‘Gratitude’ as sick baby in Montreal cleared for medical flight home to Argentina

An Argentinian family, whose baby became critically ill while on a short business trip to Montreal, is now counting their blessings.

On Monday, baby Augusto — who will be eight months on Tuesday — smiled for the first time since becoming sick just over two weeks ago.

“Seeing him laugh is what I missed the most because he would spend his days laughing,” said Augusto’s father Matías Andretich. “Every day there is a little bit of progress, and it makes us so happy.”

Augusto’s progress means he is now stable enough to fly back to their home country to continue treatment — a departure from last week.

On Friday, when Global News first spoke to Andretich and his wife, Emilia Abratte, physicians at the pediatric intensive care unit at the Montreal Children’s Hospital weren’t quite sure why their son Augusto was so sick.

“Our best theory is that it’s a kind of inflammation that is affecting his brain and his brain stem that is making him unable to move and even have the strength to breathe on his own,” Dr. Samara Zavalkoff said at the time.

But on Sunday, there was a breakthrough and doctors were finally able to make a preliminary diagnosis.

“It is clearer that it is a rhombencephalitis,” said Andretich, adding that what caused it hasn’t been determined yet.

“Was it a reaction to a virus, or a vaccine he received on March 16, or is it genetic?”

It could take another three months to get a clearer picture but Andretich remains hopeful his son will recover.

“I’m taking it step by step, day by day and trying not to look too far into the future.

Augusto was admitted to hospital on March 19, a short time after the family arrived in Montreal for a three-day work conference. The plan had been to fly from Montreal to Miami for a holiday.

But that never came to be, as Augusto was in the fight of his life.

Dr. Tamara Gafoor, who attended to baby Augusto in the ER, said he had to be resuscitated and then intubated to help him breathe, amongst other procedures.

Zavalkoff added that without knowing what was causing the symptoms, Augusto’s situation was still very much up and down with no clear trajectory.

Up until then, medical staff — while trying different treatments — had been focused on keeping Augusto stable for his medevac flight on Monday afternoon.

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The family is expected to touch down in Buenos Aires only Tuesday. Because medevac planes are small, they can’t fly long distances and stops are planned in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Bogota and Lima.

A fundraiser created last week to help the family cover medical costs has raised over $21,000 as of Monday afternoon.

Andretich has yet to receive a final bill but said every day at the hospital costs around $17,000, while the medical flight is close to $200,000.

The family’s insurance only covers a small portion of the total and Andretich is working to see if he can obtain some sort of government exemption.

Despite a crippling medical bill, Andretich was loath on Friday to say their trip to Montreal was the result of bad luck.

Maybe it was “good luck,” he said. “If it was not here, maybe our baby was not with us.”

As they were set to depart on Monday, Andretich said he was running through all the emotions.

“There’s a bit of fear, a bit of sadness and a lot of joy and gratitude,” he said.

Andretich credits the hospital staff for saving Augusto’s life, something he will always be thankful for.

“I will never tire of thanking them, because what happened was incredible,” he said.

Andretich extended that gratitude to everyone who reached out with kind words of support.

— with files from Global News’ Gloria Henriquez and Phil Carpenter