As of: March 28, 2024, 2:24 p.m
By: Mathias Weinzierl
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Cuddling is the best medicine: Viktoria Zettel from Feldkirchen-Westerham and her seven-year-old son Finn, who has been in a vegetative state for weeks and is currently being treated at the Schön Clinic in Vogtareuth. © private
What started with a slight sore throat ended in a vegetative state: Finni Zettel (7) from Feldkirchen-Westerham was dead for ten minutes before he could be resuscitated. Since then, the boy and his family have been fighting the real battle back to life.
Feldkirchen-Westerham
– Funny. Brave. Sensitive. Three characteristics that immediately come to Viktoria Zettel's (34) mind when she talks about her son Finn, affectionately known as Finni by everyone. Qualities that still lie dormant in the seven-year-old today. Viktoria Zettel is firmly convinced of this. However, the little boy with straw-blonde hair can't show it at the moment. The seven-year-old has been in a vegetative state for more than two months after he had to be resuscitated in mid-January, reports ovb-online.de. “Old Finni is still in there somewhere,” says mom Viktoria, who watches over her little one’s bedside day and night. "I'm sure. I just feel it.”
The drama begins with a slight sore throat
When the 34-year-old thinks back to the dramatic hours in mid-January, even today Zettel “simply cannot explain” how “so much bad luck and misfortune” could come together for an innocent boy like Finni. A cold was announced on a Friday in mid-January 2024 with a sore throat. The bright boy was still able and wanted to go to school. “When I came home from work, he had extremely red cheeks and a surprisingly high fever of 39.5 degrees. “But I wasn’t worried,” remembers mom Viktoria. Especially since it wasn't the first flu-like infection in the Zettel house, where, in addition to Viktoria and Finn, her husband Mike (45) and their two sons Paul (13) and Lukas (16) live.
On Saturday, in addition to the sore throat and the fever, which had not noticeably subsided despite the fever juice, a dull cough had set in, which was visibly causing the seven-year-old boy pain. “He cried bitterly and looked really sick,” says Zettel, who moved with her family from Putzbrunn (Munich district) to Feldkirchen-Westerham around a year ago.
Medical on-call services advise parents to take Finni to the hospital
When Finni was breathing "strangely" towards the evening, the parents contacted the medical emergency service, who in turn advised that Finni be taken to the hospital. There, after waiting several hours, the boy was examined and given cortisone and paracetamol, but was then sent home again, “even though Finni was clearly having a hard time breathing,” said the 34-year-old. Ultimately, she accepted the doctor's opinion, but: "My gut feeling told me that what the doctor said was wrong."
Because the boy wasn't feeling any better on Sunday, dad Mike Zettel set off with Finni to the hospital again, where Victoria Zettel finally rushed from her place of work. “We didn't let ourselves be brushed off anymore, but insisted that Finni be examined further. There he had the first blood sample of his life and endured it really bravely.”
While parents and child waited in a waiting room for the results of the blood test, the most dramatic minutes of their lives began for the couple. “Finni simply couldn’t breathe, turned blue and kicked wildly, so much so that my husband even had to hold him so that he didn’t hurt himself,” says Viktoria Zettel, who is clearly having a hard time remembering these terrible images again to call. “It looked like he was having a tantrum,” said the 34-year-old. “But in reality he was suffocating at that moment. And I saw him die in his daddy’s arms at that moment.”
Doctors and nurses are fighting for the seven-year-old's survival
A agony that caused more and more doctors and nurses to rush to the collapsed boy. The doctors took the seven-year-old, whose heartbeat had stopped, to a treatment room and immediately began resuscitation. “I sat in the hallway in front of the treatment room and just screamed,” says the mother, describing the anxious minutes that are burned deep into her memory. “I thought I was dying at that moment.” It took ten minutes for the doctors to get the little patient's heart beating again.
We can only speculate as to what caused the respiratory and cardiac arrest. The fact is: Not only the influenza virus, i.e. a real flu, was detected in the seven-year-old's blood, but also an infection with streptococci and an infection with staphylococci. A superinfection that had already massively affected and inflamed the lungs. “The doctors therefore assume that a blockage has completely blocked the airways when someone coughs up,” says Zettel.
Here's how you can support Finn and his family
A friend of the family has set up a donation page for the Zettels from Feldkirchen-Westerham on the homepage of the platform www.gofund.me. This is intended to at least minimize the family's financial worries caused by the fate of seven-year-old Finn. The donation page is available online at https://gofund.me/cd5c68cc.
