Clatskanie 9-year-old spending Christmas in hospital after viral meningitis diagnosis
By Chandler Watkins
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CLATSKANIE Oregon (KPTV) — Nichole Cudaback described her son, 9-year-old Colton as a high energy, rambunctious kid.
“He is always moving,” Cudaback said. “He loves to be outdoors, running, playing on his 4-wheeler, the snow mobile when it’s winter. He gets to go to that with his dad. He loves the color red. He loves to fish. He loves to cuddle. He’s very helpful. He’s just the sweetest little boy.”
She said Colton started to feel unwell on Wednesday, Dec. 6 and developed a fever the next day. By Friday, Cudaback said her son was throwing up, so she took him to urgent care.
“They said it was a virus and that I needed to take him home and hydrate him,” Cudaback said. “I did that, but two days later I took him to the emergency room because he couldn’t walk or talk.”
They diagnosed Colton with Influenza A and sent him home. She said his dad came to town the next day for Colton’s brother’s birthday and both decided to bring him to Randall Children’s Hospital.
“We discussed that he was scaring us with his inability to walk or talk or stay awake,” Cudaback said. “So we brought him to Portland. A spinal tap and MRI revealed he had viral meningitis in his brain was swollen and he had signs of brain damage.”
Cudaback said her son has been given steroids to help and he’s been slowly improving, especially in the last 24 hours.
“Each day is a little bit better,” Cudaback said. “He’s improved so much today. He can walk with assistance. He says one or two words together at most. He’s not able to feed himself as well as he wants to. He can say colors. He’s definitely impaired and is definitely not the little boy he was before he got sick.”
She said it’s been difficult for the family; Colton will have to spend Christmas in the hospital. Tuesday she found out she lost her job because they couldn’t accommodate the days she needed off to stay in the hospital with her son.
“I’m just focused on him and being here as his support,” said Cudaback.
A friend has started a GoFundMe to help.
Her message: listen to your instincts when you think something is wrong with your child.
“It progressed really fast,” Cudaback said. “Within three days he wasn’t walking or talking. Just watch your kids when they’re sick. If they show any kind of those symptoms fight for them and advocate for them.”
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