Irish baby airlifted to Sweden for RSV treatment after virus ‘completely saturated his lungs’ – The Irish Times
A 12-week-old boy was taken to hospital in Stockholm to receive specialist treatment for a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection that had saturated his lungs.
Liam Murphy fell ill last Halloween and was rushed to hospital and put on a ventilator but none of the available treatments could help him.
His father, Paul, told RTE’s Morning Ireland on Monday that he felt it would have been preferable to be able to receive the necessary treatment in Ireland, and that public notification of the potential illness from RSV was insufficient.
The Health Protection Surveillance Center (HPSC) describes RSV as a common respiratory virus with normally mild, cold-like symptoms.
Although most people will recover within a week or two, the condition can be serious, especially for infants, and is the most common cause of hospitalization in young children who develop acute respiratory illness.
“We all know it’s a common cold, but it seems to have evolved into something much more aggressive,” said Murphy, who described seeing her young son’s eyes and mouth turn a shade of blue.
“So we ended up on Temple Street; they used what’s called a C-path mask which is basically oxygen that had to be manually held on him which was quite scary and Liam didn’t like it at all but it kept his lungs working.”
Liam was taken to Crumlin Hospital where, after four or five days on a ventilator, he was put on an oscillator. None of the treatments worked.
His family was told they would need to travel to Sweden for emergency ecmotherapy (Ecmo), a form of advanced life support.
According to Mater’s hospital, the treatment is used on patients with severe disease that causes the heart or lungs to fail, by replacing their function in the short term.
A Swedish medical team treated Liam in hospital before he was flown to Stockholm by air ambulance.
“We were told that when he got there he had actually had to be resuscitated with CPR so it was quite scary but when he left Crumlin he was in a stable condition,” his father said.
“Again, the virus was so aggressive that it completely saturated his lungs. Every X-ray we had done during the week and in the few days leading up to Sweden would indicate that the virus was just getting heavier and heavier and finally it was like a sticky glue that blocked his alveoli and it just wouldn’t let him breathe. So the machinery had to do it for him.”
Liam remains in hospital for tests due to the toll the disease took on his body. His father said that while his son’s story was ultimately positive, public messaging around the RSV threat needed to be improved.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has been contacted for comment.