Heartbroken Hamden Family Raises Awareness After 1-Month-Old Son’s Death

HAMDEN, CT — Following the tragic death of her 1-month-old son, a Hamden mother is sharing their story to bring awareness of a rare virus to other families.

Katherine and Mitch DeLancy celebrated the birth of their second child, Ronan, on May 21. Ronan was a “perfectly healthy” 8 ½-pound baby boy who came home to a loving family and a 2-year-old sister who was “overjoyed to meet him,” according to a GoFundMe page that was created by Brenna McVety, Katherine’s sister.

Just 10 days later, Ronan was rushed to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital with seizures, according to McVety.

McVety wrote that Ronan stopped breathing when they arrived, and he was “immediately intubated and placed on a ventilator and a medically induced coma” while doctors frantically tried to determine what was wrong with him.

After “countless blood tests, genetic profiles, lumbar punctures, CAT scans, and MRIs,” doctors determined Ronan was suffering from a variant of human parechovirus, a relatively common virus that can be devastating to newborns, according to the GoFundMe page.

In Ronan’s case, the virus “attacked his brain and has created a condition called Encephalomalacia, which means the white matter in much of his brain” was destroyed, according to the GoFundMe page.

Kat Delancy told CT Insider that Ronan died in her arms at 34 days old.

See also: Obituary: Ronan Duffy DeLancy, Infant, Of Hamden

Yale New Haven Health recently sent out a newsletter alerting physicians about the human parechovirus, saying it “may be underdiagnosed due to lack of awareness,” according to WFSB 3.

Kat Delancy told WFSB 3 that her main reason for wanting to speak out is that she wants “Ronan to have a legacy.” She said she wants to keep his name alive and “I don’t want another family to go through this.”

"Ronan has left a hole in our hearts that will never be fixed," Delancy wrote in an update on the GoFundMe page. "Losing him will never make sense to us. I know there will always be a bit of sadness behind every smile that he’s not with us. We are broken, but coping the best we can right now."

DeLancy has launched a website, Research for Ronan, to help build awareness of human parechovirus.

Read more at WFSB 3 here and CT Insider here.

For more information, visit the GoFundMe page here.

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