Jonathan Pitre, Ottawa’s Butterfly Boy was an inspiration to so many.  He suffered from one of the most painful diseases known in the medical community he always appear to be happy and hopeful.

 

Pitre suffered from a disease known as epidermolysis bullosa (EB) that cause blisters to form on the surface of his skin and even though he couldn’t touch his skin without tearing it, he wanted so badly to be a hockey player. Jonathan made himself the face of EB appearing on talk shows and doing interviews with the hope of helping other cope and inspiring all of us to never give up on our dreams. According to the Huffington Post, Jonathan had entered the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital last Friday when he spiked a fever. He had been battling a skin infection that resisted antibiotics for three weeks. Yet there was no reason for alarm since he had suffered a series of similar medical issues. In the year since his stem cell transplant.

 

The following day, his blood pressure dropped again and doctors treated it with dopamine. But on Monday, Jonathan deteriorated further. His breathing became laboured, and doctors struggled to reverse the advance of sepsis, a condition that results from the body’s runaway response to an infection.

 

Jonathan was moved to the intensive care unit to support his breathing, but one crisis followed another. His lungs filled with fluid and his kidneys failed. He was revived once when his heart stopped. But he still required emergency dialysis.

 

Unwilling to watch her son suffer anymore, Boileau had Jonathan brought back to his hospital room where he had spent much of the past year. She tucked him into bed with his favourite blankets.

He died at 8:28 p.m. Wednesday.

 

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