A Brantford baby nearly died of whooping cough and her family wants other parents to realize the danger that lurks when too few people are vaccinated.
“Our whole life was turned completely upside down in a matter of hours ... we went from sitting at home on the couch and watching TV to our seven-week-old being on life support,” said mom Rebecca Stonham. “It was terrifying.”
Scarlett Ronbeck was one-week shy of getting her two-month shot that prevents the highly contagious respiratory disease also known as pertussis. She should have been protected anyway by the vast majority of vaccinated people around her — it’s what’s known as herd immunity.
But immunization rates for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus are particularly dismal, revealed an investigation by The Hamilton Spectator in 2016.
The rates, which were as low as 20 per cent in some schools, were due in part to teens skipping their booster shots. An adult booster at 24 years old is also thought to have low uptake.
“Herd immunity only works if the whole herd is on board,” said Stonham. “If the whole herd was immunized, than this may not have happened.”
The World Health Organization has declared vaccine hesitancy one of the top 10 threats to global health in 2019.
Vancouver battled a measles outbreak in February while Japan was in the midst of its worst outbreak in a decade. The United States has had six measles outbreaks in 2019.
“People don’t see these diseases anymore and they let their guard down,” said Dr. Ninh Tran, a Hamilton associate medial officer of health.
“I’m certainly concerned, as well as my public health colleagues, of losing the momentum and progress if there are fewer people getting vaccinated ... It would be really unfortunate to have people sick, hospitalized or die of infections we can clearly prevent.”
Stonham wishes she’d got a booster shot in her third trimester of pregnancy. It might have protected Scarlett until she was old enough to get vaccinated.
“I was not offered this,” she said. “I didn’t know anything about it.”
The recommendation from Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization is new, says Tran, and so far not publicly funded in Ontario. Pregnant moms who never got their adult booster can get it for free, but those who are up-to-date on their vaccinations have to pay roughly $50 to $60 to get it.
Another gap is that family members aren’t tested for immunity before a baby is born in the same way a pregnant mom is checked, said Stonham.
“My main message is the biggest risk, certainly, is if the mom or the family aren’t up-to-date on the vaccines or adult boosters,” said Tran.
Scarlett’s dad, Ryan Ronbeck, 29, was up-to-date on all his vaccinations including the adult booster that prevents whooping cough. But vaccines are not 100 per cent effective and in Ronbeck’s case, he didn’t have immunity and didn’t know it. Like Scarlett, herd immunity should have protected him.
Instead, his persistent cough was mistaken for a lingering cold and Stonham says it’s believed he passed whooping cough to Scarlett. She says public health was not able to determine where he got it from, partly because his work at the Toyota plant in Cambridge puts him in contact with so many people.
The 24-year-old mom became alarmed about what she thought was a bad cold on Jan 21 and brought her baby to the family doctor. Scarlett was misdiagnosed as having a viral infection and sent home.
But Scarlett stopped breathing and turned blue when she coughed several times that night and the next morning so her mom brought her back to the doctor.
This time the family physician sent her to Brantford General Hospital by ambulance.
“It didn’t really hit me what was happening,” said Stonham. “It’s still surreal to talk about.”
It wasn’t until the paramedic attending to Scarlett asked his partner to “step on it and put on the sirens” that she realized her baby might be in serious danger.
“I was amazed at the health care system,” she said. “Everyone complains about how long they wait in the ER. When we got there, they were waiting for us.”
The doctor heard the tell-tale whooping sound in Scarlett’s cough, started the antibiotic treatment and sent her to McMaster Children’s Hospital.
“I didn’t know what pertussis was,” said Stonham. “I didn’t really know what that meant.”
The baby, who weighed less than 10 pounds, was so ill that she had to be intubated before she could be transported by Ornge ambulance to Hamilton.
“I’d never seen someone intubated let alone my seven-week-old baby,” said Stonham. “She was totally unconscious, totally paralyzed and hooked up to all these machines, monitors and IVs.”
She was in the pediatric intensive care unit from Jan 22 until she was transferred back to Brantford General on Feb. 2. During that time her heart rate would drop and she’d momentarily stop breathing.
“There was always constant alarms going off and people running in,” said Stonham. “I didn’t know if she was going to make it.”
The doctor at Brantford General later told her that if she hadn’t got her baby to a hospital when she did, Scarlett might not have made it through the night.
“It hits really quickly,” said Stonham. “We honestly thought she had a cold. If you had of told me my baby would be one of the sickest people who needed the most care at McMaster, I wouldn’t have believed you.”
It took until Feb 7 for Scarlett to be well enough to go home from the hospital.
“It hit us like a truck,” said the first-time mom and real estate agent. “It was scary because she was just so small. To be put on so many narcotics and to to be on life support at not even eight weeks old, it’s awful.”
She has a message for those who are hesitant to get vaccines or don’t keep up-to-date with boosters.
“Think about your decisions. It’s not just about your kids.”
905-526-3349 | @Jfrketich
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