Hospital offers real breather for Caleb's worried parents

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Little Caleb Tanner has to wear a bootie on his right hand to stop him pulling the life-giving tubes out of his nose.

The 3 1/2 week-old is suffering from bronchiolitis and is one of a record number of children being treated for the lung disease this winter at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland.

Some days there have been 20 children on the wards with the condition, compared with a maximum of 12 a day last winter.

Bronchiolitis affects mainly young children and babies. It is an inflammation of the bronchioles, the smaller airways of the lungs, and it is most commonly caused by the respiratory syncytial virus. It is more prevalent in areas of poverty and overcrowding.

Caleb receives his mother's milk and oxygen through the tubes in his nose. When he was born, on June 30, he was so big, weighing 4.5kg, that he got stuck and an arm was broken during birth. He then caught a virus from his two-year-old brother and went back into Middlemore nine days ago.

"He's had a very rough start to

life, this little man," said Mrs Tanner

"He suffered a runny nose for a couple of days then went off his feeds and developed a bad cough and rapid, "heaving" breathing.

His parents, Tanya and Phillip Tanner, feared he had caught whooping cough, as the first vaccine injection is not given until six weeks.

"That Saturday [July 15] I was afraid he would stop breathing and not wake up. We spent turns sitting up beside his bassinet," said Mrs Tanner.

"But once we were in here with the monitors and everything, it took that worry away because I knew help was only a moment away."

When Caleb was admitted to hospital, he was breathing at 85 breaths a minute.

That is now down to 60. A normal rate is between 40 and 50.

He is expected to remain in hospital for the rest of this week.

Asked why the incidence of bronchiolitis was rising, Middlemore's inpatient coordinator, Marlene Stratton, said: "It's just the poverty factor all round."

The increase reflected the record number of children being treated at the hospital, she said.

There were 79 treated on one day recently, compared with last winter's record of 70.

The Starship children's hospital is seeing up to 20 children and babies with bronchiolitis a day at its emergency department. About half are admitted.

The department's clinical director, Dr Richard Aickin, said last night that the disease's incidence from year to year was unpredictable but this was one of the worst winters in seven years.