The height of cold and flu season always puts Jess and Peter a little on edge – they know all too well how even the common cold can become life-threatening. Their son Sam lives with asthma and though it’s controlled day-to-day, his parents know things can go from fine to scary in minutes. As Jess, explains: “A garden-variety virus comes along and all the kids get it. The difference for Sam is that several days later, he can’t breathe.”
Sam had his first Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) admission at three years old at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario back when his family lived in Ottawa. It was a harsh reality check for Jess and Peter, underscoring the dangers of respiratory viruses for their son. Three years later, Sam ended up in the PICU again with RSV, this time at the Alberta Children’s Hospital after his family had moved to Calgary.
“He came into our room at night saying he was really struggling to breathe,” says Jess, adding now that he was six years old, Sam’s awareness of what was happening added in a layer of panic. Peter took him to the Emergency Department where his oxygen was measuring dangerously low. All the things that would typically rescue Sam from respiratory distress – like a nebulizer and Ventolin – were not helping. Sam continued deteriorating quickly and began vomiting. He was rushed to the PICU where the team, led by pediatric intensivist Dr. Jaime Blackwood, worked around the clock to stabilize and maintain Sam’s ability to breathe with various respiratory supports. “They told us he was one of the sickest patients on the unit and prepared us for the possibility he might need to go on a ventilator,” remembers Jess. “It was an extreme example of what can happen for kids like Sam, but it was also an extreme example of the kind of care you can only hope to receive,” adds Peter. Fortunately, Sam eventually turned a corner and, under the close watch of his team over the course of a week, began to recover.
When Sam was 10, he caught COVID-19 – a virus his family had successfully warded off for nearly two years with extra vigilance, knowing Sam’s susceptibility to respiratory distress. Fortunately, COVID-19 did not hit Sam hard at all. “It was such a relief that we’d survived this big scary virus that was putting people on respirators around the world,” says Jess. Unfortunately, while their guard was down, a “seemingly innocuous bug” was just around the corner and took Sam down hard. “He came upstairs from playing video games and he was just grey,” recalls Jess. Once again, the typical rescue interventions were unsuccessful and Sam was rushed into the PICU. An initial chest X-ray from intake in Emergency was clear, but Dr. Blackwood was tenacious in finding answers. She ordered follow-up X-rays a couple of days later and a bacterial infection had since become visible in Sam’s lungs. He spent several days in PICU while receiving what his parents call “heavy duty antibiotics” to fight the infection.
Peter and Jess are so grateful for the expertise and exceptional care of their teams at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. “It was so serious and they walked with us from the brink every step of the way back to a healthy child,” says Jess. “We’ve been so fortunate.”
