We are in the worst time of the year for illnesses, and respiratory illnesses are spreading quickly and intensely. A 1-year-old boy in Minnesota is being reported as the state's first RSV-related death of the season, according to CBS News Minnesota.
More from Mom.com: What Is RSV?
"I got the pictures to make myself comfortable with coming home and not seeing him," Shacorra Parker said of her son, Mas'Aki Roberts Jr. "My baby coat is upstairs and hanging on top of the door. He never will put the coat on again."
According to the outlet, Mas'Aki loved Paw Patrol and singing songs with his dad. "I used to sing him a song, 'da da loves you, da da loves you, yes he does,' and he'd sing along with me," his father, Mas'Aki Roberts Sr., told the outlet.
Both Mas'Aki and his sibling were diagnosed with both COVID-19 and RSV at the same time on Thanksgiving. At the hospital, they were both given medication and sent home. Then, Parker says she came home from work and found her son unresponsive and blue.
"Why didn't no one tell me that RSV can take your child's life," she asked, choking back tears. "They (doctors) told me that he was a healthy baby, nothing was wrong with him. He just stopped breathing."
According to Cedars-Sinai, common symptoms of RSV in kids include runny nose, fever, wheezing, trouble eating, drinking or swallowing, trouble breathing, and cough. Depending on the severity of their symptoms, they may need additional treatments, or even hospitalization.
Mas'Aki celebrated his first birthday only a few months before his death.
"I don't have that opportunity to see my baby get older or go to prom," Roberts lamented. They are preparing for his funeral, which will happen next week.
