Sebastian Downing, the Terrace teen battling a series of viral infections attacking most of his vital organs, has passed away in a Vancouver hospital.
According to a family friend speaking to the Terrace Standard Sebastian succumbed to the unusual ailment on the evening of May 27.
Sabastian’s mother, Corrine Stewart, posted to Facebook to vocalize her thanks for the community support and medical efforts.
“He had an amazing team of countless doctors and nurses from his first night in Terrace to his last minute here in Vancouver,” Corinne Stewart, Sebastian’s mother, wrote on Facebook. “Each and every one of them did everything in their power to keep him alive and give us just one more day.
“Also, everyone of you and plus others that kept him and us in your thoughts and prayers every day through this ordeal; I know it kept him going for this long. We are forever grateful for all of your kindness and love.”
Sebastian initially went into the hospital in Terrace on April 24 for cold and flu symptoms that had caused his breathing to become very shallow. It was then that doctors discovered his condition was much more serious and required a medevac to Vancouver General Hospital the next day.
His diagnosis of both Influenza B and Staphamourous led to sepsis, a life-threatening illness caused by the immune system’s strong reaction to infection. Sebastian had been hooked up to three machines with intravenous medicine for the past four weeks, including an Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation machine that functioned as an external set of lungs.
However, within a 24-hour period subsequent complications brought his 33-day battle to an end.
READ MORE: Terrace teen on life support after contracting serious viral infection
The 17-year-old had been a student at Caledonia Secondary School in Terrace and was expected to start his dual-credit courses in Northwest Community College’s culinary program in August.
To help the family with costs, friends have set a new fundraising goal on their GoFundMe page titled ‘Remembering Sebastian’, which has currently raised $11,650 of their $15,000 goal.
Last week the Terrace Standard misidentified Sebastian Downing as Sebastian Stewart. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
brittany@terracestandard.com
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