South Lanarkshire mum urges pregnant women to get RSV vaccine after baby boy nearly died

A mother whose son nearly died days after he was born is urging other pregnant women to take the RSV vaccine.

Fiona Walker, from South Lanarkshire, gave birth to baby Ethyan six weeks early at University Hospital Wishaw.

He arrived home healthy, but within a few days he developed a cough – Fiona worried he might be getting a cold, and took him to the doctor.

“When I got there, they checked his wee heart, his lungs, his temperature – everything was absolutely fine,” she told STV News.

“By five o’clock that night, I was phoning an ambulance because he was just totally lifeless. He was grey, there was no heat to him.”

‘I just kept thinking, I’m not bringing him home’

Ethyan was taken to University Hospital Wishaw by ambulance. He was admitted and diagnosed with bronchiolitis, caused by the RSV virus.

His condition rapidly deteriorated, and two days later he was transferred to the intensive care unit at Glasgow’s Royal Hospital for Children.

“He just needed that bit of extra help with his breathing and with the machine, to get over it,” Fiona said.

Ethyan was placed into a coma and attached to a breathing machine – as his family watched on, helpless.

“It’s something you don’t ever want to go through with your baby – or with any child, any age. You can’t explain that feeling. You’re so helpless.

“I just kept thinking my baby’s going to die,” Fiona recalled. “I’m not bringing him home. It was horrible.”

RSV – or Respiratory Syncytial Virus – is the main cause of emergency hospitalisations in infants. In Scotland, 1,516 children aged under one were admitted with the virus last year.

In adults, it presents as a mild and quite common flu – but it can be dangerous for newborns – especially premature ones – and elderly people.

Scotland began vaccinating pregnant women against the virus in August this year – but since Ethyan was born premature, Fiona missed that deadline.

She believes he may not have gotten so ill had she received the vaccine.

“If I was offered the injection, if I knew about this – because I’d never heard of it – if I knew the injection was here I would’ve got it. And I don’t think a lot of people have heard of RSV.

“I would ask everybody to get that vaccine so they don’t have to go through what I went through.”

Ethyan is now eight weeks old, and thriving. Fiona, who has two other children – aged 23 and 19 – vows that he’s her last.

“This kind of trauma is enough to convince me – it still hasn’t hit me yet, that this all happened, but I am getting help through it. He is fine, he’s fine.”

‘Having a vaccine is like a dream’

Dr Adrian Sie was one of the paediatric consultants looking after Ethyan while in UHW.

He also recommends the RSV vaccine to pregnant women over 28 weeks.

Dr Adrien Sei, University Hospital Wishaw STV News

He said: “Bronchiolitis, the chest infection that RSV causes in these babies is – and always has been – the number one reason for us to send babies to intensive care.

“So having a vaccine is like a dream for us, because we don’t wanna see these kids becoming so unwell.”

“There is only so much we can do to help,” he added. “Ethyan was just one example of the many babies we see every year who become very poorly, very quickly.

“Thankfully he has recovered and is doing extremely well.”

The RSV vaccine is being offered to the most vulnerable, including all pregnant women over 28 weeks.

Speak with your midwife or, to book an appointment, call 01698 687456. Phone lines are open 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 4.30pm on Fridays.