A Mother’s Warning: Respiratory Illness and Undiagnosed Asthma

Introduction:

It’s a week that I never want to relive, a terrifying ordeal that brought me face to face with the fragility of life and the importance of listening to our instincts as parents. My 6-year-old son Dawson was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) due to severe respiratory distress. It was a battle between a potential COVID infection, an enterovirus, and undiagnosed asthma that pushed him to the edge. The doctor’s words echoed in my mind, “Your son almost died, and he still could.” It was a wake-up call that hit me harder than anything I had ever experienced before.

The Silent Threat: Undiagnosed Asthma and Respiratory Illness:

It started with what seemed like a harmless respiratory illness. Dawson had a persistent cough, occasional wheezing, and had been feeling extremely tired. We initially thought it was a common cold or seasonal allergies. However, as the days went by, his symptoms worsened, and we became increasingly concerned.

The Turning Point:

One night, I woke up to Dawson making strange noises in his sleep. A nagging intuition told me that something wasn’t right. Trusting my instincts, I grabbed my pulse ox and immediately checked his oxygen…