Emerson Lewis

Evan and Amie took Emerson in to Picton Emerg the morning of March 30th with what they thought was the flu and dehydration as he had been vomiting since the day before and was drinking or eating very much. When they got in to Emerg the doctor after doing a quick examination said that he was ordering some blood work and an IV. The blood work came back 5x the normal amount of white blood cells which means infection. They immediately started him on antibiotics and made the decision to send us by ambulance to Belleville. On the way over Emerson was not responsive to the Dr that was on board. When we got to Belleville we had a Pediatrician and her team waiting for us. Evan drove over and once he got there he couldn't believe how much he had declined since leaving Picton. In Belleville they did a CT scan and a chest xray. The CT scan came back with a grey area which caused some concerns and the Pediatrician asked their permission to do a spinal tap as they were worried about meningitis. The spinal tap came back and it was streptococcus pneumonia meningitis. She then got on the phone to both KGH and CHEO for a conference call to see if there was anything else she should be doing immediately and which hospital was able to accommodate him. They decided on KGH and within an hour and a bit Evan and Emerson were airlifted to KGH. He was very critical and on April 2nd they did an MRI and found out that he has a blood clot on the right side of his brain. So they started him on Inoxaparen (?) and he will be on it for three months, so Evan and Amie have learned to give him the shot as he receives it twice daily. His right eye would not follow his left eye which made it look like he had a lazy eye. They are hoping that it will correct itself but may need patching or further help. They were concerned about his hearing cause he wasn't startled at loud noises. The Audiologist at Hotel Dieu came over three times to do the hearing test and finally on the third time after having him sedated on April 18 they were able to complete it. Unfortunately not the news they were hoping for, Emerson has profound hearing loss in both his ears and will require to travel to CHEO in Ottawa to have cochlear implants put in. He continues to receive Occupational therapy and physiotherapy several times a week which we go to Hotel Dieu for. They are expecting to go to CHEO within the next week or two. Evan and Amie have not left Emerson's side through all of this and even once they are home there will be at least 4 specialist they will be seeing on a regular basis in Kingston as well as follow up appts at CHEO. He also lost control of his neck and trunk of his body and has been doing physio to restore that. He still isn't at 100% for that but doing better in that area. He can only walk with a walker right now because of his lack of balance.