An Ontario mom says her son’s current expertise in Ontario’s packed pediatric health-care system has left her and her household terrified.

Final month, the Simcoe, Ont. mom’s four-year-old son, Remy, was airlifted to Kingston Normal Hospital – some 350 kilometers from house – following a close to fatal-sepsis an infection.

“When your child will get a fever this isn’t the place you anticipate it to finish up,” an emotional Stephanie Rutherford instructed CTV Information Toronto in an interview.

Usually, Remy would have been rushed to McMaster Kids’s Hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) in Hamilton, Ont. for therapy, but it surely was full.

Medical doctors on the Rutherford’s native hospital, Norfolk Normal, initially thought the preschooler had a viral an infection and despatched him and his mother house with Tylenol and Advil.

However then issues obtained worse.

“He was unable to roll over, feed himself, get to the washroom, complaining of neck ache, legs and arms have been hurting he was complaining of a headache,” Rutherford stated.

Rutherford known as 911 and stated native docs realized he wanted therapy in a pediatric ICU.

However with full McMaster, in addition to the youngsters’s hospital in London, Remy was flown to Kingston – the closest hospital with an obtainable pediatric ICU mattress on the time.

“They stated if I had not known as 911 once I did that he could be useless….Mother and father’ worst nightmare,” Rutherford recalled.

Remy was ultimately identified with Group A streptococcus, which frequently causes strep throat or scarlet fever. In uncommon circumstances, like Remy’s, it may develop right into a sepsis an infection which might result in a number of organ failure.

Rutherford stated his kidneys, pancreas, liver and spleen have been all affected because of the an infection and his physique blistered any time he wanted an IV. He was positioned on a ventilator and handled with antibiotics throughout his time in Kingston Normal, the place he stays right now.

Remy Rutherford, 4, is seen on this undated picture. (Equipped)

Ontario Well being Minister Sylvia Jones commented on Rutherford’s expertise, saying it’s “not excellent” for any household to have a toddler handled so far-off.

“However it is usually vital to understand that by doing that air transport, that youngster is ready to be assessed and handled as quickly as doable,” she stated.

Pediatric hospitals in Ontario have seen a spike in sufferers with respiratory sicknesses in current months, a difficulty that has been compounded by widespread staffing points.

Domestically, in early November, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Kids introduced it was canceling surgical procedures and redeploying workers to the ICU to deal with the surge.

In that case, the chief of important care at Sick Youngsters, Dr. Steven Schwartz, stated it was the proper name.

“It actually saved lives,” he stated in an interview with the Canadian Press printed Monday.

For Rutherford’s half, she stated she’s grateful to the docs and health-care workers who’re nursing her son again to well being, however stated she’s dismayed that her household and others have been compelled to be on this place.

“It was terrifying to be trustworthy,” she stated.

With recordsdata from Janice Golding and The Canadian Press