Imagine you pick your kid up from school one day and they complain of not feeling well. By morning their suffering from a cold. Snotty nose, cough, fever, no appetite (maybe even some vomiting, and no energy at all. It's just a cold right? They'll be fine after it runs its course. But your kid is utterly miserably and therefor so are you watching them suffer. You think "ugh it's "Johnie's" fault my baby is sick! Why couldn't his mother of just kept him home!". Each day your kid wakes up they seem worse. You finally break down and take them to the doctor or urgent care because your doctors office is too busy to see them. You carry your lethargic baby into urgent care, check in and sit to wait to be called. Then look down and see your baby is turning blue. Short version, they rush your baby to ER as you follow behind. Doctors take lung X-rays and ultrasounds of your babies heart but suddenly there's no time to wait for results because your baby starts having seizures and their heart stops. They do all they can but they can't safe your baby. Your world stops. "But it was just a cold. Just a cold" you keep saying to yourself.
You might say that story is a bit far fetched. At one point in my life I was very young and very naive and I wouldn't have believed it either. But there's nothing far fetched about the story above because that's my story. That's how I lost my son. That's how so many other families have lost their children. Why? Because people won't stay home when they're sick. They won't keep their children home when they're sick. Its never "just a cold". Each body reacts differently to viruses. A healthy immune system can fight off a cold no problem. Others end up in the hospital or in ICU and even dead. What you think is "just a cold" could easily be RSV or another virus with similar symptoms. I lost my son a year ago because someone with "just a cold" wouldn't stay home. How would you feel if it was your baby? Look at their sweet faces and tell me how you'd feel if it was them? Please stay home if your sick. Keep your kids home if their sick. Wash and sanitize your hands regularly. Take your vitamins. Tell others to do the same.
Liam Michael Bryant 7/14/11-12/15/15 taken because he caught "just a cold".
Links to help you fight the germs:
