Jay Hanna: we owe it to Riley Hughes and his family to keep getting our whooping cough boosters

It’s a picture that should elicit smiles. A cute little cherubic face poking out from under a slightly too-big blue and white striped beanie that looks like it might unravel at any moment to cover those bright eyes entirely. Instead, when we see that all-too-familiar photograph of little Riley Hughes, most West Australians feel an inherent sadness — for a life that ended when it should have just been beginning. Riley was only 32 days old when he died of whooping cough in March, 2015. His death made headlines across the country. His legacy has potentially helped save many more babies just like him. I was seven months pregnant with my second child when Riley died. I remember the devastation I felt for his parents Catherine and Greg, who were now living every parent or parent-to-be’s worst nightmare. I felt a swell of fear and panic for my own unborn child, and how vulnerable she would be in those first early days and weeks of her life. But Catherine Hughes had a gift up her sleeve. She was determined her son’s death would not be in vain. She did not want people to simply forget about her little boy or the warning his death issued. Two days after Riley’s death, the State Government announced the introduction of a free program to deliver third trimester pertussis boosters to pregnant women. At my next hospital appointment, I asked my obstetrician, Dr Michael Gannon, if the booster was available. As head of the WA branch of the Australian Medical Association at the time, Dr Gannon was part of the push for the introduction of the program. “I think it might have just come in,” I remember him telling me. “You may well be the first pregnant woman in the State to have it.” This week I got a chance to say thank you to Catherine Hughes — on behalf of myself and my healthy 10-year-old daughter and many other families around the State who were spared the pain the Hughes have had to endure. As local whooping cough rates soar to what Catherine fears could be 10-year highs, we need to heed the tragic story of little Riley. We owe a lot to that sweet little boy in his blue and white beanie and to the Hughes family, to remember. And the best way to repay them is to keep honouring Riley’s legacy by getting our whooping cough boosters.