A horrified mother has relived the terrifying moment her little baby gasped as his lung collapsed and he stopped breathing under the deadly grip of a deadly virus.
New South Wales is experiencing the worst of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) outbreak, with cases rising tenfold in just three weeks.
The disease – which has symptoms similar to Covid and the flu – can be deadly in very young children, killing 120,000 people a year worldwide, with no vaccine available to protect them.
Now two mothers have told Daily Mail Australia how the RSV nearly killed their children and detailed the desperate fight to save them.
Lisa Whilock’s baby Oscar was just eight weeks old when he started having difficulty breathing at their home in Terrigal, on the NSW central coast.
The worried mum rushed Oscar twice to the local hospital in Gosford where doctors carried out swab tests and checked oxygen levels before sending the family home.
But a few days later, the little boy showed no signs of improvement and the family returned to hospital, where test results revealed he had RSV.
Oscar was also diagnosed with bronchiolitis – a lung infection that causes inflammation and mucus buildup in the airways, making it difficult to breathe.
Severe cases can kill babies and toddlers whose tiny airways haven’t yet fully formed and who aren’t sufficiently immune to infection.
“He almost went downhill,” Ms Whilock told Daily Mail Australia. “He stopped breathing on Sunday, he could have died.”
Her terrified mother saw her newborn baby begin respiratory arrest and at some point stopped breathing.
Her terrified mother saw her newborn baby begin respiratory arrest and at some point stopped breathing.
With his condition deteriorating, doctors eventually decided to rush him to the intensive care unit at Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Oscar was placed on an artificial respirator and treated by specialist nurses.
The eight-week-old suffered a partially collapsed lung from coughing and needed antibiotics before several chest X-rays showed he had turned the corner.
She said seeing her eight-week-old hooked up to a breathing machine was ‘heartbreaking’ and the ‘worst time’ of her life.
“I don’t think I’ve fully dealt with it. It was horrible, she said. “I felt so helpless and so sorry for him. I could not do anything.
After six tumultuous days, Oscar was released, but he spent another night in intensive care six weeks later when his whole family was struck down with the flu.
Ms Whilock said she regretted not getting vaccinated sooner and suspected her two-year-old son was inadvertently bringing viruses home from daycare.
She said the flu was ‘100 times worse’ than having Covid and said she had had a ‘solid week of body aches’.
“I’ve never had a flu season like this,” the mother-of-two said.
Mrs Whilock remains paranoid that her baby boy will end up in intensive care again and wakes up at night terrified that her baby has stopped breathing.
She says she constantly finds herself putting her hand to his chest to check on him.
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