A video of a 6-month-old girl named Natalie was sent to a colleague by a doctor in Mount Zion, Ill., who wanted to give her advice.
The nearest hospital had no intensive care unit for children, and the one in Springfield was full.
This was a personal case for Dr. Berg.
She tries to separate her mom and doctor brains. I was frightened by the way she breathed.
A spike in R.S.V., a respiratory illness that can cause long waits for treatment, is overwhelming some units in the United States.
In Southern California, the Children's Hospital of Orange County is so full that children are being treated in the emergency room.
Most of the cases of R.S.V. are very mild. The number of children falling ill is higher this year than in the past. The doctors think that people who were not exposed to R.S.V. over the last couple of years are driving up the numbers.
There were over 1,000 children who tested positive for R.S.V. between July and early October of this year. We now have a generation of immune-naive children because we gave it a bit of a rest during the Pandemic.
The onslaught of cases coincides with the seasonal burst of other respiratory viruses. In regions where the units for children have shrunk or have been closed in the last few years, the strain on children's hospitals that focus on specialized services like cancer treatment or heart surgery can be difficult to manage.
Since there is no vaccine for R.S.V., doctors and public health experts recommend that parents get flu shots and Covid boosters for their kids.
According to preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been close to one in 500 babies hospitalized with R.S.V. since October. Many people who have been hospitalized but never undergo testing for the virus are probably the true number.
The children's center in Baltimore has reached capacity and will soon have children being treated by doctors who normally care for adults, a reversal from two years ago.
The intensive care unit at the children's center has a similar feel to Covid-esque. The doctor's covid. March 2020 is our current date.
The bronchioles branch off from the bronchi in the lungs and are mostly affected by R.S.V. Babies and young children can get blocked by tiny amounts of mucus.
The smaller you are, the less air you have.
Older adults and immunocompromised people are at increased risk of severe illness from R.S.V., which can lead to death in a typical year.
A few days of a bad cold for some people can lead to respiratory failure in others.
There is no evidence of a more severe strain of R.S.V., according to experts. A small percentage of a high number is still a high number because more children are being exposed to the same infections.
The spread of respiratory viruses that land children in hospitals was stopped by virtual learning. The rare cases of R.S.V. are only seen by some second-year residents who joined the staff during the Pandemic.
Older children are being admitted with more severe illnesses than usual. Doctors say that many of them had never been exposed to the virus before and were protected from re- exposure.
When I first saw a 7-year-old with no asthma who needed breathing support, I wondered what was happening. The doctor said that.
At the height of the H1N1 epidemic, hospital administrators across the country transformed empty floors into adult Covid ones. Some have made the changes permanent without a financial incentive.
With virus prone children back in classrooms and activities, the demand for beds in children's hospitals has fallen.
In order to accommodate more patients with respiratory illnesses, Boston Children's Hospital has delayed some surgeries.
The Department of Public Health in Illinois gave doctors a list of intensive care units in other states that they should call if they need to transfer patients. The document was reviewed by The Times and it shows facilities spread over a range of 1000 miles.
Transfer requests from upstate New York, hundreds of miles away, and West Virginia, among others, have been received by the children's center. It's similar to other specialty hospitals in Orange County, Calif., Seattle, and Lubbock, Texas. It has been moving patients from its own facility to other areas.
It will be difficult to bring doctors who treat adults onto the units to help with the surge. The reassignment can cause stress.
She said that watching a baby breathe and struggle can be disturbing.
Several patients are boarded together in single-patient rooms at Seattle Children's Hospital, and areas used for procedures have been transformed into bed space. She said that the season is worse than any other R.S.V. season she has seen.
A line had formed just to check into the waiting room at HSHS St. John's Children's Hospital when Dr. Berg drove Natalie to Springfield. Natalie was moved to the intensive care unit after they had spent eight hours in the emergency room. She is mostly recovered now but still has some congestion and a cough.
Children who go to the emergency room for non-life threatening conditions like broken legs or dog bites will have longer wait times because they are ranked lower on the scale. They said that parents should do what they can to help flatten the curve.
Getting the available vaccines is what Covid and flu sufferers need. The United States has not authorized a vaccine for R.S.V., but candidates made by Pfizer and Glaxo have finished late-stage trials. A trial for a vaccine for children under 2 years old is being led by Dr. Cunningham.
"I don't want to say to parents, 'Be scared,' or 'Hide away,' because R.S.V. is not new." Put a helmet on your child if he bikes. The trampoline park is not a good place to be at this time of year.
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