Rebecca Watkinson and her son Bowden are finally back at their Te Puke home. Photo / Emma Houpt
Rebecca Watkinson and her son Bowden are finally back at their Te Puke home. Photo / Emma Houpt
After more than 60 days Te Puke boy Bowden Watkinson is finally home from hospital.
But the cause of his illness is still unknown.
His mum Rebecca Watkinson said progress had been made but her "usually smiley" 7-year-old is "shattered". He can't go to school, see his friends, and getseasily fatigued.
The "working diagnosis" is a secondary form of a disease called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), she said.
Bowden was rushed to Tauranga Hospital on Christmas Day in terrible pain. Two days later he was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital.
He spent the first two weeks at Starship sedated and on a ventilator.
Bowden was moved to the Starship general paediatric ward in mid-January. And after 48 days in Auckland, he was taken to Tauranga Hospital as doctors decided he no longer needed to be in the vicinity of a PICU.
He was treated for symptoms including body wide pain, a "huge haematoma" over his abdomen caused by bleeding after a kidney biopsy and bleeding in his eye which had caused vision impairment.
Bowden was sedated during his first two weeks at Starship Children's Hospital. Photo / Supplied
He arrived home on March 5.
Since being discharged Watkinson said her son was receiving regular physiotherapy and required ongoing checkups with other specialists.
Doctors had done blood tests and had sent blood samples to the United States but they were still waiting on results, she said.
"He has basically had every specialist under the sun look at him - basically every team at Starship. They have treated an inflammatory response to something, but we still don't know the trigger."
Watkinson said it was a "slow process" to get her son to feel comfortable to leave hospital and talking about the experience still upset him.
"It took a lot. He got pretty upset coming down the motorway because he was outside of a safe space," she said.
The pair worked up to it slowly by leaving the premise for short periods every two days. It included trips through the McDonald's drive-through, eating lunch at the park and visiting his grandma, she said.
"He was still pretty upset and anxious about not being in hospital - but we got there."
Watkinson said his compromised immunity meant he could not go to school or see his friends - something on his wishlist. Doctors expected it would take him six months to fully rehabilitate.
"It will take that long to get him back to where he was before all this happened," she said.
Bowden Watkinson on his seventh birthday before being admitted to hospital. Photo / Supplied
"It's hard because he is such an outdoors kid. He can't do too much otherwise he ends up sore or just shattered.
"We both have some serious sleep to catch up on."
But she acknowledged serious progress had been made compared to when Bowden could barely walk or sit up while in hospital.
Doctors also expected he would be able to stop taking prednisone - taken through the tube attached to his nose - next week.
The Te Puke Primary student was also set to start part-time remote learning through the Northern Health School next week.
Highlights of coming home for Bowden were cuddling and playing Nintendo Switch with his siblings, spending time with the family's kittens, and finally getting to celebrate Christmas all these months later.
The siblings, aged 9 and 13, did not get to spend time with Bowden while he was in hospital and the reunion was delayed further as they became infected with Covid.
"I missed Toby and Amber. It's good being home," he said.
"The Nintendo switch was my treat when I was in hospital. And when I get home it is a sharing one now."
Bowden is set to celebrate Christmas with his cousins this weekend. Photo / Emma Houpt
Bowden's brother and sister insisted the Christmas tree stay up until he returned home.
He was gifted a pair of binoculars by his grandparents and would open the last of his presents this weekend while celebrating with his cousins, uncle and aunt.
"Everyone can have their presents, and then the tree can finally come down," said Watkinson.
Back in January, the family started a Givealittle to cover fuel and accommodation costs.
Watkinson said she felt "blessed" to have received almost $7000 of donations and a huge amount of supportive messages.
The Auckland District Health Board was approached for comment.
