The "Scariest Night of Our Lives" Story

It was an ordinary day. Carol and I were relaxing. Last night we had one of the biggest scares of our life. It happened during the night. Our son Derek, who was nine months old, was sleeping in the baby's room room next to our room. We thought we heard him moving around in his crib, so Carol got up to check on him. She went into his room and picked him up and sat on the rocking chair to try to get him back to sleep. All of a sudden he went limp. Carol yelled for me and quickly brought him over to our bedroom. A few months before I had taken training in CPR at school in case I ever needed it to help at school. Well, now was the time it was needed. I told Carol to call the doctor while I laid him on the foot of the bed and started CPR. It seemed like forever, but the doctor finally answered the phone and Carol described what was happening. He called immediately for an ambulance. Shortly after, Derek started to move on the bed and I stopped the CPR. He began to cry and Carol picked him up in her arms and headed for the front door. We could hear the ambulance in the distance and turned on our front light to help them find our house. He was burning up it seemed. Didn't take his temperature, but we knew he had an extremelly high fever. The ambulance arrived and Carol and Derek were immediately loaded in the back for the four to five minute ride to the hospital. Emergency room workers took over as soon as they arrived and I arrived shortly after the ambulance. Dr. Beittel, our pediatrician, arrived about the same time that I did. He told Carol and I to wait in the waiting room while he helped the emergency room doctors treat Derek. Not long after he sat down with us to explain exactly what had happened to Derek. It seems that his temperature had risen extremely fast because of the onset of Roseola. The rapid temperature spike caused his nervous system to short circuit and shut down which caused him to lose consciousness. The doctor wasn't sure if my CPR helped or whether his temperature started to drop on it's own, but he was stable now and was receiving medication for the high fever. Pretty scary night for all of us. The doctor looked at us and realizing what we had just been through, asked if we would feel better if he was kept in the hospital overnight so they could monitor him throughout the night. We both agreed it would be best and would allow us to get a few hours of rest. I called in for a sick day the following morning and mid-morning we headed back to the hospital to bring our son home with us. Wasn't long before we saw the red rash appear which is the result of the viral Roseola or baby measles. It was a night we would never forget. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.