Tyler Nicolay is finally coming home.
The 18-year-old Innisfail teen, stricken with the potentially deadly hantavirus, is out of a medically induced coma and was able to take his first steps last week since being stricken in late August. He is expected to be home this week with his family after spending more than a month in a Calgary hospital.
“He is doing good now. He is starting to get stronger. He still has a long road ahead of him,” said his mom Jamie who has been at his bedside every day. “He's had a tracheostomy. He had that done. He can talk. He is getting stronger every day.”
It was in the last week of August that Tyler and his family believed that he just might have a simple case of common bronchitis. Doctors had given him a prescription for an inhaler to ease a troublesome hacking cough.
But a few days later he was in a coma on life support. Tyler was rushed to Foothills Medical Centre and following several rounds of blood testing the cause was determined – hantavirus, a rare disease caused by having contact with the urine, droppings or saliva of infected rodents.
Although the transmission of hantavirus to people is uncommon, people who do get sick with the virus initially experience flu-like symptoms, and sometimes nausea and vomiting. In most cases, people go on to develop severe and often fatal lung infection known as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) or hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS).
“It is very rare. They've had three cases in the Calgary hospital in the last five years,” said Jamie, whose family is still at a loss to know how Tyler acquired hantavirus, which has no cure and kills up to 50 per cent of those who are infected with it. “If it was China or South Korea they get 100 cases a year, but here it is pretty rare.”
According to Health Canada the earliest documented case of HPS in Canada was contracted in Alberta in 1989. Since then, there have been more than 70 confirmed cases, with most occurring in Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Before Tyler's case the last one reported in Alberta was in 2005.
Tyler's family is anxious to have the young man home but they also realize his road to a full recovery is still long, as his battle to overcome the illness has taken its toll.
“They tried to wake him up from the coma a couple of times, but he just didn't tolerate it well, but two weeks ago he did come out of it,” said Jamie. “They had to wean him off the tracheostomy.”
She added the family is grateful for the care her son has received at Foothills hospital.
“They have been wonderful. Everybody was so nice and worried,” said Jamie. “Anything he needs or wants. They are looking after him.”
Last June Tyler graduated from Innisfail Junior/Senior High, focusing his efforts on his RAP (registered apprentice program) in the welding trade. Before his illness he had been working at Pidherney's Trucking Ltd. out of Rocky Mountain House.
