Oklahoma Baby Remains on Life-Support at Dallas Hospital Due to RSV

An Oklahoma baby is fighting for his life after battling the highly contagious and common RSV.

Two-month-old Jakobi Garland remains on life support at Medical City Children’s in Dallas after initially coming down with a cough last week.

His parents, Destiny Dodson and Jacob Garland said they first visited the pediatrician, then made a late-night run to the emergency room after Jakobi started running a high fever.

“We took him to the hospital and he couldn’t breathe,” said his mother Destiny. “He was having the hardest time breathing.”

Doctors at their local hospital said tests for RSV came back negative, despite Jakobi showing symptoms for the respiratory virus and he was sent home.

The following day, the parents took their son to see another doctor and this time a test for RSV came back positive.

He was sent home with medicine and instructions for breathing treatments, but the following day his temperature dipped dangerously low.

“I looked at him in his car seat and he was blue,” said his mother, who started performing CPR as the couple rushed to the hospital.

Doctors in Oklahoma transferred him to Medical City Children’s, where Jakobi has remained on life-support since last Friday.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever went through,” said Destiny. “And it’s hard knowing I can’t hold him. I can’t touch him.”

Jakobi is slowly making progress, breathing a little more on his own, and his parents are sharing his story to urge others to trust their instincts.

“We both had gut feelings but we didn’t follow them, so follow your gut feeling,” said his mother.

She stressed if you can take your child to a hospital that specializes in pediatric care, go there first.

“We don’t want anybody else, if it can be helped, to go through that.”