Cooper Lins

Cooper was a few weeks away from his eighth birthday when he went into septic shock and within 24 hours died in the PICU. (Sepsis and Septic Shock)  He had been sick the week before, tested negative for COVID, strep and influenza. His fever went away after a few days and was back in school. He had a big fall on the playground that week and developed a low grade fever that night and woke up with a fever of 103.2.

Cooper was also throwing up so we thought a different virus from the week before. He seemed to be getting better, stopped getting sick and his fever went down with ibuprofen and Tylenol. He was very uncomfortable, but we thought it was because of the fall on the playground. The next morning he started throwing up again. While getting him cleaned up, we noticed purple mottling under his skin and his lips were turning purple. His temperature also dropped below average.

We didn’t know anything about sepsis or that this was indicating a medical emergency. He threw up again and I took him into the ER. By that time, he was in septic shock and we didn’t know. His torso was turning purple from blood flow to his central organs. He was airlifted to the PICU and was immediately intubated. His blood pressure could never stabilize. He developed DIC and moderate depressed heart functioning. (Sepsis and Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC))

Fluids started building up in his lungs, the doctors moved to drain on his right side. His pulse ended up dropping and after efforts in resuscitating, his heart rate would not stabilize. Our hearts are broken in losing our our super duper Cooper. He was kind, curious, imaginative, friendly and loved to share what he was learning. He was a role model to his younger brother and would play along to his older sister’s ideas of fun. He is deeply missed. We work to further and continue his legacy #BeACooper ?

Source: Becky Lins (mother)