Two year old Luke is recently home from a string of hospitalizations in which he received IV antibiotics, IV treatments and oral antibiotics for pneumonia and Staph Scalded Skin Syndrome. He was admitted for treatment for a total of eleven days in two weeks.
During the first hospitalization he was diagnosed with Staph Scalded Skin Syndrome, which caused him to have rashes that blistered and peeled all over his body. He also had a viral infection at the same time, causing severe dehydration. This initial hospital stay was 6 days.
Luke and his family were discharged and spent the weekend at home before returning on Monday due to coughing and continued fevers, and pneumonia. He was treated with two different antibiotics. He was not his usual, energetic self.
By Thursday that week he was still having fevers. He was admitted again, as doctors didn't know what was causing the fever to last for 13 days. They did several tests during the second hospitalization, where they determined that he had atypical Kawasaki Disease, a disease in which your immune system attacks your body, often caused by an infection of some sort. He had a 12 hour IV treatment followed by 36 hours of observation for fevers.
Luke did have another fever, which caused him to be there until Monday, the 27th, after being fever free for 24 hours. He is currently at home recovering, and acting much more himself, but has a long road ahead of him.
Luke's family will have several follow up appointments to make sure there is no heart condition caused by the Kawasaki disease, in addition to a referral to the Children's hospital in Minneapolis for Rheumatology. Here, they will determined that there is no autoimmune disease occurring. He is currently anemic from the illnesses, which they are treating while simultaneously determining if it is a symptom of one of the existing conditions, or an indicator of something more.
Luke and his family have undergone numerous stressors caused by these hospitalizations, the least of which is the medical bills accrued and loss of income. Your generosity will help them to pay off the bulk of their existing and future bills, allowing them to concentrate on Luke, not his illnesses.