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“An unconscious, pale two-year-old on a respirator whose little hands are pierced by injections is a really depressing picture. If someone has not seen a child’s severe pneumococcal disease, which is preventable, he should not comment on vaccination, doctors say. Bartek and Igor’s parents already know what the fight with pneumococci looks like.
Bartek fell ill with pneumococcal meningitis when he was one year old. Igor was attacked by the disease when he was seven months old. The younger boy was more fortunate.
Bartek was one year old when he caught his first runny nose
When Bartek was one year old, he fell ill for the first time in his life and it was an ordinary cold. Passed. After a few days, he developed a fever and vomiting. The child and mother were taken to the hospital. After collecting the spinal fluid, it turned out to be pneumococcal meningitis. – I haven’t heard of pneumococci before. I felt that I was running out of air. I called my husband and cried on the phone – says Iwona. At night, Bartuś began to breathe strangely. He took air into his lungs, then let it out with a groan. Yvonne called the nurse. This one called a doctor. During the examination, she went out into the corridor. When she returned, a group of clearly concerned medics was already bending over Bartek. The nurse led her out into the corridor. “Your son was on a cardiac arrest, we are resuscitating him” – she informed. The words drifted through to me. God, don’t take him away from me, I thought.
Igor only had tonsillitis
Justyna remembers it clearly. Igor was 7 months old. They made an appointment to vaccinate their son against pneumococci. However, the child got a fever that was hard to beat. It dropped for a while to rise again to 39-40 degrees. It was Saturday, so anxious parents had to go to the hospital. Basic research was done there. The CRP result was slightly above normal. A slight purulent inflammation of the tonsils was diagnosed, antipyretic drugs were prescribed and the child was sent home. – I gave suppositories and syrups in turns and … nothing. Still 39,5-40,5 degrees C – says Justyna. It was getting worse every hour. The boy was getting weaker. He began to vomit. They packed the car and drove back to the hospital.
Classic Igor tires
When Igor was taken to the hospital, his sister touched his head, touching the fontanel, and said that in her eyes they were “classic tires”. There were many people in coats: nurses with a bed and an oxygen mask. The child turned pale during the examination. He passed out. A computer tomograph was made at an express pace. The sight of a tiny, defenseless body under an oxygen mask larger than his mouth was terrible. I was standing in front of the room and I was crying from helplessness and ignorance – says Justyna. Igorek was punctured with the spinal-cerebral fluid. The diagnosis was pneumococcal meningitis and sepsis. – My world has collapsed. The doctor said that the child arrived in a very bad condition and in danger to life. We are left to wait.
Bartek ended up in a coma in the ICU
Meanwhile, unconscious Bartek, who was in cardiac arrest, was transported to the ICU. The doctor informed the mother that the boy was in a coma. – «A difficult but stable condition» – this turn will cause me a bitter smile for the rest of my life, says Iwona. The little boy was lying on the big bed, connected to a lot of equipment. Tubes protruded from his nose and throat. – I felt that the sight of Bartek with these tubes would stay with me forever – he says. I took his hand and stroked it. For a moment she imagined Bartuś that he was asleep. I started singing him his beloved lullabies – Christmas carols. Easter was approaching, so I must have looked like a moron. I didn’t care. They say that a sick person in a coma can hear, so let Bartuś hear his beloved songs, even if they are Christmas carols in the middle of spring – he says.
Bartuś was disconnected from the respirator
When Bartuś was lying unconscious in the ICU, the nurse told Iwona that the doctor wanted to talk to her. – I waited for him to call me. Maybe something has improved? Maybe they already know what damage has occurred? The doctor finally came. We sat down at a small table on quite comfortable armchairs. Why was my brain registering such nonsense? The doctor said that she was very sorry, but the CT scan showed that Bartuś had an extensive subarachnoid hemorrhage. The meninges have been practically ripped apart and the brainstem is dead. My child is dead, only the machine maintains the vital functions of the body. And we have to make a decision whether we are disconnecting it from the ventilator now or waiting for the internal organs to die off on their own. Only after a while I understood what I heard. I ran out of air. I couldn’t see anything because my eyes were full of tears. Besides, no signs of crying – no sobbing, no sobbing, no sound. I went outside the building, sat down on the stone stairs and only then did I start sobbing with my whole body – he says. In the afternoon the commission met. Confirmed brain stem death. Bartuś was disconnected from the ventilator.
5 weeks in hospital
Justyna spent 5 weeks in the hospital with Igorek. “We made it,” he says. Since the control MRI detected some changes in the temporal bone, Igor was left for another week at the scheduled discharge date and his eardrum was cut to make sure that there was no fluid left in which the pneumococci might be hiding. – After leaving the hospital, as soon as we got the doctor’s consent, the decision was made to vaccinate my son first against pneumococci – says Justyna. Igor is 16 months old. He is healthy, happy, has an appetite and does not remember this nightmare. – I seemingly erased this terrible time from my memory. Sometimes it comes back in a dream or when I come across the story of a failed child. I shiver and everything comes back before my eyes – she says.
A deadly threat
It is estimated that every year in the world over 10 million children under the age of five suffer from pneumococcal disease and, unfortunately, a million of them die. Having a child with pneumococcal meningitis and encephalitis may have permanent consequences of neurological complications, the most common of which are deafness or impaired hearing, hydrocephalus and epilepsy, as well as brain abscesses, paresis or paralysis of the limbs, speech disorders and personality disorders.