January 24, 2026

Octavia started not feeling well on Thursday during the day, she was snuggly and just wanting to watch TV. For those of you that know our sweet girl, you know she doesn’t watch much TV. We spent the day on the couch just watching TV, snuggling, and hydrating. She had a really hard night Thursday night into Friday morning. Booked her an appointment with our primary for 8:30 Friday morning.

Took her in Friday morning and she tested positive for Influenza A and she had the beginnings of an ear infection. Took her home with Tamiflu and an antibiotic. Her little body was fighting hard to keep her fever down even with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. She rested at home on our chest for a couple hours.

Tavia rapidly declined and was having respiratory distress. We immediately rushed her to the Emergency Room in St. Croix Falls. They put us in one room then after assessing her, they moved her to the trauma room. She got a few nebulizer treatments which did help settle her breathing down a little bit. The medical staff in the ED were AMAZING and very attentive. They were hopeful that they would be able to send us to Children’s Hospital in St. Paul, MN via ambulance without intubating her. They called ground transport and when they arrived, Octavia took a turn for the worst. They quickly decided they needed to intubate our sweet girl.

They got her intubated and on a ventilator, ground transport had arrived and they were trying to decide whether they should send her via ambulance or via helicopter. They ultimately decided that they would send her via ambulance because they did not want to waste any time waiting for the helicopter to arrive. They also decided that MSP Children’s Hospital would be better equipped to handle Octavia’s case.

I was able to ride in the ambulance with her to Children’s in MSP (so grateful for the EMS that got us there safely and allowed me to ride with) Garrett drove the car down so we would have a vehicle when we were here. Octavia had a bit of a rough trip to the cities, but the amazing ambulance crew handled every curve she threw at them with such ease.

We arrived at Children’s and went straight up to the Pediatric ICU where they got her switched over to their ventilator and placed a central line so they will be able to closely monitor her labs and give medications in the safest way possible. After they placed the central line in her neck, they took another set of labs and ran a more extensive panel, on top of Influenza A and the ear infection, she also has Adenovirus. Two heavy hitting viruses were just too much for her tiny body to handle.

She did okay through the night, she fought the medication a bit and wanted to lay on her belly. No surprise there! She had to have a few more procedures done during the night to make sure all is well and they placed an NG tube. They took more scans of her this morning and they are looking promising. Her lungs are healing up well and they are hoping we might be able to extubate her tomorrow if all goes well. She is not out of the woods by any means, but she is getting the best possible care and she is where she needs to be right now.

She has had amazing care every step of the way and we are so incredibly grateful for everyone that helped care for our sweet girl from Dr. Brunclik in the morning, encouraging us that if she got any worse to not be afraid to bring her into the ED, to the staff at St. Croix Emergency Department, to the EMS staff, to the onset staff members at Children’s Hospital in MSP, to all of our family and friends that have checked in with us, prayed for her and us, and made sure everything is taken care of.

Please continue to pray for our sweet girl that she gets the rest that she needs and her body has a chance to heal. It is hard to see our girl this way, but she is being so brave.

A few days after being intubated, she was able to breathe on her own again and we were moved from the PICU to med surge. But shortly after she had trouble breathing again and we got sent back down to the PICU. She is still breathing on her own, she just requires a lot of assistance with heated high flow oxygen to help keep her lungs open, nebulizer treatments, high dose steroids, and lots of close attention. She is beginning to show her normal playful self a little each day. She still has a long medical journey ahead of her with her recovery.

We have been So blessed to be able to stay with her the entire course of her hospital stay and our employers have been accommodating in allowing us to take time off to be with our sweet girl. Unfortunately it is unpaid and with all the medical bills that are accruing along with being out of work, we know this will be a long financial journey. Please continue

to pray for our sweet girl. We are so grateful she is alive and with us.

This is Brenda, Garrett's Mom and Octavia's Grandma. I am not sure how to set up a go fund me so I asked for help. They are too proud to ask for help because they feel blessed to be able to stay with her in the hospital. But I know with them not being able to go to work, it will cause a lot of financial strain. Please do not feel obligated to donate, just prayers would be nice as well. This is their story from their caring bridge site.