To aid recovery, Finni was then placed in an induced coma. But the day after the resuscitation, the seven-year-old began having violent seizures. “He cramped for 36 hours straight,” remembers the 34-year-old, who always pauses for a moment when she talks about the tortures her little boy had to endure. “I have to pay a big compliment to the doctors and nurses in the intensive care unit,” said Zettel. “They really did everything that was medically possible – and even beyond.”
Mama Viktoria Zettel is always by seven-year-old Finni's side. © private
The world of the Zettel family from Feldkirchen-Westerham was still in order: Finni on the day of his seventh birthday. © private
The first ray of hope came a good week after the boy from Feldkirchen-Westerham was put into an artificial coma: “Ms. Zettel, Ms. Zettel, the Finni is opening his eyes!” With these words, a nurse Viktoria Zettel had her child had left the side, woken up. “That was certainly one of the most beautiful moments in my life,” remembers the 34-year-old, who at the time still thought that her little boy could now become completely healthy again.
Finn cannot speak or move under control
Now, around two months later, Zettel knows that the seven-year-old will face a hard and long battle with a lot of uncertainty. Finni, who has now received a rehabilitation place at the Schön Clinic in Vogtareuth, has “already become more alert than at the beginning,” says Zettel. However, he is still in a vegetative state. “He can neither speak nor move, but he reacts to my voice, touches and noises,” says the 34-year-old, who sleeps with Finni in the hospital night after night. “We cuddle a lot,” says his mom, who feels “that it’s good for him.”
What's next for Finni? Completely open. “We recently had the dreaded parent-teacher meeting,” says Zettel, whose deep shadows under her eyes reveal the psychological and physical state of emergency the Feldkirchen-Westerham native has been in for weeks. “The fact is that he has severe brain damage.” For example, the control function for coordinated movements is impaired, and the optic nerve has also been affected, which will be examined in more detail in May. “It’s impossible to predict where the journey will lead,” says Zettel, but she is aware: “He will need a lot of help in his life.”
The 34-year-old's possible physical limitations don't put much strain on the 34-year-old. The “trance-like state” is what bothers the mother. “It breaks my heart when I see him lying there so listless,” says Viktoria Zettel, who in these moments particularly remembers the “mama-child” Finni, who “used to follow me everywhere like a shadow and everything together wanted to do with me.”
Every now and then “dark thoughts” creep in
Which is why “dark thoughts” creep into Zettel’s head every now and then, as she openly admits. “There are brief moments in which I think whether it wouldn't have been better for Finni if the resuscitation hadn't been successful.” But then she reminds herself: “Hey, it's only been a few weeks since it happened has happened. Look how well he has already mastered this path.”
After all, Zettel is convinced that she feels every day “that the old Finni is still in there somewhere” and that he “just needs support and a certain amount of time until he emerges again,” which is why she is firm Voice says: “I firmly believe that he can do a lot again. We will never give up this hope.” Even if this “equal rollercoaster, this roller coaster of emotions” is extremely exhausting.
Viktoria Zettel only sleeps once a week at home in Feldkirchen-Westerham
Efforts that the 34-year-old and her entire family are happy to undertake - and will probably have to endure for several more months. It is completely unclear how long the rehabilitation in Vogtareuth, where Zettel feels “very well looked after”, will take. “This can last for several months,” says the mother of three, who will not leave her son’s side in the coming weeks. She sleeps at home once a week. But they can hardly find peace there. Note: “Because it’s just weird not being with him.”
Her two older sons are currently mainly looked after by her husband Mike, “who is currently basically a single parent”, which of course puts an additional burden on her. “We simply try to offer the adults as much everyday life as possible,” says Zettel, who also knows that the two young people cannot and do not want to ignore Finn’s fate. Note: “As annoying as her little brother is sometimes, the whole thing is putting a lot of strain on her.”
The Zettel family is overwhelmed by the encouragement and willingness to help
What helps the family look optimistically and confidently into the future? The encouragement and willingness to help that the Zettels have received since mid-January, for example from the community of Feldkirchen-Westerham. And this despite the fact that the family has only lived there for around a year. “It's unbelievable to me how many people have offered us help,” says the 34-year-old about the “tsunami of willingness to help that doesn't stop at all. Personally, that always gives me a push,” for which she is “infinitely grateful.”
Positive and touching experiences that also help her to believe that her greatest wish will eventually come true. “My greatest wish is that Finni somehow becomes our Finni from before,” says the 34-year-old: “Our funny, courageous and sensitive Finni.”