Ahead of respiratory virus season, an Alberta mother is sharing her story about RSV after her youngest child ended up in the hospital on oxygen after contracting the virus when she was just seven weeks old.
Katrina Bellavance’s daughter, Maxine, was born in December 2022. Just seven weeks into Maxine’s young life, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) ripped through their household, first hitting Bellavance’s two older children before Maxine caught the virus.
“When she did get sick, it came on very quickly,” Bellavance said.
The Calgary mom said her daughter went to sleep one night feeling just fine. At about 3 a.m., Maxine woke up coughing and struggling to breathe.
“You could see her whole stomach pulling in when she was trying to breathe. And her throat, you could see it was just struggling,” Bellavance recalled. “It was really scary.
“There’s nothing worse than watching your baby struggle to breathe. It’s an awful experience.”
Bellavance took her daughter to the emergency room and right away, she was placed on oxygen because her levels had dropped so low. She remained in hospital for several days on oxygen until she was able to breathe again on her own.
“It was a long few days,” Bellavance said. “It took everything out of her. She was limp and didn’t have energy.
“It still took probably at least a week after that before she cleared the runny nose and had a little more energy. She had a cough for a month after that.”
RSV is a respiratory virus that is particularly serious for young babies and older adults. It can lead to more serious illness, such as pneumonia, in children under two, those with heart or lung problems, people with weak immune systems, people who have conditions that affect their nervous system and people over the age of 65.
Symptoms are similar to those of a cold or flu. In babies, symptoms can include difficulty breathing and feeding, and getting upset easily.
“If the first time that child gets RSV is in the first few months of life, the consequences can be very serious,” said Dr. Eliana Castillo, a clinical associate professor at the University of Calgary in the departments of medicine and obstetrics and gynecology.
“When kids get RSV in the first few months of life there is a risk that they need to go to the hospital and that risk changes according to the season, but it can be as high as 10 per cent.”
Castillo said as kids get older, their risk for severe illness decreases because their immune systems are stronger.
There are preventive measures people can take to try to avoid getting RSV, including good handwashing, masking and staying away from others when they’re sick.
There is an RSV vaccine available to adults over 60 and pregnant women, but it is only available for a fee in Alberta.
There are medicines available for babies who are at a high risk of severe illness from RSV, according to Alberta Health Services. People are encouraged to talk to their doctors for more information.
Bellavance hopes sharing her story will help inform other parents about the seriousness of RSV.
“It’s just so important that parents are aware of the risks. It is not just a minor cold if you have a small child that gets it,” she said. “Had we known that that could have been the path that we went down, I would have kept her upstairs locked in a bedroom with me for a couple of days.
“Those first six months, they’re just so vulnerable and it is worth trying to do some extra measures, even if they feel a little bit extreme, to protect them from that.”