The parents of a 1-year-old who was in a coma for three months were told their son's life support would be terminated
Credit: GoFunMe
A toddler who was sent home from the emergency room with a diagnosis of the croup has now been declared brain dead — and his parents have been told he will be taken off life support on Friday, April 17.
Maegan Coffin told KDVR that her one-year-old son, Alastor, began to feel sick in January. On Jan. 9, she brought him to the emergency room. "They diagnosed him with the flu and the croup and sent him home," she said. He was prescribed antivirals and steroids. But the next night, Alastor struggled to breathe, and the family returned to the ER.
Credit: GoFunMe
"After they did the X-ray, he stopped breathing," she said, telling the outlet that the hospital was unsuccessful in intubating Alastor, so he was sent to a second hospital, and then finally, airlifted to a third — which Coffin said led to a long period without oxygen.
"Since that night, Alastor has been in a coma," his father, Eric Ryan, wrote in a GoFundMe established to support the family, as Ryan and Coffin are splitting their time between the hospital and home, where they have four other children.
Ryan shared in a heartbreaking April 12 Facebook update that Alastor, with his siblings by his bedside, had been declared brain dead. "Alastor failed his tests and was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon. It took me a while to be able to even write this. We always understood how severe his situation was but we would never give up hope on him. Especially since he was a healthy baby."
"He was such a happy baby and in his short time he became the center of our family … watching them each break down destroyed a part of me. None of them deserved this."
Credit: GoFunMe
Ryan shared in a later update that Alastor will remain on life support until April 17, "allowing us time to arrange everything and get molds of his hands and feet."
"Please continue to pray for our family as we try to navigate through this terrible nightmare," he wrote. The family has said they are looking into legal options.
PEOPLE has reached out to the family for comment.
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