“It is a difficult thing to watch your daughter choking to death and trying to catch her breath from a bacteria-caused illness that could have been prevented.”
- Varenka Harman, mother of 2-month old baby girl with pertussis.
PROVO, Utah (ABC 4 News) - A 2-month old baby girl is in Utah Valley Regional Medical Center struggling for her very breath. She has pertussis – whooping cough. An adult probably unwittingly transmitted it to her.
“She was really struggling and started to choke,” said her mother, Varenka Harman. Varenka has kept a vigil at her baby’s bedside for the past two weeks. “It is exhausting.”
Most of the time, Sissarina appears fine, but a whooping cough attack can happen at any time. One attack – a mild one – happened while we were talking with Varenka Thursday evening. Nurses and a doctor quickly came to Sissarina’s bed, held her up to both clear her airway and get her to resume normal breathing. They had ready equipment that could take over breathing for her if the attack did not subside.
Varenka explains that the attacks can actually begin before the cough. Hospital monitors can show a decrease in Sissarina’s oxygen levels and heart rate before the baby begins a coughing fit. “She is silently suffocating and it’s scary,” said Varenka.
Doctors tell ABC 4 that Sissarina is now in the hospital because someone came into contact with her – probably an adult – who had whooping cough. The person may have just thought they had a cold. Whooping cough is no big deal for an adult, but for a baby under one year of age it can be fatal.
“The tragedy is that it’s a preventable illness,” said Doctor Shad Outsen, a Pediatric Hospitalist at UVRMC. “If all the adults in her life had been vaccinated with the pertussis booster, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Because the attacks can come on quickly, there is a nurse in the room and a doctor on the floor at all times. “The staff here has become my hospital family,” said Varenka who is grateful she doesn’t have to care for Sissarina alone.
“All the adults that are involved in the life of an infant we want to get the pertussis booster because infants are particularly susceptible. You could save a life by getting this booster.”
Children routinely get the pertussis vaccine, but it does not last a lifetime. A booster for adults has only been available for the last six years.
Doctors expect Sissarina to remain hospitalized for at least another two weeks.
