Windsor baby sent home from hospital later diagnosed with meningitis

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One of Windsor’s youngest residents is in a London hospital room fighting a potentially deadly infection her family believes should have been diagnosed sooner.

Lethargic, feverish, and unable to keep food down, three-month-old Evalynn Brunelle spent part of Christmas Day at Erie Shores HealthCare in Leamington, the hospital her family chose in hopes of avoiding a lengthy emergency department wait.

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Mother Katelynn Hawes, 23, told the Star the hospital ran multiple tests on little Evalynn over several hours. Even though the baby remained unwell, she was sent home, Hawes said.

The next morning, on Thursday, Dec. 26, Hawes and partner Quentin Brunelle, 22, brought their still-sick daughter to Windsor Regional Hospital’s Met campus, where she was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis, an uncommon and life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord. By Friday morning, she was en route to the Children’s Hospital in London.

She has suffered multiple strokes and seizures — and she may have lasting brain damage, Hawes said Tuesday.

“Babies are resilient, so we are praying and praying it’s not as severe as it seems at this moment,” Hawes said during a phone call from London.

“They made it very clear that this is a very severe case, one of the more severe cases that they’ve seen. They told us to prepare for the worst but hope for the best — that was extremely hard to hear.

“It’s a roller-coaster of emotions. One minute we’ll be sitting here and we’ll be bawling our eyes out, and then the next we’re so angry and mad.”

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After a relative’s social media post about the family’s experience with Erie Shores HealthCare garnered significant attention online in just days, including more than 1,000 reactions and hundreds of comments, Erie Shores HealthCare took to social media to publicly address the issue. In a Facebook post on Saturday (Dec. 28), the hospital said it has “initiated a thorough review of the concern” and “will be launching a subsequent third-party review.”

“Given our obligation to protect the privacy of all ESHC patients, we cannot make any specific comments about a particular concern or patient situation,” the hospital wrote.

“We want to assure our community that any time we receive complaints or concerns from patients or their families, we take them very seriously. Our team is committed to reviewing these concerns thoroughly, ensuring that appropriate actions are taken where necessary to address them and to improve the care we provide.

“Upon the completion of the review, the family will be contacted to discuss the findings, and recommendations for improvements will be implemented.”

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In an email to the Star on Tuesday, Erie Shores HealthCare spokesperson Kevin Black confirmed the hospital’s post was in response to a social media post by the Hawes family.

“As the specifics of this case, like all of the patient care we provide, are subject to patient privacy laws, we are unable to make any further comment at this time,” the hospital posted on social media.

Hawes and Brunelle, who also have a two-year-old son, are urging other parents to advocate strongly for their children.

“I can’t imagine that happening to somebody else,” Hawes said.

The family expects to remain in London for at least a month, she said. As of Tuesday, Evalynn was still having seizures, her heart rate was dropping, and the family was waiting on the results of an EEG (electroencephalogram) to better understand her brain activity.

A relative has started a Baby Evalynn GoFundMe fundraiser to support the family during Evalynn’s London hospital stay. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 200 donors had contributed over $17,000.

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