Losing a child is a tragedy no parent should ever have to bear, but losing a child to a preventable disease is unfathomable.
This heart-breaking video shows four-week-old Riley Hughes struggling to breathe as his lungs were consumed by whooping cough reports news.com.au.
The videos were taken by his mother, Catherine, who kept them to herself since Riley passed away in March of 2015, but in hope that this video will convince others to vaccinate against the potentially fatal disease she is sharing them.
“I have always kept these videos to myself, as it makes my blood run cold listening to my beautiful boy cough like that,” she wrote on Facebook.
“But we are sharing this in the hopes that it will convince just one more pregnant mum to protect their baby from this disease.”
Baby Riley presented with a cough and was sent to the Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth. Within days the cough developed into a “whoop” sound, and destroyed his little lungs.
Although still devastated from the loss of their son, Riley’s parents are using this experience to share with others the importance of vaccination, and for mums be educated on how they can keep their babies as healthy as possible and prevent spreading infection.
“Whooping cough can be deadly in young babies … but it can now be prevented,” Mrs Hughes writes.
“A whooping cough vaccine in the 3rd trimester of each pregnancy provides excellent protection from whooping cough to newborns (who are too young to be vaccinated). Keeping those who are sick away from newborns is also important.”
The family has made it their mission to “help ensure no more babies die from this disease”.
“I loved being Riley’s mum for those four weeks. I wish it were longer,” Mrs Hughes captioned the very personal video message.
“Please share to help ensure no more babies die from this disease, which I hope one day will be relegated to the history books.”
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