The holiday season could have ended tragically for a Lanaudoise family from Terrebonne. On Christmas Eve, little James, just a month old, started showing some symptoms of the flu.
According to the Journal de Montréal, Stéphanie Bélanger and Marco Parente decided to bring him the next day to the Montreal Children’s Hospital. After spending ten hours in the emergency room, the doctor returns them home, suggesting that they watch his temperature.
Parents would have liked more testing and follow-up. Upon waking, little James’s condition deteriorates: bluish complexion, refusal to eat, skin cold to the touch. Since the doctor had returned them home, the father believed it was good to bathe the baby and allow more time to go before returning to the hospital.
The mother was however very worried at the time. She called 911. The paramedics transported James to Pierre-Le Gardeur Hospital while his breathing was jerky and labored. Two more hours, and the parents say he did not survive.
James was transported to Sainte-Justine where he is the latest intubated and on a ventilator, but still alive.
Stéphanie Bélanger suggests to other parents to trust your parenting instinct and judgment. It was this instinct that drove her to call 911 and saved little James’s life.
Flu can be a dangerous and deadly disease, especially for vulnerable people like infants. The best way to prevent the spread of the disease to these vulnerable people is to get vaccinated and encourage others around you to get vaccinated to achieve the highest vaccination rate possible.
When vaccination rates exceed 90%, the rates of spread of the disease become very low and the possibilities of contagion practically eliminated.
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