The father of a 12-week-old baby boy who had Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) has called for stronger messaging from the Health Service Executive about the virus after his son ended up going to Sweden for treatment.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Paul Murphy described how his son Liam first became unwell on Halloween night when he would not take his bottle.
Following a routine appointment the next morning, baby Liam became quite unwell and was "quite unresponsive", Mr Murphy said, and "almost turning blue around the eyes and the mouth".
He said Liam was admitted to the ICU at Children's Health Ireland, Temple Street.
He is still being looked after at CHI Crumlin.
Mr Murphy said RSV is a common virus "but it seems to have developed into something far more aggressive, particularly in newborn babies and younger babies."
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In Temple Street, the doctors used CPAP, "which was quite, quite scary and Liam didn't like it at all, but that was keeping his lungs functioning.
"He was intubated shortly thereafter and we were told then that he had to transfer across to Crumlin. So, for that to happen, they needed to intubate him, which is tubes down the neck with a view to putting him on a ventilator straight over to Crumlin. At the time it was just an ambulance, which was scary enough because we couldn't travel with him.
"But then obviously that developed after four or five days in Crumlin ICU, and maxing the ventilator, putting him in an oscillator - that didn't work. The virus wasn't shifting, and we were given the news then on Saturday the 5th [of November], about five days later, that we had to travel to Sweden for what was essentially emergency ECMO therapy treatment.
"Which is a very, very serious advanced life support". Liam was flown to Stockholm by air ambulance and despite being stable when he left Crumlin hospital with the team from Sweden, he needed to be resuscitated on arrival there."
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His parents could not travel in the air ambulance as there was no room with the team and medical equipment, so they flew over the following day.
"We were told that when he got there, he had actually needed to be resuscitated with CPR, so that was quite scary, but leaving Crumlin he was in a stable condition, so again the virus was so aggressive and completely saturated his lung.
"Every X-ray that we had done in the week, in a few days in the run up to Sweden, would indicate that this the virus was just getting heavier and heavier and ultimately it was like a sticky glue blocking his alveoli and it just it just wouldn't allow him to breathe.
"So, the machinery had to do it for him, and eventually the machinery didn't work, so they had to completely rest his lungs. And that's the treatment that he was put on, which is ECMO, which is basically extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which has taken the blood out of the body through an artificial lung and back in and it rests the major organs to give the body a chance to recover and the immune system to kick in itself."
Liam was on that for 11 days in Stockholm.
Mr Murphy said that Liam is on the mend and it is "a positive story, but one that was, let's say unnecessary. But certainly we feel that the messaging can be stronger.
"I think RSV is something that the general public and certainly us before this happened would consider, as maybe a common cold".
Mr Murphy said that his four-year-old son, as well as his two-year-old daughter both had RSV and were sick but "they weren't anywhere near what Liam was. So, it seems that the HSE has contacted the early learning centres and creches, but my understanding is that the messaging hasn't gone out officially to schools."
He said: "I think that's quite important because ultimately, we got this virus from his older sister who was in the school system and Liam was in a very serious condition and we're very lucky to have him here.
"So, the messaging definitely can be stronger. I know there have been some health warnings on it, but in my view not sufficient. And also just to have to travel to Sweden for the treatment when it is available here in Ireland is something that was, we feel, unnecessary. At the time very necessary. It was our only option".
Mr Murphy thanked the medical teams in CHI Crumlin and Temple Street as well as the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden "who were phenomenal."
He said: "everybody really did their job and did it over and above. But it was a difficult time and It would have been better to stay at home."
