Yesterday morning around 6:30 a.m. – Boxing Day – Cheyenne bottle-fed her young baby Melody. The girl was breathing hard, she immediately noticed. “Her tummy kept pulling in completely. She really had to do her best to get air.”
‘This is not good’
The baby also had a significant increase, looked pale and the skin under her mouth was a little blue. “This is not good, I thought. I immediately sounded the alarm.”
At the doctor’s office in Maastricht, little Melody was nebulized. With a kind of mask, a medicine is administered that should make a child less stuffy. “More and more doctors and nurses came in. They all immediately thought of the RS virus. We were told that she had to be hospitalized.”
Many children’s ICs are full, but don’t panic
The professional association of Nurses and Caregivers of the Netherlands (V&VN) reported yesterday that many ICs for children are full due to a combination of RS, the flu and other respiratory infections. Due to the crowds, neighboring countries currently have no place to take over children from the Netherlands, according to the V&VN.
Pediatrician and chairman of the Dutch Pediatric Association Károly Illy emphasized on Monday that there is no panic. According to Illy, not a single IC – there are seven in the Netherlands for children – has ‘had to think about transferring abroad’.
Melody’s blood oxygen level was too low. Only a place for her had to be found outside Maastricht. It became Weert.
Powerless mother
“I was completely upset,” says mother Cheyenne. “What’s happening to me now, I thought when I got into that ambulance.” On the way, Melody got an oxygen tube in her nose. “I tried to stay calm. But then you are so powerless as a mother. She is still so small.”
Mind off and let everything come to you for a while, Cheyenne decided. “Of course you hope that you don’t have to go to a hospital a little further away. But it is very nice of course that all this effort is done for you.”
While mother tells Cheyenne on the phone that Melody is fortunately improving quickly, the baby itself makes approving noises in the background. “She is talking again, yes. She is also getting color again. Last night she no longer needed oxygen.”
Recovering from the fright
Incidentally, the test result that must officially show whether it concerns the RS virus has yet to come. “But there is really no doubt about that here.” They hope to be able to go home tomorrow, to recover from the shock together.
Angela Borsboom experienced the same thing earlier this month in another part of the Netherlands. Her son Eray, 13 months old, was hospitalized in Capelle aan den IJssel for a week with the RS virus. There was no room in the hospital in Rotterdam where they initially entered.
Too little oxygen
Eray is also babbling happily today. That was different on Monday 12 December. “He had a fever and I saw how he was getting more and more stuffy. I saw his belly at his ribs keep pulling in while breathing.”
Through the GP, they ended up at the emergency department in Rotterdam around noon. Here too it turned out: too little oxygen in the blood. “He immediately got an oxygen tube in his nose. And mucus was taken from his nose and throat with a cotton swab. I thought to test for corona, but they also wanted to look at RS.”
Pretty sick
The latter virus soon turned out to be the culprit. “We were told that Eray had to be admitted, but that there was no room in Rotterdam.”
The toddler could go to Capelle aan den IJssel. And so this mother was suddenly in an ambulance with her little one. “The paramedics were very sweet, reassured me very much.”
No matter how well they were taken care of, fun is of course different. “He was quite ill, I was really worried, especially when it turned out in Capelle that he needed even more oxygen than he already received, that shocked me for a while.”
Soft dishcloth
A dishcloth, that’s how she describes her son Eray when he was so ill. A dishcloth that also needed a few days of tube feeding: “He was very weak, not nice to see your baby like this.”
After more than a week, Eray was allowed to go home, where he is now continuing to recover. “He is still coughing a lot, but fortunately he is on the mend.”
As with Melody in Limburg, admission to a children’s intensive care unit was not necessary for Eray. But in those special intensive care units they have their hands quite full with other sick children.
Nevertheless, this situation is not uncommon for the RS season, says Károly Illy, chairman of the Dutch Pediatric Association. According to him, the pressure on the children’s ICs is currently comparable to that in 2018 and 2019.
Pay attention
However, the peak is early, normally in January. “But there are enough beds so far. We can handle it.”
This afternoon, the university hospitals will discuss the situation with Illy, among others. “We have such consultations every week when the children’s ICs are busy,” he explains. “We always have to make sure that enough beds remain available. We discuss any additional measures.”