Windsor boy with severe health issues needs medical masks after COVID-19 wipes out supply
Caleb Dresser is eight years old and needs to wear a medical mask outside to live
Windsor mother Heather Dresser says fears over COVID-19 are driving down supplies of essential medical masks needed to keep her eight-year-old son safe and healthy.
Dresser's son, Caleb lives with 10 medical diagnoses, including severe asthma, moderate autism, inverted hips and low muscle tone. Despite his age, Caleb weighs roughly 46 pounds, and also relies on a gastrostomy tube for nutrition.
Along with that, he has 30 allergies — 12 of which are "really severe," according to Dresser — meaning he's only able to exit the house while wearing a medical mask his size.
"It's not a simple tie it at the ears situation," she said. "It's something that has to fit him and protect him and be safe for everything that he has to go through."
Health Canada has previously said there's little evidence to suggest wearing a mask is a useful way to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 if worn by healthy or asymptomatic people.
Nonetheless, Dresser said masks are in such short supply that prior to circulating a call for help on Facebook, she only had 10 masks left. Thanks to the help of another parent, she now has 10 masks, as well as half a box.
- Watch Heather Dresser talk about Caleb and his need for medical masks:
"Basically, I called around to the different medical suppliers in Windsor [and] we were told that nothing would be available until pretty much June for the most part, and that we couldn't reserve anything — it was a first-come, first-served basis," she said.
In the meantime, Dresser said she's had to limit Caleb's "outdoor adventures," out of fear that they might run out of masks and risk endangering his life.
"It's frustrating for people that need the items the most that can't get them anymore," she said.
And Dresser isn't the only parent concerned about a lack of mask supplies.
... We were told that nothing would be available until pretty much June for the most part ...- Heather Dresser
As a parent involved with Little Hands Kids for a Cause, a Windsor-Essex non-profit that provides support to children living with serious illnesses, she said it's also concerning that "165 of [Caleb's] sick friends" who also depend on medical masks can't get access to them.
In addition to concerns over low supplies of medical masks, Dresser said she's concerned about the stockpiling of food over self-isolation concerns.
"Caleb's also considered moderate autism, which also comes with dietary restrictions," she said. "[There are] some foods he just won't eat — he would rather die than eat them."
"Heaven forbid people start stockpiling foods that he eats. Every autism parent in the country will be at the same standstill — there's only certain things that our kids will eat."
With files from Vince Robinet