Personal Story – Renay lost her son Jesse to chickenpox

When Jesse was born, he was, he was six pound, five. He was only little, but just adorable. He was, I believe, he was born an old soul. Jesse was born '91, so ... and Kimberley was born in '94. The two of them were enough, a brother and sister, and, Jesse loved, loved his sister. Loved her. Jesse loved playing his, his games. He loved Pokemon and, and he loved playing sport, but he was just a great little boy and anybody that knew Jess loved him.

Uh, Jesse was nine, almost 10, he'd come home from school one day, it was on a Monday, he'd come home with very bad headache and, the headache just wouldn't go away. So, that, that was our first sign of heading to the doctor. We bought him back home, but as the week progressed, he just, he wasn't feeling mu- he was doing a little bit worse, and then, the spots started to appear, so we took him back to the doctor and, obviously, the doctor confirmed that he had chicken pox by this time. Wasn't much that he could do, other than just bring him home and, and, treat his, rash and, and all his other symptoms with whatever we have, which was calamine lotion and, just the Panadol, keep that up to him.

But then, nothing, nothing was settling him in the end, so we took him back to the doctor's, and they put him straight to the hospital, our local hospital here. From the Monday to the Friday, it, it just didn't take long at all. When we told it was chicken pox, we thought, "Oh, okay, it's chicken pox." We'll just do what we need to do to help him until he gets over it, but that wasn't the case with him. He was just, he was vomiting a lot by this time. He could not keep anything down. Me and [inaudible 00:02:11] just gave him ice to chew on to sort of keep him hydrated.

Jesse's breathing became very erratic. He was struggling to, for breath, and in the same day, I thought to come back up. And he had a scan done and that he'd developed pneumonia. So the chicken pox was internal, put him into a induced coma, so the ventilator could do all the work for him. That was the last time we saw him conscious.

It took us several hours to set him up with, the equipment they needed to keep him going. He was, he was not in a good way by this time. And we got to see him about 4:00 in the morning, hooked up to everything that you can imagine and, they did their best. They took the best care of him and tried absolutely everything to save him, that it's a virus and there's nothing can you do with, about viruses. They run their course no matter what.

We were hoping for a miracle. They said there's nothing more that they can do for him and, he, his organs started to shut down. We begged them to save him and I couldn't and, he just, he just slowly faded away. And, they turned the equipment off and, and then, he was gone. We watched him die over something that everyone thinks is so trivial.

Life had changed completely, and it's never gonna be the same ever 'cause you feel numb. And poor little fellow, he just could not fight any, he could not fight any longer. And so, we let him go, and we had no choice but to let him go. And we're thinking just why, why did this happen? My children, uh, they're vaccinated for everything. Uh, at the time that Jesse passed, we were not aware of, the, the vaccine for chicken pox. And I'd like to say to, to parents and parents that are questioning vaccination, I personally would have my child vaccinated. Well, look what's happened to me. Vaccines are safe. They are proven to be safe year after year, scientifically.

You know, I just, we just miss him daily, and I miss him every day. Every day we think about him. We always mention him still because he's, even though he's not here, he will always be part of us, so, there's never a day that goes by that any of us don't think about him.