NJ child flu death: Mom speaks out after 2-year-old son was sent home from Morristown Medical Center
MORRISTOWN, New Jersey (WABC) — The parents of the first child to die from the flu in New Jersey this season spoke out exclusively to Eyewitness News about their heartbreak.
Two-year-old Isaias Castillo’s mother says the family took him to the emergency room with a fever but they were sent home — and hours later he died.
Family members told Eyewitness News they believe his death could have been prevented.
“I will never be the same, my children will never be the same, my family will never be the same, and to them it’s just another number,” Giselle Castillo said.
Castillo’s 2-year-old son Isaias was the center of her world. It’s a world that how now been left shattered.
Almost a week after his death, his toys still sit in the family room, just as he left them.
“He is the biggest blessing that we have ever had and that he changed so many lives, and how much we love him and miss him,” Castillo said.
Castillo said her son had a fever of 101.2 degrees last Sunday night.
On Monday morning she and her husband brought him to the ER at Morristown Medical Center. Castillo says they were told he had the flu and then instructed to give him Tylenol or Motrin.
She says his fever came down slightly that afternoon. But by that evening she says he had a 105-degree fever and he was having seizures.
“It was very traumatic, I was scared and I screamed for my husband to call 911,” Castillo said.
Castillo says the next morning Isaias died at the hospital. Isaias is the first pediatric flu death in New Jersey this flu season.
Castillo wishes Isaias wasn’t discharged the day before.
“Morristown should never have let him go home in the morning that we were there,” she said.
Castillo says Isaias wasn’t vaccinated because he wasn’t in day care.
He was scheduled to get his flu shot later this month.
“He was the light of every room, he touched every single person he ever met, he was the center of attention wherever he went, anybody that met him,” Castillo said. “He was so humble. He was so kind, playful, so full of energy.”
Eyewitness News has reached out to the hospital for a comment but has not heard back.
A GoFundMe has been started to help support the family.
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