Chicken Pox and Acute Respiratory Distress - Need HELP!

[Cindy]

MY 37 YEAR OLD SON HAS CHICKEN POX.HE HAS BEEN IN ICU FOR 7 DAYS.HE IS ARDS,VERY ILL.DOCTORS SAY HE MOST LIKLEY WILL NOT LIVE.HE IS NOT GETTING ANT BETTER.ON LIFE SUPPORT.KEEPS RUNNING FEVER,BLOOD PRESSURE NOT GOOD HIGH TO LOW.HAVE YOU EVER HAD THIS BEFORE THEY SAY IT IS VERY RARE.WITH A HIGH RATE OF DEATH.DR NELSON LUNG DOCTOR.PROVIDENCE MEDICAL CENTER  ,KANSAS CITY KANSAS

[National Jewish]

Varicella-Zoster, more commonly called chickenpox, can occur in young, healthy adults and tends to be more severe than when it occurs in children.  It is possible for the chickenpox virus to infect the lungs causing pneumonia, which is often severe and can be life threatening, as your son’s doctors have suggested.
Acyclovir®, an anti-viral medicine, can be helpful for those people who have a healthy immune system when given early in the illness prior to Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) occurring.  ARDS is a condition where the lung fills with fluid and is not able to maintain the most helpful levels of oxygen, the gas needed by all cells in the body, and carbon dioxide, the waste gas.  This condition is caused by injury to the lung, such as pneumonia in your son’s situation.

[Jenni2002]

Cindy
I can only imagine how hard a time it is for you.
I am a survivor of ARDS. It's over 3 years now. I spent a month in ICU on a ventilator, another month in hospital and 2 more months getting strong enough to return to work. I was 48 at the time. My son and my mother must have been going through a lot of what you are going through now. I wish they had access, at the time, to the support group for families of ARDS patients: see
http://www.ards.org/.
It is a wonderful site that I found after I got better. I hope your son will be OK. I'm writing this to let you know that while ARDS is a very serious illness, people like me do survive. The loving prayers of friends and family I feel helped me to pull through.
Best wishes

Jenni2002

[pikamom]

I hope your son will be alright. A woman on the prayer list at our church had that and hung in the balance for several months, and it looked hopeless, but she came through it and gradually recovered. Also, there was an article in readers digest about someone with that, again looked hopeless, but they tried a radical new treatment and it worked. Don't remember what that treatment was, but it was in Reader's Digest, I believe a recent one.