Last May, Ethan Faria celebrated his first birthday as a healthy, thriving child who had just taken his first steps.
Today, Ethan is fighting for his life in the ICU at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children. He has had both of his legs amputated below the knee, his right hand amputated below the wrist, and all of the fingers on his left hand – except for one – amputated.
Ethan contracted a rare bacterium, Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), the most common cause of bacterial meningitis. Hib is an infection of the cerebral and spinal cord fluids. For Ethan, it led to disseminated intravascular coagulation – a condition in which blood clots form in the body’s small blood vessels, cutting off blood supply to organs – and skin necrosis.
Parents Rachel and Humberto Faria were told to prepare for the worst.
Rachel’s longtime friend, Anita Evans, share a bond, as both have Israeli mothers. The friends converse together in Hebrew and have older children of the same age. Evans, who along with another long-time friend, Sara Gregory, spoke to The CJN about their friend Rachel, baby Ethan’s illness, and efforts to raise funds for the family.
On July 24, Ethan developed a fever that quickly escalated. A visit to his family doctor revealed pneumonia and bronchitis.
“Ethan was immediately transferred by ambulance to Sick Kids. Within 30 minutes, his lips and fingertips turned purple, and everything started to unravel,” Evans said.
“The doctors told Rachel and Humberto that they should prepare themselves: Ethan might die. If he made it through the next six hours, he had a chance, but every hour was crucial.”
Ethan went into septic shock as the infection ravaged his body, and doctors pumped him with antibiotics to keep him alive.
A few days later, it was discovered the bacteria Ethan had contracted was one he had been vaccinated for.
Once the cause of severe illness, Hib cases have become rare since a vaccination to protect against it came into wide use in the mid-1980s. Vaccinated children are protected against Hib in combination vaccinations that also other cover diseases such as polio, pertussis, diphtheria and tetanus.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hib can cause severe infection, mostly in infants and children younger than five years of age, and can lead to lifelong disability and even death.
Ethan had his two-, four- and six-month vaccinations and was due for his booster shot at 18 months.
The bacterium spreads from person to person by direct contact or coughing and sneezing.
“Hib is something Ethan picked up three to five days before he took ill. Rachel wants answers. How can this happen in Canada – in Toronto – in this day and age?” Evans asked.
“Rachel doesn’t want another parent to ever go through this, ever.”
Ethan withstood what is hoped to be his last surgery during the first week of September, marking the fifth major surgery he has had in the last month.
“In the first exploratory surgery, the doctors removed all of his skin on his legs and his arms. By doing that, there is no skin to heal, so the last two surgeries he has gone through have been grafts – little pieces of skin from his back, his shoulders and his belly – taking the skin from that area and grafting it onto what’s left of his legs and his arms with the hope it will heal and he will have skin again on that part of his body,” Gregory said.
Evans and Gregory have started an online fundraising campaign (donate here) for the family. Taking care of Ethan will be a full-time job, as he’ll need years of therapy and rehabilitation, as well as to learn how to use prosthetics.
“We set a goal of $50,000. You can get by for a year on $20,000, so if we can raise $50,000, then we can give Rachel two to three years at home with Ethan,” Gregory said.
Word has spread through social media. “People just took to the cause. I have had people reach out with personal messages and donations from as far away as Israel, Australia, Austria, the U.S. and Portugal,” Gregory said.
At time of publication, $90,870 has been raised.