Vaccine approval a ray of hope for Cork boy

Kian Barnes-Aabo's immunity is still recovering from chemotherapy which he had when he was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of two

Kian Barnes-Aabo with his mum Sarah, dad Charlie, and sister Sophie on Kian's last day at Crumlin children's hospital. Sophie's care for her brother won the hearts of the nation on the 2019 'Late Late Toy Show'.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval of vaccines for children aged 5-11 is a ray of positivity after a “terrifying” two years.

That is according to parent Sarah Barnes-Aabo, whose son Kian is seven, and medically vulnerable. 

From Glanmire in Cork, Kian was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of two, and underwent three-and-a-half years of chemotherapy. During that time Kian contracted a common cold virus, and because the chemotherapy left him immuno-suppressed, his immune system overreacted.

“He contracted a virus which basically paralysed him from the neck down overnight, and he needed a tracheostomy which creates an artificial airway in his neck, and he has been highly ventilated for almost two years,” said Ms Barnes-Aabo.

Although Kian is doing “fantastically well” in his recovery, and was even well enough to start attending school in September, he is still medically vulnerable on many different levels.

He’s a little boy whose immunity is still recovering from chemotherapy, and because Kian has an artificial airway he would be more vulnerable to bacteria and viruses. 

"He’s still ventilated by night and is recovering from the paralysis so he’s also in a wheelchair,” she said.

Ms Barnes-Aabo said that her family have been used to hyper-hygiene vigilance since Kian’s leukemia diagnosis in 2017, but the advent of Covid brought their concerns to new heights.

“For parents of medically vulnerable children, you can't explain that level of stress when Covid hit. It was a very scary time for us,” she said.

“Think about how anybody felt when they first heard about Covid, the terror that it struck into the hearts of everybody, a virus that can attack anyone healthy young and fit and reduce them to being an ICU ventilated patient. 

"The worst possible scenario is to be ventilated, where you become so unwell that you need a machine to breathe for you. Now imagine, like Kian, you’re already on this machine. It was terrifying for our family and it's the same for every other family with a medically vulnerable child,” she said.

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Ms Barnes-Aabo said that a vaccine for Kian, which can be expected to roll out after Christmas pending Niac approval, will finally give them some level of relief and security.

“It would make a big difference, it would give us a level of security that we don't have. I’m sure it would give a lot of parents of medically vulnerable children a sense of relief that if our child does contract Covid this lessens the risk of very severe side-effects,” she said.

“When you're a parent of a medically vulnerable child there's a baseline of worry that you never leave, especially while there's a global pandemic. But we have to look at the positives, I think that's what keeps you going, and this is a big positive -,” she added.