These are happier days for the Cowan-Flammini family but almost 10 years ago, they went through a frightening time when Stella, second from right, had to be hospitalized and on breathing tubes because of the RSV virus. Her mom urges eligible families to get their child immunized to protect against severe RSV infection this viral season. Pictured: Amber Cowan, Olivia, Stella and Mauro Flammini

A Christmas nightmare: One family’s experience with RSV over the holidays

A mother’s plea: Protect your infant from RSV and avoid the trauma of a hospital stay

Stella was three weeks old when she was hospitalized for 12 days due to RSV.

Scary. Horrible. Traumatic. These are the words Amber Cowan used to describe her family’s experience with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) ten years ago. The memories are unsettling to this day.

“She would have long breathing pauses where I would have to tap her chest to get her to breathe again.”

“I was alone in the hospital with my sick child, post-partum after a C-section. My husband couldn’t come because he had pneumonia. It was Christmastime. My older child was at home with our parents. It was absolutely horrible.”

Her daughter Stella was three weeks old when she was hospitalized with the virus. She stayed in the Hamilton Health Sciences McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) for 12 days until she could breathe on her own and was well enough to return home.

Now, there is a medication to protect babies from severe RSV infection – and Cowan urges eligible families to take it.

A traumatic experience

It was December 2014 and the whole Cowan family was sick with a virus. Stella’s older sister Olivia got sick first, likely from daycare. Then dad Mauro developed pneumonia and moved in with his parents to protect the new baby in the house. But mom Amber and new baby Stella soon got sick, too.

Stella was congested and coughing. But it was the pauses in her breathing that brought her to MCH’s emergency department. “She would have long breathing pauses where I would have to tap her chest to get her to breathe again,” says Cowan.

“If people can avoid going through that kind of experience, do it.”

Cowan recalls a team of health professionals rushing into a room, a code being called, and literally running down the hall to reach the elevator to the PICU where Stella was intubated to help her breathe.

“Newborn babies have windpipes the size of a straw and RSV can close those windpipes. They can stop breathing and die because of it,” she says. “If people can avoid going through that kind of experience, do it.”

Stella was intubated and hooked up to masks and tubes.

Stella was intubated for 10 days. She was hooked up to masks and tubes.

Cowan remembers asking the team if she was going to be okay.

“They were very evasive at first. I remember thinking that my child might die,” she says. “I couldn’t hold her. I could only stick my fingers in the hole in the incubator and rub her forehead.”

“I’m so grateful she had a virus she was going to recover from. But not everyone experiences that.”

It was about a week into the hospital stay when Cowan felt confident Stella was going to be okay.

“I’m so grateful she had a virus she was going to recover from. But not everyone experiences that. You see things in the ICU that you can’t un-see.”

Stella was discharged on Boxing Day and the family got to spend a late Christmas together a couple of days later.

A message to families eligible for the RSV medication

Cowan urges all eligible families to book an appointment for this medication to protect their infant from RSV.

“I was explaining to Stella about how now there’s a shot available for all babies and that hopefully parents will choose to give it to them,” says Cowen. “In her nine-year-old way she suggested that we print pictures of her intubated and post them all over the ER.”

We’re taking Stella’s advice and posting them on the internet, instead.

“Doing this is a community service because you are protecting your own child and the community as a whole,” says Cowen. “By helping to keep children healthy and avoiding RSV, you’re also reducing the cost to the health care system and allowing other children who are sick in unpreventable ways to get the care they need.”

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