Oakville mother shares terrifying experience after son, 3, with RSV spends days on ventilator in ICU

As children’s hospitals are overrun with kids up against a triple threat of COVID-19, Influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), one Oakville mother described a horrifying experience after her three-year-old son was diagnosed with RSV.

Keri Graham said it all started when her son Tyler began to feel sick and struggled to breathe a few weeks ago.

“I was trying to give him fluids and all the typical stuff you do, and nothing was relieving anything,” Graham told CityNews.

“At that point, I could see through his blankets that his chest was working really hard with every breath, which was obviously difficult.”

Graham said she brought Tyler to Oakville Trafalgar Hospital, the closest in terms of proximity, late on Oct. 17. Around 36 hours later, the doctors told her that her son would need to be transported to a pediatric ICU and that they could no longer treat the young boy.

“We got moved to the pediatric floor [at the hospital], and he immediately got put on the ventilator. They kept elevating the flow, and unfortunately, they maxed out the pediatric limit, and he still wasn’t responding,” Graham explained.

“According to this virus, it peaks at day five or seven, and we were only at day two. He had already maxed out the resources at a community hospital that they were able to provide for him.”

Because of the upsurge in illnesses among children, doctors at Oakville Trafalgar Hospital struggled to find Tyler an ICU bed.

“It was petrifying that the system had zero beds anywhere across Ontario. Ottawa, London, Hamilton, Toronto, everywhere and there was nothing available, literally not a single bed,” said Graham.

“I’m terrified, and he’s [either] progressing or getting worse, and the doctors don’t really know what’s going on and where we’re going and how we’re going to help him. It’s complete chaos.”

Graham tells CityNews after two rounds of calls to ICUs across the province, including Ottawa, the hospital began preparing to send Tyler to an ICU in Buffalo, NY. A last-minute discharge at London Health Sciences Centre saved them from the trip across the border.

Tyler spent two weeks in the hospital, including five days in the pediatric ICU on a ventilator.

“It was a complete whirlwind of panic, stress, and concern of the unknown,” Graham shared.

“It was a solid 10 days that he never even asked to get out of the hospital bed and would barely wake up. He wasn’t even super lucid. It’s tough to see.”

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Medical Officer of Health, said right now, half of the children in pediatric ICUs are testing positive for RSV, while the other half of testing positive for Influenza. The Ministry of Health has also directed the ICUs to operate over capacity and has requested adult ICUs to take children 14 years old and older.

Graham said her message to other parents is to trust their parental instincts, no matter the underlying circumstances.

“The window of when it was non-emergent to emergent, like life-threatening emergent, was so short. It was such a small window. Even if you waste eight hours thinking, ‘Do I need to get him checked?'” shared Graham.

Tyler was discharged from the hospital a few weeks ago, but more recently, he ended up back in the hospital with similar symptoms and was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Graham said this time, he is recovering well at home.

“Just trust your gut and if you need to go, go,” said Graham. “Whatever you need to do to get attention and to get your child care.”