Ronan Allen Wilson was born 12 weeks early, via emergency C-section at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland. He was born Nov. 20, 2005. He weighed 1 pound, 15 ounces.
It was a week before his parents, Bonnie and Anthony Wilson of Hazel Dell, were allowed to hold him, and 84 days before he was allowed to leave the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.
Ronan came into the world too early. He left in the same manner.
He died 9:45 p.m. April 8 at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. This time, his parents were touching him. Unable to look at Ronan’s sweet face, which was swollen and attached to tubes, Bonnie said she put her head on Ronan’s chest, listening after the ventilator was turned off as her son’s heartbeat faded. Anthony held one of Ronan’s hands, his head on Ronan’s arm. A pastor from Brush Prairie Baptist Church said prayers.
Ronan’s death came after his body was overtaken by E. coli O157:H7 bacteria, which he contracted at his child care center.
Ronan’s death was the first from E. coli in Clark County since at least 1988, which is as far back as the state’s computer database goes, said Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County health officer.
Statewide, one other person has died from E. coli in the past three years.
Bonnie, 36, and Anthony, 35, wearing matching “I Ronan” beaded bracelets made by family members during the week Ronan was at Doernbecher, talked Saturday at their home about their youngest son.
Their son Gavin, 7, was at a friend’s house. They have been trying to keep Gavin around friends and his cousins as much as possible. They see it in Gavin’s face when he’s home, that he’s at a loss without his brother.
“As an adult, you can’t even understand death,” Bonnie said. “So how can a child?”
They played a video that was shown at Ronan’s April 17 memorial service at Brush Prairie Baptist Church. His short life flashed by in moments to which all parents can relate: There’s Ronan grinning at Disneyland, wearing a monkey backpack/leash his parents knew they’d need if they wanted to keep their high-energy child in their sights.
Another image depicted Ronan asleep in his stroller, his head on his shoulder, the picture of bliss.
And the birthday photos. There’s Ronan, bare-chested in his high chair on his first birthday, his parents knowing the mess that’s about to be made when Ronan gets his first taste of cake.
Then suddenly, Ronan’s a big boy, standing on a chair to blow out the candles on his cake at his fourth birthday party.
In many of the pictures, he was with his brother: wearing matching pajamas on Christmas, wrestling on the floor, posing on the sand along the Oregon Coast.
Bonnie said about 350 people attended Ronan’s service. They’ve received an outpouring of support from not only friends and family but strangers, too.
o Memorial contributions may be made at any U.S. Bank branch for the “Ronan Wilson Medical Fund.”
o A fundraising event will be 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 8, at Blackstone, 3200 S.E. 164th Ave.
While Ronan was born premature — Bonnie had toxemia, or pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, in both pregnancies, which resulted in early births for Ronan and Gavin — and was sick a lot his first few years of life with colds and ear infections, he had been getting better. He was expected to outgrow some problems, such as fever-induced seizures, of which he’d had three.
Despite his fragile start, Bonnie, a hair stylist, said her son was fearless. And it wasn’t just from watching Gavin.
“That was just his personality. He was very strong-willed.”
At age 3, he started getting upset when people still were calling him, “Baby Ronan,” said Anthony, security operations supervisor at Convergent Technologies Inc. in Portland.
They smiled as they recalled how Ronan, when he woke in the middle of the night, wouldn’t just walk into his parents’ room. He’d run. Or he’d wake up at 5 a.m. and go into Gavin’s room, where he’d flip on the light and start playing with toys.
Gavin “would yell at him to go away,” Anthony said.
They said Ronan loved trains, dinosaurs and dragons but was particularly fond of monkeys. When he went to a Build-A-Bear store and spotted a monkey, he knew right away that’s what he wanted. His beloved stuffed monkey was presented to Gavin at the memorial service.
