I took my son to the GP with what I thought was a cold. Now he is hospitalised every winter

As I sat in a Perth doctor’s surgery with my young son in 2022, I had no idea how serious his condition was.

At nearly two years old, he had a snotty nose and a cough. A common cold, or so I thought.

Perth mother Yvonne Ardley in hospital with her son.

The GP gave him a check over, including his oxygen saturation. It was dipping to 91 per cent.

She explained anything under 92 per cent and the patient should be in a hospital bed, hooked up to oxygen.

What happened next was a whirlwind, rushing him to Perth Children’s Hospital, before doctors stuck nasal prongs on his face and started administering oxygen.

We were told he had para-influenza, a relatively common virus which had triggered a viral-induced wheeze – similar to an asthma attack. He remained in hospital for eight days.

It unfortunately didn’t end there. Every winter since, my son has been hospitalised with different viruses, from RSV to the common cold, all triggering wheeze.

Unfortunately, his experience isn’t isolated. Hundreds, if not thousands of other WA children are admitted with virus-induced respiratory problems every year. Some doctors say these incidents became much worse post-COVID, because of our border closures.

The University of Western Australia’s head of paediatrics, Professor Peter Richmond, says the state’s COVID lockdowns meant viruses such as influenza and RSV weren’t circulating in the community, creating an immunity gap in young children.

Which meant when the borders reopened, young children with no exposure were hit much harder.

But finding the data to support this is near impossible. WA’s Health Department was unable to find statistics relating to the number of children hospitalised due to viruses pre- and post-COVID.

But it seems important to measure.

At the peak of winter last year, one hospital trip involved a 36-hour wait in emergency, before my son was finally admitted because there were no beds available.

The wonderful doctors and nurses were forever apologising, saying having children in ED for so long was unprecedented.

Every admission, we’re told the hospital is filled to the brim with respiratory kids, packed into unrelated wards as overflow, such as the burns or surgical wards.

And since bringing this topic up with multiple other parents of preschoolers, I’ve had many parents shakily say to me their child experiences the same problem every winter, and they thought they were alone.

I’m incredibly grateful to have lived in WA during COVID, and given far more freedom than many other places in the world, even the country.

But we need to thoroughly examine the unintended consequences of border closures, and ways to mitigate them, next time we have to lock down when the next pandemic inevitably hits.

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