A one-year-old Colorado toddler named Alastor Coffin will be removed from life support this Friday, his devastated parents announced, after a seemingly manageable case of flu and croup escalated into brain death following multiple hospital visits.
Eric Ryan and Maegan Coffin first brought their son to an emergency department in Northglenn, roughly 13 miles north of Denver, on January 9. Doctors diagnosed the boy with flu and croup, prescribed steroids and Tamiflu, and sent the family home. When Alastor failed to improve, his parents rushed him back. During an X-ray, he stopped breathing. Attempts to intubate led to a transfer by ambulance to another hospital, where the family claims a prolonged lack of oxygen occurred.
The parents have described Alastor as the joyful center of their family, a happy baby whose short life bound them all together. In Facebook posts, Eric Ryan expressed the profound pain of watching his other four children break down upon learning their brother would not survive. He emphasized that the family never intended to keep their son on life support indefinitely but sought time to allow any possible recovery of brain function, noting that his other organs appeared to be working without long-term damage.
Ryan questioned the urgency around the brain death test, claiming doctors offered no clear answers when pressed. He also recounted an incident where hospital security prevented him from entering the pediatric intensive care unit late at night, despite his daily presence, forcing a nurse to intervene.
“Not only has this been one of the worst experiences of our lives but this hospital has made it so much worse,” he wrote, expressing frustration over feeling treated like a threat despite remaining calm throughout.
This heartbreaking case arrives amid reports of heightened respiratory illness activity, including flu strains hitting young children particularly hard in recent seasons.