A twin lost his life to RSV, now his parents are waiting to find out if his brother will survive the same disease | CNN

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Less than three months after giving birth to their twins, Amanda and Ed Bystran lost one of them to RSV – now they’re hoping their other son will recover from the same virus.

Amanda Bystran gave birth to twins Brodie and Silas on August 15.

“We couldn’t wait for her to arrive. My older kids were just so happy they were going to have babies in the house,” said Amanda Bystran, who has four other children. “They couldn’t wait to meet and hold her. They were actually born on my 8-year-old’s birthday,” she told CNN.

The twins were born prematurely at 34 weeks and had problems from the start. They made it out of a neonatal intensive care unit after two weeks and then recovered from Covid-19 and meningitis in September, their mother says.

The Bystransers hoped their twins had turned the corner, but by mid-October they both developed constipation and a cough.

The concerned parents, who live in Catlett, Virginia, took them to their pediatrician — where they tested negative for RSV and the flu on Oct. 17 and were told their twins most likely had a cold, Amanda told CNN.

“They sent us home, but then, around Thursday, Brodie got worse rapidly. He was really constipated and had a really hard time clearing mucus. We’ve never seen anything like it,” Bystran said. “He deteriorated so quickly. It’s like he was fine one minute and fighting for his life the next.”

Almost all children begin RSV sometime before age 2, but parents should take extra care if their children are preterm, newborn, children with compromised immune systems or neuromuscular disorders, and children under the age of 2 with chronic lung and heart disease, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Bystrans decided on October 20 to take Brodie to the Inova LJ Murphy Children’s Hospital in Falls Church, Virginia, an hour from her home.

This time, a doctor told her that Brodie had tested positive for RSV and was being hospitalized, Amanda said. The family waited 12 hours in the emergency room before Brodie was transferred to a bed in pediatric surgery. They then waited 16 hours before he was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit, Bystran says.

“They were so full. The entire children’s ward was full of RSV cases. It was awful,” she said.

The hospital has been at or near capacity for the past few days, Tracy Connell, a spokeswoman for Inova Children’s Hospital, told CNN on Thursday. The hospital also issued a press release activating its “Internal Emergency Response Plan” to deal with the large number of patients admitted with respiratory viruses such as RSV and influenza – but assured the public it was prepared for the surge.

Bystran accompanied her son for most of his hospital stay and watched doctors try different oxygen treatments, she says. Things took a turn for the worse on the morning of October 22 and she asked for additional help after realizing the oxygen treatments weren’t working and Brodie was still struggling to breathe, she says.

“They decided to intubate him, so I got out so they could work on him,” Bystran said. “Then 20 minutes passed and a nurse came to tell me his heart rate had dropped and they had been doing CPR on him for the last 10 minutes.”

Bystran was quick to ask her husband and in-laws to rush to the hospital, but they couldn’t make it before Brodie died, she says.

“My heart broke into a billion pieces. No mother should ever have to plan a funeral for her baby. He should have outlived me. This boy didn’t even get to see three months old. It’s not fair,” Bystran said of expressing her sorrow on Facebook.

The Bystrans nightmare isn’t over yet: Brodie’s twin Silas is still in the hospital trying to recover from RSV. He tested positive for RSV in the hospital on Oct. 21 and was admitted a day after his brother, Bystran says. Unlike Brodie, Silas was also diagnosed with pneumonia and was in intensive care for about 16 hours, his mother says.

On Tuesday night, Silas was transferred from the intensive care unit, but on Wednesday he developed an overnight fever and needed help to get his oxygen levels up, Bystran says.

“We’ve had a really tough night and he’s not doing so well again. Doctors said RSV was a rollercoaster ride in that regard,” she said. “They are fine for a minute and then can quickly go downhill before stabilizing again.”

His family hopes he pulls through – but he’s deeply saddened that he won’t be able to grow up with his twin.

“Brodie was such a light. A beautiful little child. He was so desired and loved. It was so sweet to see the bond he and Silas shared,” Bystran said. “They preferred to sleep together; they were always touching. It breaks my heart that I can’t see them grow together. I’m afraid Silas will always feel this hole because he won’t have his twin brother.”

As the Bystrans mourn the loss of their son, they warn other parents to trust their instincts.

“If you feel like your child is getting worse and it’s not just a cold, go straight to the hospital. Don’t wait, don’t think about it, don’t doubt yourself,” Bystran said.