GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WXMI) — June loves it when her hair is braided. It’s her favorite thing that the nurses do for her at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.
Her mom Jennifer Thornell said she also loves to draw.
“June's favorite things are rainbows. She’s my rainbow child. She was born 2 lbs, 5 oz. I feel like she has a seventh sense about her. She is so kind and sweet, and she is just awesome,” Thornell said during an interview with Fox 17, WXYZ's Grand Rapids sister station, on Wednesday. “The first thing, when she knew that her brother and sister got admitted, the first thing she wanted to do was share her toys that the nurses gave her.”
June, who’s 7 years old, has been in the hospital since Dec. 8 after experiencing a high fever and body aches for a few days. She’d also been diagnosed with Influenza A when she went to the Health Pointe Urgent Care in Grand Haven earlier that week.
“We rushed her by car to Helen DeVos and they got her right in and put her on oxygen,” Thornell said while wearing a mask. “She needed high-flow oxygen and she just was feeling really bad. So, she was admitted into the ICU on high-flow oxygen with IV, antibiotics, fluids and she also had steroids. And they also gave her an anti-viral called Tamiflu.”
On Monday, her 5-year-old brother Charlie was admitted to the hospital. He wasn’t put in the intensive care unit. However, he was experiencing symptoms and did need oxygen to get through the night, Thornell said.
“Charlie, I say, is my wild boy. We call him 'big guy,'” Thornell said with a smile under her mask. “He’s just wild but has the kindest, sweetest heart. Seeing him sick like this has been really hard. This is the sickest I’ve ever seen Charlie and Lena.”
Three-year-old Lena was admitted soon after.
Dr. Erica Michiels said they aren’t the only kids battling the flu this season.
“Influenza has really hit the Michigan area hard. We’ve been seeing the numbers rise significantly in the last couple of weeks,” said Michiels, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. “The curve that shows us the number of infections is almost straight up at this point. So, we’ve really been hit hard.”
Michiels is also the medical director of pediatric emergency at the hospital. She said they’re seeing more kids than adults with influenza because kids tend to have “high-spiking fevers” reaching 104 degrees or 105 degrees.
So to prevent the spread of the disease, she said it’s best to get vaccinated.
“It gives you some protection against getting the disease, but it gives you even more protection against getting a severe case of the disease or winding up in the hospital,” Michiels said during a Zoom interview. “Other things like washing your hands, staying home if you’re sick. Keep your children home if they’re sick can really help prevent community spread. I cannot tell you the number of families who I have seen in the last few days where the child has influenza, was having high-spiking fevers and families were doing things like going to the bowling alley with the child, sending the child to daycare or school.”
Michiels said that's too risky, and emphasized the importance of getting vaccinated.
Thornell agreed.
She’s just grateful that they’ll get to go home soon and not have to spend anymore of the holiday season in the hospital.
“For this year, I’m just glad to be home as a family and healthy and to be together,” she said.
