RSV cases are skyrocketing here in the state, up another 30%.
Maricopa County saw more than 1,000 cases in just October.
One of those cases, Stefeni Pogas’ two-year-old son Dexter.
“I went in there and found he was struggling to breathe,” said Pogas. “He was taking short shallow breaths. It was very raspy and wheezy.”
She said finding Dexter like that in the middle of the night scared her enough to drive him from their home, outside of Kingman, to get help.
“I called the EMS to meet me at a gas station,” said Pogas.
At the ER they got her son’s diagnosis. Dexter had Adenovirus and RSV.
Dexter was sent home that night. But when the family’s pediatrician found the toddler’s oxygen levels low, Dexter ended up back in the hospital.
“He got up to the point where he was needing 15 liters of oxygen,” said Stefeni.
The family would soon learn, the toddler had also developed pneumonia.
“It was very heartbreaking to see my son go through something like that, and think is my son even gonna make it through this?” said Stefeni.
After eight days she requested her son be transferred to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where they finally got a glimmer of hope.
“After 4 days he got better, and he was no longer spiking fevers,” said Stefeni.
“What we can say at this point is the number of cases is still going up so we haven’t reached the peak yet,” said Division Chief of Infectious Diseases for Phoenix Children’s Hospital Dr. Wassim Ballan.
Looking at the latest numbers in Maricopa County, during the last week of October there were 400 hundred new cases. The week before that, 300. The cumulative cases are just shy of double what we saw last year at this time.
But Phoenix Children’s says they still have room.
“We’re definitely busy as I mentioned but if a child needs to be hospitalized we still have the capacity to take them,” said Dr. Ballan.
He said parents should take the typical precautions, but it’s not unusual to see a child like Dexter who has multiple viruses.
“RSV does not have a vaccine yet, but we have very effective and safe vaccines for both influenza and COVID-19,” said Dr. Ballan.
He said kids six months and older can get those shots as another prevention tool.
As for Dexter his mom says she’s just happy he’s home and getting back to being a kid.
“I didn’t hear his laugh for two weeks,” said Pogas. “I thought it was going to be gone forever, and now here he is back.”