Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation

Last year my family was faced with every parent’s worst nightmare. Our son Jackson fell ill. On September 3rd, 2021, everything changed. After stopping by the pediatrician’s office multiple times for Jackson’s cold, we saw no other solution but to bring him to the hospital.

Initially, we thought Jackson caught a cold as he started daycare like every other kid you know. We assumed this virus just turned into a case of croup.

This cold escalated into a long hospitalization with our son fighting for his life. The evening of September 3rd can only be described as an attempt to save Jackson’s life. As blood work started to come back, Jackson’s breathing got worse and other vital signs became a huge concern, the number of doctors in his room continued to increase. By nightfall the medical professionals in his ICU room had tripled, and the real nightmare began.

We sat beside him that first night as we witnessed surgical interventions of IV lines, scoping of his lungs, blood transfusions, multiple ventilators, and the introduction of countless tubes for medication.

We thought the worst was behind us.

Shortly thereafter, we were informed that Jackson, alongside the RSV virus, had a life-threatening infection. The following week, he was infused with a cocktail of medications to ensure all his vitals and organs remained as stable as possible. Thanks for medicine!

Over the next weeks Jackson underwent procedure after procedure as the doctors tried to diagnose Jackson with a condition to explain, as well as to treat the cause of his symptoms. Throughout our stay, just about everything that could go wrong went wrong. Aside from the intubation/sedation there was the persisting high fevers, to the lack of tissue perfusion, to kidney stones, to brain and bone biopsies, to lumbar punctures, to a half a dozen MRIs, and to chest tubes being installed and reinstalled in the middle of the night. Our child endured it all.

Despite the good news of Jackson surviving that god awful first night at the Montreal Children’s, his limbs were lacking the blood and oxygen they needed and were severely damaged. In his fight, Jackson ultimately lost his right foot and 3 toes on his left.

During our hospital stay The Children’s made sure that we saw every specialist under the sun. Jackson’s blood tests were shared across the globe to find what was wrong and address it with the best treatment.

We feel that Jacksons genetic testing will never be done to see what underlying conditions could have caused all of this.

After 56 days in the hospital, seeing rooms on just about every floor, post-anesthesia care unit and a few nights in the surgical waiting rooms we are now home living in this new reality.

We are immeasurably grateful for the incredible life- saving care and support received by the Children’s to have our boy back and testing our limits everyday! With his prosthetic leg you would never know any of this story. He is a healthy active turning three-year-old boy running, jumping, climbing every chance he gets.

In honour of Jackson's 3rd birthday please support this amazing cause that makes it all possible. The Children’s allowed us to have our boy home with us.

Thank you!

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