What started out as common flu symptoms lead to a Regina couple facing what many parents would consider their worst nightmare.
Matt Temple said his one-year-old son Barrett was flown from Regina to Saskatoon’s Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital after his symptoms got drastically worse.
“He was sick, he had a normal flu cough kind of deal for a little while on and off. He started to lose all of his energy; he was eating but kind of not as much as he should. And then right before we took him to the hospital we noticed his fingers started to turn blue and his lips started to turn blue,” Temple said.
He added that Barrett went into cardiac arrest while they were waiting at the hospital in Regina.
“As we were just sitting waiting for the triage nurse I picked him up to snuggle him and he had gone into cardiac arrest and we had to rush him into the room.”
Temple said that was about 12 days ago. He added that since then, Barrett has been in the hospital, and only recently was taken off a ventilator.
He said doctors told him that Barrett had both respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and H flu.
“Doctors told us it’s a pretty rare case. They usually only see two kids that get that sick from RSV in like a year.”
Temple said he and his wife, Kayla Jakubowski, have been at the hospital with their son ever since, and had to leave their other two kids with their grandparents in the meantime.
He said they only ever leave the hospital to eat or sleep and have been staying at the Ronald McDonald House.
Temple added that the treatment from doctors and nurses has been incredible.
“The way they actually love him like their own child is really amazing.”
Temple said it’s been a very slow process, but added that Barrett was making progress.
“We got to hold him for the first time in 11 days yesterday.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up for the Temple family as both Temple and Jakubowski have been away from work.
He noted that doctors have been keeping him in the loop with what’s going on, but added that they’ll do an MRI in the coming days, and not much else is known.
“They’re hoping we get to go home by Christmas, but they’re just not sure.”
— with files from Montana Getty