Swine Flu

When my youngest son was nineteen months old, he caught pneumonia. He had had a slight cold, but I didn't want him to miss a birthday party, so I took him to the party at the Children's Museum. It was typically crowded, and we spent a good hour playing in the Tot Spot, where the three-and-under crowd congregate. You know the ones that drool all over everything? I suspect that his immune system was slightly weakened from the cold, and the pneumonia-causing bacteria was then able to go straight to his lungs.

He seemed fairly sick. He had a high fever and I took him to the pediatrician. But I was surprised by the pneumonia diagnosis. He got an antibiotic shot. They called the next day to check on him and I told them he was no better, so he came back in for a second shot. Sometimes it takes more than one, they said. But, really, he didn't improve. We were giving him oral antibiotics and inhaled breathing meds too, but nothing seemed to be working. My pediatrician didn't want to hospitalize him, because the hospital was overcrowded and she'd had a couple of patients pick up other diseases in the hospital. So we were trying to manage him at home.

I remember listening to him breathe that Friday night and thinking he was just so ill....I almost took him to the hospital in the middle of the night, but we waited until the morning and took him to the dr.'s office. The pedi on call listened to him, checked his pulse-ox and sent us straight to the hospital. I still didn't think it was that serious, until when we were checking in and they didn't get all our insurance info--they sent us straight back to the respiratory unit and said they'd find us later. At 11:00 that night he had emergency surgery to drain his lung of the accumulated fluid. This operation saved his life and I am hugely grateful to everyone who was willing to open an operating suite in the middle of the night to save our son because he couldn't wait until the morning. After this, we spent a week in Texas Childrens Hospital and were released right before Christmas.

Each day he improved, although he was on five different spectrum antibiotics to knock out the superbug. He had somehow managed to pick up an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria, which is why he never responded to the original medication. My father, a practicing pulmonologist for over 35 years, had never seen a case himself, but his grandchild managed to pick up the wrong toy at the wrong time.

The news this morning that a 23 month old has died here in Texas from Swine Flu has stirred these memories. I've been that parent, watching your child struggle to breathe and feeling so helpless. Our story had a happy ending, but if we had waited any longer to go to the hospital, it might have been too late.

There's no real lesson here for swine flu, other than if you feel run down or sick, you probably should stay out of large crowds. I think you're just more vulnerable when your immune system is slightly repressed. And to seek medical help promptly.