Ronan arrived at Doernbecher on April 1, four days after Bonnie first took him to see a doctor for what the doctor thought was the flu. The E. coli first attacked Ronan’s kidneys, and he was put on dialysis. Then it attacked the lining of his colon, and on April 3 he had surgery to remove part of his colon. He would never wake up from the surgery. Brain scans showed the bacteria had destroyed parts of his brain. Bonnie and Anthony were told that even if Ronan did recover, he’d be physically disabled and brain-damaged. Bonnie tried to make sense of that. Would it be like autism? Down syndrome?
No, a doctor said, “he’ll just be in the clouds all the time. He won’t even be there.”
Then Ronan’s brain began swelling.
Ultimately, his parents had to decide whether they wanted doctors to crack open Ronan’s skull to allow the brain room to keep swelling.
By then, they knew it was time to say goodbye.
In his short life, Ronan taught his parents a lot about how to live it.
They are going forward, one step at a time. Bonnie allows herself to be angry and to cry, but she’s surprised herself with her strength.
“Ronan was an old soul,” she said. “He had a wiseness in his eyes.”
“Nobody knows their destiny,” she added. “But I think he knew he had to take in everything while he could. I think everyone should take that lesson.”
Source of deadly infection still mystery; parents urge openness
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, E. coli O157:H7 is the most common toxin-producing bacteria in North America. The original source of an infection is often cattle manure, which can enter the body with undercooked hamburger or unpasteurized milk or fruit juices. An infected person can spread the infection to another person through human stool, when people don’t thoroughly wash their hands after using the toilet or after diapering a child.
Ronan attended a child care center which has been operated by Dianne and Larry Fletch out of their Hazel Dell home for 20 years. Three other children were hospitalized but have recovered, and nine others tested positive.
Bonnie Wilson said she still doesn’t know the source of the infection or exactly how it was transmitted.
Clark County health officer Dr. Alan Melnick said on April 9, in his first public announcement of the outbreak, that those details often remain a mystery.
Both Bonnie and Anthony Wilson said Saturday they wished the health department would have made a public announcement earlier so doctors and parents would have been more vigilant. The first child at the center tested positive March 19. When Bonnie first took Ronan to see a doctor March 29, even though she mentioned a child had E. coli, the doctor assumed Ronan had the flu.
“We don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Bonnie said. “My goal is to tell Ronan’s story and make it known that he mattered.”
While health issues have been resolved, the child care center remains closed while the state Department of Early Learning conducts an investigation.
Bonnie Wilson said her son loved attending the center, as did his older brother, Gavin.
“I feel like she’s family,” she said of Dianne Fletch. “I really think they did their best.”
Source of deadly infection still mystery; parents urge openness
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, E. coli O157:H7 is the most common toxin-producing bacteria in North America. The original source of an infection is often cattle manure, which can enter the body with undercooked hamburger or unpasteurized milk or fruit juices. An infected person can spread the infection to another person through human stool, when people don’t thoroughly wash their hands after using the toilet or after diapering a child.
Ronan attended a child care center which has been operated by Dianne and Larry Fletch out of their Hazel Dell home for 20 years. Three other children were hospitalized but have recovered, and nine others tested positive.
Bonnie Wilson said she still doesn’t know the source of the infection or exactly how it was transmitted.
Clark County health officer Dr. Alan Melnick said on April 9, in his first public announcement of the outbreak, that those details often remain a mystery.
Both Bonnie and Anthony Wilson said Saturday they wished the health department would have made a public announcement earlier so doctors and parents would have been more vigilant. The first child at the center tested positive March 19. When Bonnie first took Ronan to see a doctor March 29, even though she mentioned a child had E. coli, the doctor assumed Ronan had the flu.
“We don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Bonnie said. “My goal is to tell Ronan’s story and make it known that he mattered.”
While health issues have been resolved, the child care center remains closed while the state Department of Early Learning conducts an investigation.
Bonnie Wilson said her son loved attending the center, as did his older brother, Gavin.
“I feel like she’s family,” she said of Dianne Fletch. “I really think they did their best.”
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
