'It was truly a team effort': LHSC recounts race to save baby Waylon

After 20-month-old Waylon Saunders fell through the ice on a pool at his babysitter’s house last month and was submerged for five minutes, it was a race against the clock to the save the toddler’s life.

Three weeks after his brush with death, the team at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) in London, Ont. are recounting the herculean undertaking it took to save young Waylon.

According to a news release from LHSC, on Jan. 24 20-month-old Waylon fell through the ice covering a pool at his babysitter’s house, where it is estimated he was submerged for five minutes.

Firefighters were the first to arrive on scene, followed by EMS. Waylon was transported to Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital in Petrolia, Ont.

Dr. Nathan Taylor was on duty that day, and once the gravity of the situation became apparent, everyone who was available came down to help.

“The other doctors that I work with at our family health team came running, left their offices, to help out,” Taylor said.

Doctors coordinated efforts with the nearest tertiary care hospital – LHSC’s Children’s Hospital – where Dr. Janice Tijssen was the physician on-call that day for the paediatric critical care unit (PCCU). Tijssen immediately dispatched the Children’s Hospital Neonatal Paediatric Transport Team to Petrolia.

Back at Charlotte Eleanor Englehart Hospital in Petrolia, Waylon’s body temperature was so low that their equipment was unable to read it. In addition, the toddler was also in cardiac arrest.

Image (left to right): Jessi Baer and Charity Lindsay of the Children’s Hospital Neonatal Paediatric Transport Team, Dr. Janice Tijssen and mom Gillian Burnett with son Waylon Saunders at LHSC's Children's Hospital in London, Ont. (Source: London Health Sciences Centre)

Nurses from ED and acute care units, lab techs and EMS stayed to help.

“It was truly a team effort: lab techs were holding portable heaters in the room at one point; EMS personnel also helped out by rotating through as compressors and helping with managing his airway and nurses were even running to microwave water to help with warming,” Taylor explained. “And the whole time we had support on the line from the team in London.”

Taylor estimated that as many as 20 people were working to keep Waylon alive while at the hospital in Petrolia.

Speaking with Tijssen over the phone from London, the team performed CPR on Waylon for just under three hours in order to sustain a pulse.

Shortly after the team from Children’s Hospital arrived, a pulse was detected. According to LHSC, once Waylon was stabilized, he was transported to London’s Children’s Hospital.

Upon arrival in London, the PCCU team continued in stabilizing Waylon, which included rewarming and neuroprotection. Waylon was then put under sedation.

At LHSC, Tijssen estimates that as many as 10 staff members were involved in Waylon’s immediate care upon his arrival, plus the dozens of other people who cared for the toddler during the extend of his stay.

Waylon Saunders is seen in a submitted photo in the weeks prior to his hospitalization after falling into a pool. (Source: Submitted)

Nearly two weeks after his harrowing ordeal, Waylon was discharged from Children’s Hospital where he is now recovering at home.

A long road to recovery lies ahead, but the Saunders family are hopeful recovering at home will expedite that recovery.

For both Taylor and Tijssen, it was a “combination of skill, determination and teamwork that kept Waylon alive that day.”

“He beat the odds. Everyone worked so well together and the transition was seamless between different stages of his care journey,” Tijssen said. “Everyone used their skills, and we truly worked as a team. We couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.”