'Lots of rollercoaster runs': Brownsburg family shares RSV journey

BROWNSBURG — For the second year in a row, Central Indiana doctors are noting an increase in RSV.

“I still don’t know a lot about RSV, but I know what’s it done to our family,” Kevin Prindle said.

RSV completely changed Prindle’s twins’ lives. Last July, WRTV first introduced you to the Prindle family as Kennedy and Harper were in the PICU at Riley fighting RSV.

In the year since being discharged, the twins had more hospital stays, doctors’ appointments and trips to the pharmacy. Kennedy and Harper turned a year old in the spring.

“Since then, they’ve been diagnosed with being asthmatic,” Prindle said. To help, the twins take three different medications in the morning and at night. Prindle says doctors blame RSV for the twins’ lasting complications.

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“It’s kind of like a scar every time we have to go or whenever they have to go back and they have to get hooked up to any type of machine,” Prindle said.

For a second year, Riley Hospital for Children is seeing a bump in RSV cases during the summer.

“Once again, I think we’re starting to see a very atypical season,” Riley’s Dr. John Christenson said.

Christenson is keeping a watch on the numbers. Normally, the virus peaks in the winter.

“Mitigation strategies that affected sort of the spread of RSV last year are no longer in place,” Christenson said. He continued, “So it’s very unclear why.”

Above all, the Prindle family wants other parents to see their story and take this virus seriously.

“Looking back at it like all the days truly just run together. It was just one big incident that you just — the most fun that you just never want to have again,” Prindle said.