include difficulty breathing and feeding, and irritability.
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“If the first time the child gets RSV is in the first few months of his life, the consequences can be very serious,” said Dr. Eliana Castillo, clinical associate professor at the University of Calgary in the departments of medicine and obstetrics and gynecology.
“When children get RSV during the first months of life there is a risk that they need to go to hospital and that risk changes according to the season, but it can be as high as 10 per cent.”
Castillo said as children get older, their risk of serious illness decreases because their immune systems are stronger.
There are preventative measures people can take to try to avoid getting RSV, including good hand washing, masking and staying away from others when they are sick.
RSV vaccine is available for adults over 60 and pregnant women, but is only available for a fee in Alberta.
Medicines are available for babies at high risk of serious illness from RSV, according to Alberta Health Services. People are encouraged to speak to their doctors for more information.
Bellavance hopes that sharing her story will help inform other parents about the seriousness of RSV.
“It is so important that parents are aware of the risks. It’s not just a little cold if you have a little kid who gets it,” she said. “If we had known that could be the path we went down, we would have kept her up the locked stairs in a bedroom with me for a few days.
“Those first six months, they’re so vulnerable and it’s worth trying to do some extra measures, even if they feel a bit extreme, to protect them from that.”
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
source link https://globalnews.ca/news/10774997/alberta-mother-warns-severity-rsv-babies/
