A one-year-old boy who was initially sent home from an emergency room with a diagnosis of croup and flu has been declared brain dead, according to his parents, who say he will be taken off life support on Friday, April 17.
The child, Alastor, fell ill in early January. His mother, Maegan Coffin, told Denver-based outlet KDVR that she brought him to the emergency room on Jan. 9, where doctors diagnosed him with influenza and croup — a common respiratory condition in young children — and discharged him with antiviral medication and steroids.
Within 24 hours, his condition deteriorated sharply.
Coffin said Alastor began struggling to breathe the following night, prompting a second trip to the ER. During that visit, she said, complications escalated rapidly.
“After they did the X-ray, he stopped breathing,” Coffin told KDVR. She added that medical staff were unable to intubate him before transferring him to another hospital. He was later airlifted to a third facility.
According to the family, those transfers resulted in a prolonged period without sufficient oxygen — a critical factor in brain injury cases.
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Since that night, Alastor had remained in a coma, his father, Eric Ryan, wrote in a GoFundMe campaign created to support the family. The parents have been dividing their time between the hospital and home, where they are caring for their four other children.
On April 12, Ryan shared a devastating update on Facebook, confirming that doctors had declared Alastor brain dead after a series of medical tests.
“Alastor failed his tests and was pronounced dead yesterday afternoon,” Ryan wrote. “We always understood how severe his situation was, but we would never give up hope on him.”
He described his son as “a happy baby” who had quickly become “the center of our family,” adding that witnessing his other children say goodbye had been emotionally devastating.
The family has chosen to keep Alastor on life support until April 17 to allow time for final arrangements and to create keepsakes, including molds of his hands and feet.
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“Please continue to pray for our family as we try to navigate through this terrible nightmare,” Ryan wrote in a subsequent update.
The parents have indicated they are exploring potential legal action, though no formal case has been filed. Medical professionals not involved in the case note that severe respiratory infections in infants can escalate unpredictably, but prolonged oxygen deprivation is a known cause of irreversible brain damage.
The case raises questions about emergency response protocols, inter-hospital transfers, and the challenges of managing rapidly progressing pediatric respiratory illnesses.
