Christian’s heart still beats. The little boy killed by meningitis at 15 months will save the two children, one of whom will receive his heart, the other his liver. The two organs were donated: taken from the little body at the Padua hospital during the night between Saturday and Sunday, they were sent to Rome and Turin where the two patients were awaiting.
Bacterial meningitis in Belluno, baby dies at 15 months
francesco saltini
“His heart never stopped beating. We decided to donate the organs and now it is beating in the body of another child through which our little angel will continue to live. Forever mom and dad.”
Mom Olesya Stavchanska and dad Nazariy Lozovyy are two thirty-year-olds of Ukrainian origin who have lived in Belluno for 15 years and are Italian citizens (they attended high school in the city, work in the province): «He was a much desired and loved child. Christian was wonderful, we gave him our best, we did everything…”
Fulminant bacterial meningitis killed him at 15 months, despite being vaccinated for the disease: the problem will be understanding whether the one inoculated also covers the pneumococcus that killed him. In the hospital in Belluno, where the child was hospitalized from 23 to 25 November, even a CT scan had shown nothing. In Padua, the resonance showed a brain completely attacked by the infection.
An ordeal
Mother Olesya recounts the via crucis with her child with the lucidity of one who is resigned: «It doesn’t change anything to complain: Christian is no longer here», she says, «this we said yesterday morning to the head physician. We don’t have the medical records yet, but we need to understand, we need to do analyzes so that other children like him can be saved”.
The pain pushes you in, it breaks your breath, it chokes your throat: «Tomorrow (that is, today, the day of the funeral in Cavarzano, ndr) it will be an unthinkable day, but actually I don’t know if I’m in shock, I don’t know how I will react».
Olesya has Ukrainian temper and the courage to talk about what happened, «because you have to know. It is rare what happened, but it happens: it is good to know… poor child ».
Christian was going through a difficult time. «He came from one virus after another: he went to kindergarten and there everyone gets sick sooner or later, but it’s normal with children. The crisis began in October», says Olesya «a period of fevers and colds, eventually Covid. I think we called the pediatrician once a day in this month of emergency ».
Monday 21 November
Given the situation «our doctor wanted to do some more in-depth tests and sent us to the hospital. Access to the emergency room on Monday 21st because even the pediatrician was worried ». Christian’s blood count was almost completely off, his blood pressure was high, values that were a little out of the norm. «It was thought that hospitalization was necessary for a few more tests: he called her and spoke to the pediatric duty doctor. But, and here’s bad luck, after six days of high fever, Christian just last Monday had nothing: they saw him in the hospital and also took X-rays to his lungs. Then again the routine exams.’ Christian seemed to be better that day: «“ He doesn’t seem to be sick ”, they told me». The family returns home with the prescription for blood tests and antibiotics should the fever return. «We go home and the baby has no fever. On Tuesday, everything even seemed to be over: he seemed cured, after six days of hell. He moved around the house, he was pretty lively.’
Child who died of meningitis in Belluno, Christian had been vaccinated for pneumococcus
Wednesday 23 November
But trouble ambushed Wednesday: «The fever had risen to 39, so I call the pediatrician: she tells me she will ask for hospitalization, but at the hospital in Feltre: there is no room there. And this is another bad luck. So we bring the child back to Belluno, “where there is a good one”. We go there and the exams start again. Last Wednesday they also carried out a nasal swab to understand what kind of virus it was. They hadn’t done it on Monday and this had disappointed our pediatrician. Christian is administered Nurofen (ibuprofen) and the result of the swab is a positivity of the child to rhinovirus, if I remember correctly» underlines Olesya. «“Everyone has it, in here in the ward”, the operators tell me». In the evening the situation precipitates: the child eats then vomits. He collapses in his sleep after mom Olesya gives him bread. Around 10 pm a new attack of vomiting: «We change the bed and the nurse tells me that it was the fourth that changed that evening because all the patients had the same symptoms and reactions».
A drip was also applied to Christian «after finally finding him a venous access, but he didn’t even react anymore, he was exhausted by now. Then the fever rises and they give him an intravenous Tachipirina ». The night passes, Thursday again check, but Christian was struggling to wake up: «I picked him up, it seemed a bit strange to me, they had measured his saturation and it was a bit low. I changed his diaper but I saw that he didn’t react much and at one point he had a strange reaction, like a convulsion and the nurse got worried ».
The child is subjected to an emergency CT scan which shows nothing. However, the child must be intubated: only in this way can he stabilize. In the meantime, an attempt is being made to organize the transfer to the hospital in Padua: “They also evaluated the trip by helicopter, but in the end he went by ambulance”. Only here do they make a resonance.
“Guys come with me”
«’Guys, come here’ the doctor from Padua tells us and explains to us that Christian has an infection in his brain, which is so swollen that it has now started to leak. “Christian could die,” continues the doctor, explaining to us that they will make an attempt at surgery to reduce the fluids and pressure on the brain ». The little one even survives the operation but there’s nothing left for him to do: «’He’s still in serious condition’, continues the doctor, who has never given us any hope, ‘he won’t make it’. “They administered the right antibiotic in Belluno”, they add and this sentence has rekindled our hopes even though the situation was now compromised. On Friday we telephoned the ward: his encephalogram was now negative, his pupils no longer reacted, the blood no longer reached his brain».
Death and life
At 8.45am on Saturday 26 November Christian was declared brain dead. «We signed up for organ donation, then the agony for the last farewell… The samplings took place in the night between Saturday and Sunday. Christian has been in the morgue in Belluno since Sunday. It was sudden, fast, unexpected», continues Olesya, «we all gave them the vaccines. In Belluno they told me that they had ruled out meningitis, since he had been vaccinated. Now in Padua they will carry out blood tests to understand if the child has taken an uncovered strain or if it is one of the strains that has no vaccine: 13 out of ninety are covered. Maybe based on our tragic experience, they will make a new vaccine and there will be no more children who died like this”.
The hope of saving other lives, like an angel. To know that Christian lives on in the other two children.