Marjolein
Marjolein shares her story about the RSV infection of her son Jan. Jan was hospitalised with severe RSV infection when he was only four weeks old. He had to stay in the intensive care unit on ventilation for eight days. Marjolein had heard of RSV, but she did not know that it could cause very serious illness in babies
“Our son was born on November 10th 2016. In his first weeks of life Jan was fine. He was drinking well and growing. Big sister Sarah (1,5 years old at the time) was very fond of her little brother. When Jan was four weeks old I had to wake him up for a feeding, which I found rather strange because he was usually very active during that time of the day. He was sleepy and did not drink much. That night he hardly drank anything at all and slept a lot. We decided to go to our GP. There was no cause for concern, yet. Jan still had wet nappies and did not have a fever. We were send home with the advice to come back in the morning if things changed for the worse.
He was drinking less and less so the GP referred us to our local hospital. They gave him oxygen and a feeding tube and he seemed to be recovering. However, on Saturday night his condition worsened and he had more difficulty breathing. I could not fall asleep that night and kept a close eye on him. The doctors gave him a different type of oxygen, but this did not help.”
He stopped breathing
“Because his condition worsened he needed a drip. When the doctor lifted him from the bed Jan stopped breathing. He turned very pale and looked like a rag doll. I thought I was going to lose him. He was put on the ventilator and while a team of doctors was treating him I felt powerless.”
ICU’s were filled with RSV patients
“We were told that Jan needed to be intubated and was going to be transferred by ambulance to the ICU of the nearest Children’s hospital. We were very lucky that there was an ICU bed available for Jan. The day before, some children had to be transported to hospitals in Germany or Belgium since all paediatric ICU’s in the Netherlands were occupied because of the RSV peak. Jan had to stay in ICU on ventilation for eight days. He was very ill and exhausted from the infection. We had heard of RSV before, but did not know it could cause serious illness in babies.”
Intensive period
“All-in all the hospitalisation of Jan was a very intensive period for us. We were not allowed to sleep at the hospital. I was pumping breast milk several times a day so I could still (tube) feed him. We were visiting several times a day and had to make sure his sister Sarah was also looked after. In the mean time I was still recovering from a C-section. We were very fortunate to have family and friends to help us out is these stressful times..
When Jan came off the ventilator, he was transferred to a local hospital where he had to learn to drink again. He was released from hospital five days before Christmas.”
How is Jan doing now?
The period after his release from hospital was quite stressful. We were left with all kinds of questions and were afraid that he was going to be ill again next winter. But Jan is a happy two year old now, the dust has settled and we are enjoying everyday family life with our two lovely children.”
‘Our little baby was born in August 2019, after only 26 weeks of gestation and a birth weight of 760 grams. Therefore, he developed severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia. He has spent 80 days on the i
ntensive care unit and needed mechanical ventilation during the first 4 weeks. Fortunately, he recovered and was discharged from the hospital in November 2019.’