
Honoring Aidan
Donation protected
During the night of Saturday, June 17th, our soon-to-be 17-year-old nephew, Aidan Swenson-Reynolds, suddenly became very ill while he and our sister Brigitte stopped to rest for the night in St. Louis, MO as an attempt to break up their trip from their home in Chicago, IL to Tulsa, OK where he was heading to participate in a national tumbling competition.
The evening before they left, Aidan had complained of a headache, but this was not out of the ordinary for him.
The day of their trip, he threw up but had no other symptoms and attributed it to possible food poisoning because he had eaten Sushi the night before.
After 5 hours of driving, Brigitte thought it would be best to stop and spend the night at a hotel in St Louis so he would have more time to rest, and, still believing that it was most likely food poisoning at this point, that he would wake up feeling better in the morning.
That night Aidan continued to vomit and began to develop a fever. When they were finally able to lay down and rest, his mother noticed he was breathing funny and that something was very wrong. When she woke him up to check on him he had an extremely high fever, he wasn’t himself and was barely able to function, so she rushed him to the hospital.
He was admitted and his condition continued to rapidly decline. After lots of testing and scanning, doctors weren’t sure what was going on, but many of the symptoms Aidan was displaying were indicative of Meningitis.
He was not able to communicate very well and was scared, confused and very combative with hospital staff and his mother, which is not his personality at all. For this reason, they were having a difficult time keeping IVs in him and it was impossible to do the spinal tap they were needing to do.
After many attempts and finally sedating him so that they could perform the spinal tap, they were unable to get where they needed to because of the inflammation around the spine and did not successfully complete the procedure.
Needless to say, he had a very difficult day on Sunday with lots of ups and downs and very scary moments.
They more heavily sedated him on Sunday night and he was able to relax and sleep peacefully.
The next morning (June 19th), Aidan was somewhat responsive for a short period of time, but shortly thereafter began experiencing some trouble breathing again. His face and neck began to swell, his eyes were bulging, and he had limited movement on his right side. Doctors then discovered he had swelling in his brain.
At that point, Aidan was intubated and heavily sedated so that his body could rest and heal. They were then able to successfully complete the spinal tap and started to work on bringing the swelling in his brain down.
It was a quiet night and his parents and sister were able to get some rest.
As of right now, he is and will remain intubated and under heavy sedation. An infectious disease team met with his parents this morning and said that his inflammation markers have increased, which puts him at risk for more brain swelling, and they are now focused on how to counter that.
Aidan is his parents’ pride and joy. He is kind-hearted, thoughtful, intelligent, talented, and has so much going for him. To his sister Emily, who is just one year younger, he is a best friend and protector. And to the rest of his family, he is a special person whom we love very much.
Your prayers, thoughts, and positive vibes are all appreciated during this time. Aidan needs them and we need him.
As mentioned in the beginning, Aidan and his family live in Chicago, but will need to remain in St. Louis for his treatment and recovery. It could be several weeks before they are able to return home.
That being said, his parents will be unable to work and are out of paid leave for the year after some necessary surgeries they themselves have had. And while they do have health insurance, the financial weight of Aidan’s treatment and recovery process is unknown at this time.
My sister is one of the most selfless people that would do anything to help anyone, and has done so many times over. But right now, she and her family are in need of support.
If you are able to give anything to help make this process easier and give them peace of mind while staying by their son’s side as he fights this terrible illness, I know she would forever be grateful.
And if you are unable to contribute at this time, please do us a favor and share.
We will try to keep everyone updated as we know more.
Thank you and God Bless.
Organizer and beneficiary
Natalie Becker
Organizer
Hartington, NE

Brigitte Swenson
Beneficiary