A 6-year-old's cough turned into RSV, strep throat, and pneumonia. His mom has a warning for parents.
BOSTON - A Massachusetts mother is warning other parents about the respiratory risks this season as her young son has been hospitalized with three illnesses at once.
Three respiratory illnesses at once
As Mindy Crumbaker, of North Andover, sat to talk with WBZ-TV via video chat from her son's hospital room, she had to take a break to calm him down, as he was coughing so much that his oxygen level dropped.
Crumbaker's 6-year-old son, Jackson, is hospitalized at Boston Children's Hospital with RSV, strep throat, and pneumonia. He's immunocompromised due to gastrointestinal issues. He's also on the autism spectrum, and nonverbal.
It's hard "if they can't tell you what's wrong, where it hurts, how it hurts, what kind of hurt," Crumbaker explained.
Jackson was admitted on Tuesday after a trip to urgent care. Crumbaker never envisioned the amount of respiratory and seasonal illnesses he'd be diagnosed with. "Shock. I mean, my initial thought was, 'Oh, my God! This is going to end bad,'" she said.
RSV rates spiked around this time last year, and are skyrocketing now, according to the CDC.
RSV risk to youngest children
Pediatrician Charles Hannum of Tufts Medical Center said it's common to see respiratory illnesses pop up in the same child at the same time – especially RSV, COVID, and the flu. Typically, it's "just very bad luck," he explained, but sometimes the diseases can be linked.
"There definitely can be, you know, kind of a predisposition that kids would have. Let's say that you have a viral illness like RSV, which kind of gets to the kind of lower parts of a young child's lung that may lead to a lot of mucus, a lot of other things. Where then, a bacterial infection can kind of say, 'Hey, this sounds like a good place to live.'"
Mother's message to parents
RSV is typically a risk for the youngest of kids – or the immunocompromised, like Jackson. That's why his mother is speaking out, to alert parents to take their kids' symptoms seriously.
"I had no idea that this was possible," said Crumbaker.
Jackson will recover at Boston Children's, being treated with antibiotics and fluids, until his symptoms improve. Hannum says for otherwise healthy children, typically, parents can help them recover at home with proper fluids – and can call their pediatrician if concerned.
"It's exhausting," said Crumbaker.
