Gerrard Kaonga
A five-year-old is now getting back to normal life after an episode that could have claimed his life if not for his parents’ actions.
Parents Katie Woodring and Dean have been praised for taking their son back to the hospital not long after he had been discharged.
The pair had suspicions that their five-year-old son, Gunna Woodring, was suffering with something more severe than just a cold and this feeling ended up saving the child's life.
Initially it was believed Gunna was simply suffering from influenza and after a hospital visit, the child was tested for a few things and given Tylenol.
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However, his high fever stayed, and after about 6 days he also stopped eating. As well as this, he began to develop a cough and break out in a rash that set off parental alarm bells.
Katie said: “I said, Gunnar, are you having a hard time breathing? And he nodded yes. And I said to my husband, I know we were just discharged, but we need to go back to the emergency room.”
Getting the child to Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College would prove to be critical in saving his life.
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When he was returned to the hospital doctors were able to diagnose Gunna with Bacterial Tracheitis, a rare and possibly deadly infection.
The situation only seemed to get worse and doctors determined that Gunnar’s airways needed immediate intervention.
In the midst of the chaos, Gunnar suffered a brief cardiac arrest and his mother spoke of feeling hopeless at not being able to help.
Speaking to local media, she said: 'Laying there in the stretcher with him, I felt pretty helpless,'
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Gunna’s father also spoke of this feeling and his desire to do anything to ease his son’s suffering.
He said: “Going into the room and you see your son, lying on a table, intubated, unconscious. And you want to do everything you can to kind of switch those roles. I would do anything for my children, but knowing that you can't, you just feel helpless.”
Eventually Gunna had to be airlifted to Geisinger's Janet Weis Children's Hospital in Danville, Pennsylvania.
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The child had to be stabilized before he was safe for travel and after 90 minutes, he was deemed stable enough for flight.
At the hospital, doctors learnt Gunna had gone into septic shock and acted swiftly to administer antibiotics and monitor his breathing.
After six days, Gunna had recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital and finally go home.
Doctors credit Gunnar's survival to his parents' quick actions.
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Dr. Frank Maffei, Chair of Pediatrics and Chief of Pediatric Critical Care at Janet Weis Children's Hospital, said:”Had they not recognized that this was more than just the flu, more than just a mild viral illness...
“They knew very early on that this child was quite ill and they did what great parents do: they advocated, and they said there's something not right, so they saved their child's life.”