Hi all,

My name is Alex Seymour and I am the eldest of 3 girls. My little sister Caitlin moved to England many moons ago, fell in love, got married, spawned a beautiful baby boy named Owen Malcolm (who we have yet to meet - damn you Covid), and is now experiencing every parent's nightmare.

Owen is now 16 months old. Caitlin had returned to work and Owen had a position in a daycare in their town in Worthing, UK. Last week we received a text at an ungodly hour of the morning (damn you, time change!)

"Owen has Covid."

How did he get it? A daycare worker from Owen's nursery. The people you trust to keep your child safe when you can't be with them. At the time of writing England has neither a mask or vaccine mandate and their vaccination rate is... not great. Owen then gave Caitlin Covid (despite her being double vaccinated.) Well shit. Two weeks at home to isolate and everything should be fine, right?

Wrong. Fever, runny nose, exhaustion - the symptoms seemed fairly typical until they weren't. He was sleeping 20+ hours a day, having trouble breathing, not eating. Caitlin took him to the hospital. They said sleep was the best thing, this was fairly normal for Covid in babies, he'd be just fine. Until he wasn't.

On Monday of this week Caitlin called the 999 Emergency line (that's England's 911) because Owen's lips had gone blue and his heart rate was through the roof, he had also lost a fair bit of weight. Caitlin and her family live ACROSS the street from the Worthing hospital. She can see it from her front door - an Ambulance was dispatched anyway. Owen was put on an oxygen mask immediately and was sent for tests and an X-Ray. Caitlin was sent home. She was supposed to be isolating. She went home and spent her first night without Owen in 16 months. Caitlin's husband Gareth remained at the hospital with Owen. The X-ray confirmed the doctor's thoughts that he had a severe chest infection and he was put on a course of intravenous antibiotics with the caution that if they did not see an improvement in his breathing he would be transferred one and a half hours away to the Southampton Children's hospital.

Owen was transferred by ambulance to Southampton Hospital at 3am on Tuesday morning. He was placed in to a medically induced coma, intubated, and was given a chest tube to drain the fluid from his lungs. Gareth was sent home for a night of rest before he was allowed to meet Owen in the Southampton PICU. Gareth has since checked in to a hotel near the Children's Hospital so he could be close to Owen. on Friday Owen was woken out of his coma. His intubation was removed and he was given a nasal oxygen cannula, a less invasive source of oxygen, and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief. Everything seemed on the up and up. Again, until it wasn't.

Owen's numbers went south and he was returned to the ventilator. He was then changed from a ventilator to an oscillator which is apparently supposed to be easier on tiny collapsed lungs. His numbers started to stabilize. Caitlin was able to get to Southampton and see Owen for the first time since Monday. HELL YAH FRICKIN RIGHTS. I went to sleep last night thinking once again, everything was going to be all good.

This morning I woke up to another text message.

12:38AM here/8:38AM in England: "Okay, he had a stable night but then his numbers went up (not a good thing) this morning. They have decided that instead of waiting for it to be dire and having to do an emergency procedure, they would put him on ECMO today. I have just seen him and they are now taking him to do the procedure. It can take a couple hours so they have said they would call us around 11 to give us an update.

12:51AM here/8:51AM in England: "He will likely be on ECMO for weeks if not months."

3:12AM here/11:12AM in England: "The procedure was successful. They've just called us. They are going to do an xray now to make sure they are happy with the placement and we will get to see him in half an hour."

If you don't know what ECMO is -In extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), blood is pumped outside of your body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body. Blood flows from the right side of the heart to the membrane oxygenator in the heart-lung machine, and then is rewarmed and sent back to the body.

This method allows the blood to "bypass" the heart and lungs, allowing these organs to rest and heal.

We're taking everything hour by hour and day by day but for the past week neither Caitlin or Gareth have been able to work, they're living out of a hotel, whilst also paying rent at home, and eating hospital food and takeout. If you know me, you know I hate asking for help for myself or my family - preferring to manage everything myself. If I were independently wealthy I wouldn't be here asking but I'm hoping to raise some funds for them to be able to focus their energies on Owen, his recovery, and their own sanity. Gareth was in the middle of training for a new job, which he wont be able to complete until everyone is back home and safe. Please share, donate if you can, get vaccinated if you haven't, keep your damn masks on, and send your best vibes and well wishes to little Owen. I really, REALLY, want a chance to meet this kid.

Huge thanks from my family to yours.

A