‘Something was telling me, rush her to Madera.’ 8-month-old spends weeks in Valley Children’s ICU

Victoria Saypen is having a good day.

For the first time since being admitted to Valley Children’s Hospital last month, she’s finally off of the respirator that had been helping her breathe. She’s awake and alert and beginning to resemble her 8-month-old self, though there is still a quiet little cough that escapes from time to time, almost as a reminder.

“Yesterday, she was smiling. She gave us a couple of smiles,” says Victoria’s mother, Wendy Batres, who brought her daughter to the hospital from Atwater.

Valley’s Children’s Hospital celebrates its annual Kids Day Fundraiser on Tuesday, March 7, just as Victoria is recovering in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, after being admitted with RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, and a low oxygen level, which required her to be intubated.

Then, there was a stomach complication thacrequired surgery and extended her recovery time.

It was only within the last week that doctors were able to remove the breathing tube. She is still on IV nutrition and will need further surgery related to the complication, but was expected to be out of the the ICU in a day or two, says Dr. Wendy Wong, the pediatric intensivist caring for Victoria.

Complications aside, Victoria’s respiratory case isn’t all that rare.

As a seasonal virus, RSV dropped off significantly during the pandemic, only to resurface as a surge of cases that came earlier than expected last year. The virus is one of the main drivers of bronchiolitis, and can severely affect children and lead to hospitalizations, especially those younger than six months or those born prematurely or with heart or lung conditions.

Valley Children’s Hospital, and hospitals across the region, saw that surge, Dr. Wong says.

“We all felt it,” she says.

“It was a rough winter for everybody.”

And while health professionals made and continue to make a point to remind parents about good hand hygiene and other precautions against the virus — like limiting the sharing of cups, toys or pencils — Dr. Wong says it is extremely difficult for young kids, especially those with older siblings, to not get exposed.

“It’s impossible to keep the youngest ones in a bubble,” Wong says.

Child Life helps kids cope

These kinds of hospital stays can be a scary proposition, for parents certainly, but also for patients like Victoria, who suddenly find themselves thrust into a strange, new environment.

That can be traumatic, says Aimee Shipp, a certified child life specialist with Valley Children’s.

So, along with the doctors, nurses and physical therapists who stop into Victoria’s room as part of the daily routine, she also gets visits from Shipp, whose job it is to help normalize the hospital environment.

The hospital’s Child Life programs, which are made possible through Kids Day and the associated Children’s Fund, help children “understand and cope with hospitalization,” and provides education, play and emotional support for patients and their families.

“We want kids to come away with positive experiences,” Shipp says.

For older kids and long-term patients that can come in the form of visits to the Child Life Playroom and Educational Learning Center, which are designed to help keep school and play routines intact while at the hospital.

For young ones like Victoria, it’s often simpler things such as sensory stimulation — done with a specialized sensory stimulation machine that has sounds and lights — or just providing opportunities for play.

When appropriate, the families are integrated into those moments, Shipp says.

Victoria’s two big brothers were able to come in and play with their sister on Wednesday. They hadn’t seen their sister since she had been admitted and were happy for the brief reunion.

“It’s been a long time,” Batres says.

Batres describes the last month as a roller coaster and says it was hard, especially at first to see her child — her first daughter — in a hospital bed hooked up to machines.

“A lot of things were going through my head.”

One of her sons had his tonsils out at Valley’s Children, but other than that, this is was her first experience with any kind of major illness for her children. She’s thankful that her first thought was Valley Children’s Hospital.

“Something was telling me, rush her to Madera.”

She says she is blessed by the care that the family has received from the doctors, nurses and staff at Valley Children’s and that the visible change seen in her daughter in the last few days — the way she danced her little body around as her grandmother sang a song at her bedside — is a welcomed sign of recovery.

“She was a whole different baby,” Batres says.

“I can’t wait to take her home.”

Kids Day: What it is, how to donate

Kids Day is Tuesday, March 7. The annual fundraiser for Valley Children’s Hospital has raised more than $10.7 million for the hospital’s Children’s Fund since its inception in 1988.

All proceeds from the day go directly toward programs to improve patient care. Donations from last year helped the hospital’s precision medicine, pediatric plastic surgery and neuro-oncology programs and funded child life, adaptive sports and spiritual support services.

There are three ways to donate:

Credit and debit card donations can be made in any amount at valleychildrens.org/kidsday.

An automatic $10 donation can be made by texting “GEORGE” to 20222.

Find a volunteer on the streets of the central San Joaquin Valley. After a three-year pandemic hiatus, more than 2,000 people have signed up to sell special Kids Days postcards at a $1 suggested donation. The postcards feature QR codes that direct users to patient stories and other information about the hospital.

Kids Day is once again sponsored by The Bee and ABC30.

This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 5:30 AM.