RSV cases rise locally and nationally, hospitals running out of beds

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind. --- RSV cases among children is on the rise, causing children’s hospitals across the country to run out of beds to take care of children suffering with R.S.V. If not treated properly, R.S.V. can become a matter of life or death for a young one.

At just two months old, Olivia Dittrich battled a severe case of RSV It was so severe, it almost took her short life.

“To think that you might not bring your baby home is not a great place to be,” says Kady Dittrich, Olivia’s mother.

According to the CDC, RSV, short for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection, is a common respiratory virus that causes mild, cold-like symptoms. However, for little ones like Olivia, a case of RVS is much more serious.

“When you look at infants, you can see them not able to feed well, not able to breathe well, they’re struggling to breathe,” says Dr. Hari Gourabathini, MD, Pediatric Critical Care at Beacon Children’s Hospital. “Sometimes they experience hypoxia, it means their oxygen levels go down.”

“Olivia was coughing to where she would stop breathing, she was white as a ghost, she had no color to her, and her oxygen kept bottoming out around the mid to low seventies,” Dittrich says.

Like the common cold, RSV is easily spread, resulting in a surge in cases here in Michiana and across the country.

“Here at Beacon Children’s Hospital, we are being overwhelmed with RSV,” Dr. Hari Gourabathini says. “All children’s hospitals, all emergency departments are struggling to find beds, pediatric beds, pediatric ICU beds, due to a surge in RSV cases.”

For an illness that typically comes with the wintertime, doctors warn that it’s becoming more common year-round.

“Right now, we have seen, last year in the summer we saw a big surge in RSV across the nation,” Dr. Hari Gourabathini recalls. “Now, we are seeing another surge of RSV even before the winter.”

Mothers like Olivia’s, who have dealt with the hardships of RSV, stress the importance of being safe rather than sorry.

“Any time that you feel like something’s not right, then you go and get it looked at,” Dittrich advises. “If you feel like they’re struggling and maybe they do get admitted, you just research and talk to people to find out what the best route is to have the best care for them.

Now at four months old, little Liv beat the odds, and her family can’t be more thankful.

“I think God named her Olivia because one day we knew she was going to live and she was going to live her life to the fullest,” says Dittrich.