911 and the Emergency Room

Ethan has always been a little adventurous - even though he is only 13 months. Not quite a daredevil, but definitely not one to just sit around and watch, either. I saw ER visits in our future from the moment he could pull himself up. In fact, climbing on top of the coffee table and walking back and forth is not an uncommon event in our house. I figured our first trip to the ER would be for a broken bone or open wound requiring stitches. I never figured it would be because he had STOPPED BREATHING!

It all started about 3 weeks ago, right after he had been sick that last week in April. He got upset over something, started crying but wouldn't take a breath. His lips started to turn blue, then he finally took a breath. It was still enough on his little body that his eyes rolled back in his head and it took him a minute to focus once he started breathing again. It was a little scary, but nothing too serious. Of course, Sean was in the other room, so it was hard to describe what had actually happened. Then, last Friday night my mom was holding him as we were packing up to leave for Southern Cali and he did it again. This time I was able to react a little quicker and had heard that blowing in his face will help him to take a breath. It worked, but it still scared my mom to death and worried Sean and I a little more. That was just the beginning. He did it again - once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Always when he was tired and a little cranky and usually because he was fighting being put down for a nap. Both times he responded fairly quickly to blowing in his face. Then came Monday evening. Sean's dad was holding him when he did it again - this time it took several tries of blowing hard in his face and a little jostling before he started breathing again. By this time I was really getting nervous. What was causing this all of a sudden and so frequently?? I told Sean it had happened again and we decided to call Judy (a retired nurse in our ward and family friend) on our way home and look into making a doctor appointment - though, we didn't know what the doctor could tell us because he didn't seem to be sick. His energy level, appetite and diapers were all regular. He had no fever and no common illness symptoms other than a slight runny nose.

Well, we didn't have to wait. Within an hour of his last attack, he had done it again. This one was the worst yet. He started crying and someone passed him off to me just as he stopped breathing. I tried blowing in his face, but somehow I already knew that it wasn't going to work this time. This time was different. It was really bad. His lips had turned blue again, eyes rolled back in his head, his body had fallen backwards, but he was still rigid. I tried blowing in his face again, but I had no air. I took one more look at his blue, lifeless body and lost it. I was hysterical. I passed him off to my mother-in-law and turned to Sean. I had a million questions going through my head: "Do we call 911 this time? Should I blow in his face harder? Should I try shaking him? How hard do I shake him to get a response but not cause brain damage (I'm terrified of Shaken Baby syndrome and was afraid to even try it)? What else can I do?? Should we do rescue breathing? He's still got a pulse, but would pushing down on his chest cause his lungs to react??" Lynnie (my mother-in-law) immediately went to work where I left off. She rushed him outside, though she admitted later she wasn't sure why she had that instinct. I assumed it was to get him away from the chaos. She was blowing in his face, calling his name, shaking him a little and slapping his back. I calmed down a little and followed her outside while both of my sisters-in-law called 911. After what seemed like FOREVER, but realistcally was probably about 45 seconds to a minute (which is still a long time) he finally took a shallow breath and we noticed his color come back a little. He took a couple more breaths, his color returned and he finally came to and started crying. Lynnie handed him back to me and then grabbed the two of us in a big hug. I just sobbed. It was one of the scariest things I have ever experienced.

Within minutes we heard sirens and a police officer was at the door. He came out back and radioed-in that the "infant was confirmed breathing" and then we walked out front to meet the paramedics. They talked with us for a while and then we decided we would go ahead and take Ethan into the ER, but not by ambulance since he seemed to be ok now. That gave us a moment to have Sean, his dad and brother (Todd) give Ethan a blessing. We took Ethan into the Simi Valley ER at about 8pm. After meeting with billing and then a triage nurse, we finally got called back to see a doctor. He checked Ethan over and ordered a chest x-ray to check on his lungs. We waited and waited and waited for someone to come and take the x-ray. Then we waited and waited and waited for the diagnosis. The doctor finally came back and diagnosed him with pneumonia and prescribed ammoxiclin. We were finally on our way at 11pm and we were exhausted - especially Ethan. He fell asleep almost the second we started the car. The next morning we made an appointment with his regular pediatrician.

You can't really see it, but they had us put Ethan's medical bracelet on his ankle so he wouldn't play with it as much. Below is the bear they gave him when we first "checked in" to the ER. At first I was thinking, "He has lots of toys, we'll leave it for a less fortunate child." But he grabbed and loved it so quickly I couldn't say 'no' after what he had just been through.