Respiratory illnesses are hitting hard this season. Maverick ended up in the hospital, but not all cases are so serious.
By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org
When your little boy is having trouble breathing, you act. That’s what Brianna and Sean Presnell did Monday morning when their son’s cold turned into something worse.
They rushed 2½-year-old Maverick to the emergency department at Riley Hospital for Children, where he was diagnosed with flu A and RSV, two serious respiratory illnesses, particularly for a medically complex child such as Maverick. He was admitted to the hospital and spent two nights inpatient before being discharged Wednesday.
Maverick, who spent the first 212 days of his life at Riley, went home in December 2022 with a trach, ventilator and oxygen, but he had been doing so well lately that he was off the vent and only required extra oxygen at night.
His medical challenges started with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, which can push organs up into the chest, compromising heart and lung function. He had surgery for that, as well as for a heart defect, but his lungs never fully recovered.
Still, for the past two years, he’s been relatively healthy and quite happy as he’s grown into an active 2-year-old. In fact, this week’s hospital admission was the first since he went home as a baby more than two years ago.
“He was requiring more oxygen support than normal,” Maverick’s mom said. “That’s the main reason we brought him in.”
She’s calm now, but it was very scary to see her little boy struggling to breathe, especially the night before they brought him to Riley.
“He sleeps in our room since he’s still on monitoring machines, but the night we decided we were going to Riley in the morning, we all slept in the living room on the couch together,” she said.
Kids with respiratory illnesses, including flu, RSV, adenovirus and Covid, continue to flood the ED at Riley and other hospitals this time of year.
“We’ve been incredibly busy,” Dr. Cory Showalter, medical director of Riley’s ED, said Wednesday. “In fact, the past two days are the busiest we’ve had, with 250 ED visits each day.”
Yet, he added, “Everyone is doing an awesome job helping each other.”
Those visits of course include trauma and other illnesses, but a large number are respiratory illnesses, not unusual for winter, he said.
To avoid wait times in the ED, Dr. Showalter advises families in non-emergency situations to work with their primary care physician first to determine the best plan of care.
Options as noted in the accompanying graphic below also include virtual visits and urgent care locations for non-life-threatening conditions.
Emergency department visits should be reserved for life-threatening conditions, including heavy bleeding, difficulty breathing, loss of consciousness, poisoning, seizures, severe abdominal pain, serious burns, head trauma, stroke and visibly broken bones.
“We are here to help if you need us, but there may be delays as we work hard to take care of many patients,” the emergency medicine physician said. “If your child is ill, please work with your primary care physician to determine the best plan for care.”
Related Doctor
