Issue link: https://cp.revolio.com/i/139497
Dr. Wendi Drummond pauses at the base of the staircase at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, where she works as a pediatric infectious disease specialist. "He was asleep the entire time. He had a breathing tube; he had oxygen; he had a PICC line in his groin for the medicine, and I couldn't hold him for 14 days." The infant dilemma In infants, pertussis can be harder to diagnose, because they often don't have the signature whoop with a cough, Saunders says. "The 'Catch 22' is that they're the ones that get the sickest," she says, adding that any parent who thinks an infant is having trouble breathing should dial 9-1-1. Apnea (halted breathing) is more common in infants with whooping cough, and half of those under age 1 affected with the disease are hospitalized. Little Jeremiah was promptly transported from NSMC to P/SL, where he spent 14 days in intensive care. "He stopped breathing twice in the ambulance," says Castillo, who had suspected Jeremiah had something worse than a cold but didn't question the doctor. The hardest part was seeing her new baby hooked up to all of the tubes, Castillo says. "He was asleep the entire time. He had a breathing tube; he had oxygen; he had a PICC line in his groin for the medicine," she says, referring to an intravenous line used to supply the antibiotics needed. 22