Honour-roll student, athlete, successful entrepreneur and leader. These are all things that Midhurst teen Rowan Thomson is most known for.
The commitment to achieve those goals is something family and friends are hoping she will find a way to tap into as she continues to fight for her life at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.
The Grade 10 student at Barrie North Collegiate Institute was diagnosed with Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) necrotizing pneumonia in January — a bacterial infection in her blood and lungs — as well as major arterial bleeding in her lungs.
The teen’s body has been in septic shock, which has led to multiple organ issues, said her aunt, Shannon Reed. As a result, the teen has been put on dialysis.
“Pretty much, you name it, it’s happened,” said Reed.
The infection is still unresolved and is antibiotic-resistant, said Reed, which means that while doctors are doing what they can, it will ultimately come down to Rowan to fight it off.
“She is working so hard and that is what we are so grateful for. She is a little bit stubborn and we are thinking right now thank God she is," Reed explained. "She has chosen to fight this and she has chosen to live and survive and there have been moments where that was a little bit up in the air.
“She has figured it out somehow, her body and her, and that’s our wish for her that she continues to have the mental fortitude and the physical ability to fight for herself.”
Reed said they are unsure how Rowan got sick to begin with. From what they've learned, the bacteria is something that simply exists around all of us all of the time.
“Most of our bodies can fight it off. There isn’t an answer as to why Rowan's body reacted this way," said Reed. "As far as we know, she was very healthy. She was playing in a volleyball tournament with this lung infection that she didn’t even know about. She wasn’t sick, she wasn’t coughing … then it just escalated so quickly.”
It was only after Rowan injured her shoulder in that tournament and went to the local emergency department that they learned something was wrong.
“She didn’t have any risk factors. She hurt her collarbone, so they took her in for an X-ray thinking she’d fractured her collarbone," said Reed. "Luckily, the staff at RVH (Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre) did their jobs extremely well and (realized) something else was going on. It just blew up from there.
“To say that we as a family have been blindsided by this is a massive understatement.”
Rowan has undergone multiple high-risk surgeries in recent weeks to try to find and stop the bleed, but so far doctors have been unsuccessful, said Reed.
And while Rowan had been making some progress, and had been moved from the critical care unit (CCU) to the pediatric unit at Sick Kids in Toronto, she has since experienced “very serious and unexpected complications” and is back in the CCU, said her aunt.
Currently, the teen spends most of her time in a medically induced coma and is on a ventilator.
“We are taking things day by day. Stability is one of those words we’ve come to hate, but it also is really important," said Reed. "We are at a point where she’s not better, but she’s not worse and that is what we are going for at this point.”
The close-knit family is grateful for the support of friends and colleagues as they navigate all of the unknowns Rowan’s condition has brought, as well to her teammates and coaches — one of whom has created an online fundraiser that has already raised nearly $19,000.
“My brother works at Mapleview Heights Elementary School and my sister-in-law works at Terry Fox (Elementary School), and staff at both have been extremely supportive,” said Reed.
The family was both surprised and grateful when they learned of the fundraiser created by Rowan’s volleyball coach, she added.
“It's very hard to imagine that this is something (you) would need, because you want to stay hopeful that this is going to be over … but they are so grateful for the level of community support," said Reed. "They’re just blown away — we all are — with how people have come together to want to help them.
"You don’t know until moments like this the support you have in the world and we are all just extremely grateful.”
The money raised will go a long way in helping cover costs of Rowan’s care when she returns home.
“What we do know is the best-case scenario — and what we hope for — is that there will be long-term rehabilitation needs for Rowan and a lot of assisted medical devices and resources," said Reed. "While we have amazing health care here in Canada, that kind of stuff isn’t covered."
She said the money will also help cover costs while her niece continues to recover in hospital and the family divides their time between home and Ronald McDonald House.
“The ins and outs of life also add up really quickly and that is, to me, where this fundraiser will help them just to take some of that pressure off moving forward."