Youngest H1N1 victim mourned in London
Family members had mild flu symptoms
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 8:50 PM ET
CBC News
A family in London, Ont., have buried their baby boy, believed to be the youngest person in Canada to succumb to the H1N1 virus.
Two-month-old Ethan Desabrais died Monday after a short bout of the flu.
Ethan's family sobbed as they gathered around his tiny white coffin at the front of a London chapel before the start of the service Thursday morning. A white bonnet covered his head in the open casket and a teddy bear was placed at the other end.
About 50 people — mainly family and friends — attended the service.
Later in the day, his parents told a news conference their son only took ill on Sunday night.
Swift deterioration
He had a bit of a cough and some congestion, said his mother, Carla, who planned to take him to the doctor the next day. But when she went to change him in the middle of the night after feeding him, she knew something was seriously wrong.
"He looked like he was sleeping and when I went to flip him over onto his back, his lips were blue and I could tell that in the dark," the mother said.
She and her husband, Billy, rushed their son to hospital early Monday but he was declared dead 20 minutes after they arrived.
Both parents and their two other children — aged nine years and 18 months — had been sick with moderate flu-like symptoms earlier in the week. But Carla and Billy said they didn't realize how serious a threat the H1N1 flu was.
Ethan would not have been eligible for a shot, according to the priority list, as he was under six months old.
The other family members were eligible to get inoculated, but none did prior to Ethan's death. All of them have since had shots, and Billy and Carla Desabrais have urged other parents to get vaccinated.
