SPOKANE, Wash. – A North Idaho family faced a challenging week when their 14-month-old child, Charlie Ruff, contracted pertussis, commonly called “whooping cough,” a condition that has been keeping hospitals busy across the region.
So far this year, there has been a surge in whooping cough cases, a highly contagious disease that can be especially dangerous for young children.
Jon and Kati Ruff, Charlie’s parents, said they and their older children experienced coughs earlier this month.
“I’ve probably had it. That’s what the doctor’s think that it went through the entire family,” Kati Ruff said.
Last Friday, they noticed Charlie had a cough but no fever, so they decided to monitor him at home.
However, by Sunday, his condition worsened and the child was severely ill. Charlie also developed a high-grade fever.
The family took him to Kootenai Health, where tests were conducted. He was later transferred to Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane, where doctors determined he had whooping cough.
“It’s much less problematic in older kids or adults. Kids under a year, especially the younger ones, even infants, down to one or two months of life, it can be life-threatening when you get down to the very young ages. Which is why we really push… to have younger kids immunized,” Dr. Mike Barsotti, the chief administrator for Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, said.
Charlie is not immunized for whooping cough.
Charlie received treatment through antibiotics, which began to work by Tuesday evening.
“He took his first bite of mac-and-cheese. He wasn’t himself, but you could almost like, see, like, a light in his eye,” Ruff said.
By Wednesday, Charlie was well enough to return home to continue treatment.
“He was walking around and smiling. We’re out of the woods. He still has the cough and he’s still not himself. But we’ve made it,” Ruff said.
Dr. Barsotti advised parents with children showing unusual respiratory symptoms to seek medical attention.
“If they’re progressive, if they’re not getting better or you start getting these long coughs that just won’t go away, get a hold of your doctor, go to the emergency room if you have to. But the earlier you get intervention, the better chance we can minimize the disease process,” Barsotti said.
Friends, family and others donated to an online fundraiser to help cover medical and other expenses from Charlie’s hospital stay.
The child is also scheduled for cleft lip and palate surgery at the end of February, and the family hopes his lungs improve enough for the procedure.
Meanwhile, as cases rise in eastern Washington, whooping cough numbers in central Washington are much lower than in Clark and Spokane County, with a total of just over 170 combined.
