His parents say their once happy, energetic baby became critically ill earlier this year after coming down with flu and croup.
A Colorado family is now facing the unimaginable as they prepare to say goodbye to their one-year-old son, Alastor, who is set to be taken off life support on Friday following a sudden and devastating illness.
His parents, Eric Ryan and Maegan Coffin, say their once lively, healthy baby deteriorated rapidly after developing flu and croup.
“On January 9th, my one and a half year old son, Alastor, woke up congested and struggling to breathe,” Maegan shared.
What began as a routine hospital visit soon turned into every parent’s worst fear.
The couple first took Alastor to an emergency department in Northglenn, near Denver, on January 9. He was diagnosed and sent home with medication, but when his condition did not improve, they rushed him back again.
“After they did the X-ray, he stopped breathing,” Coffin recalled in an interview with KDVR Denver.
Doctors attempted to intubate him before transferring him by ambulance to another hospital. His mother believes there may have been a period where he was without oxygen, something she fears may have caused irreversible damage.
Over the weekend, Ryan shared the heartbreaking update that their son had effectively been declared brain dead.
“It took me a while to be able to even write this,” he said. “We always understood how severe his situation was but we would never give up hope on him.”
“None of them deserved this”
In a moment no family should have to endure, Alastor’s siblings were present during a brain activity test, only to be told there was no brain function.
“My other children wanted to be there for his test [last] Friday and watching them each break down destroyed a part of me,” Ryan said. “None of them deserved this. I would do anything just to take their pain away.”
Remembering his son, he described Alastor as “such a happy baby and in his short time he became the center of our family,” adding that he still does not “want to believe this is real.”
Coffin later shared that Alastor had also been diagnosed with the little-known human metapneumovirus, a respiratory infection that, along with croup, can “cause swelling in the throat and make it hard for him to breathe.” The virus has been rising in recent months and can be especially dangerous for infants.
“HMPV causes symptoms very similar to RSV,” says Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases. “This includes upper respiratory symptoms that sometimes progress to pneumonia or bronchiolitis and wheezing.”
As the Coffin family comes to terms with their grief, the parents are now considering legal action against the first hospital that treated their son, questioning whether more could have been done and whether decisions were made too quickly.
Denied access to his son in intensive care
“We wanted to give him time to rest and see if there was any chance that his brain could heal at all,” Ryan wrote.
He added that Alastor’s other organs were “working fine” and that he was not “suffering or taking up a bed that could be used by someone else.” When he asked why there appeared to be a “rush” to carry out brain death testing, he said, “they wouldn’t answer.”
Ryan also described a distressing moment when he was briefly denied access to his son in intensive care.
“I even told the guard that I have been in his room every day and no one has said anything,” he said. “It’s like he almost didn’t believe me… I haven’t threatened anyone here. I haven’t even raised my voice with anyone.”
Although a nurse eventually let him in, the experience only deepened the family’s anguish.
“Not only has this been one of the worst experiences of our lives but this hospital has made it so much worse,” he said.
Now, as they prepare for their final moments with their son, the family is being supported by loved ones, with a fundraiser helping to ease some of the financial strain. Their attorney told KDVR Denver that Alastor is expected to be taken off life support on Friday.