Jonathan Pitre, the Russell teen known as the "Butterfly Child" got to sleep somewhere other than the hospital this week.
Pitre was discharged from his hospital bed in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thanksgiving Day (Canadian, that is) and is now spending nights with his mother, Tina Boileau, in their Minneapolis apartment.
It's been almost a year to the day since Pitre learned his first stem cell transplant, meant to treat his blistering skin disease, was unsuccessful. A second attempt this spring, however, appears to have worked. Pitre's skin has been healing "in ways in never has before," his mother said in September.
Boileau tells CFRA's Ottawa Now with Evan Solomon her son will still need to return to the hospital on a regular basis.
"He needs to get labs done to make sure he doesn't have any infections," she says. "He still requires transfusions and sometimes red blood cells. The only way to get it done is to come back to the hospital. They monitor his meds as well, just in case there's anything that needs to be changed."
She's hopeful that by next week Jonathan won't have to go back to the hospital on a daily basis.
"He has been infection free, his fevers have subsided, so everything is looking positive for him," she says.
