RSV Case Study – Bre O’Brien

Bre shares her experience with RSV, and the importance of being vaccinated.

02:02

I had heard about RSV. We are obviously told about it through daycare and through schools, but I wasn't very well educated on how bad it could actually be. Like it can be life threatening, and it's also the leading cause of hospitalisation for newborns and children. It was just when she turned one, so just after her birthday, she, for a few nights, was just unwell. Nothing too crazy. It got to a Friday night where her temperature was really hard to get under control. We did visit the hospital late Saturday night, and we were told just viral and to go home to give her a rest. Through that Sunday, things progressively got worse, and by Monday morning, we were in an ambulance, lights and sirens to the children's hospital. Over the next few days in ICU, she was on IV antibiotics. I think how fast her decline happened was, yeah, terrifying. I was also in a state of shock seeing her go from such a healthy state to being in ICU. Eventually, she had to have a surgery to have a drain put into her lung, to have the fluid removed, to help improve her situation. Seeing it firsthand through my child, it affects the lungs, the breathing, and it's just absolutely traumatic to see such a small person go through something like that. So I recommend speaking to your healthcare provider about the vaccines that are available to us as pregnant women, and the RSV vaccination is free to pregnant women between the weeks of 28 and 36. There's no better opportunity to protect your children when you are pregnant for their future. To look at her now, I'm just so grateful for the healthcare system. And now moving forward for the next pregnancy, I'm definitely going to be getting the RSV vaccination.

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