Jimmie Allen is teaming up with Sanofi to spread awareness about Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). The country singer took to Instagram on Wednesday (Jan. 4) to promote the Knowing RSV campaign.
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“Happy New Year, y’all,” Jimmie began his note. “I hope everyone’s year is off to a happy and healthy start. This time of year, I always reflect on what I’ve done, where I’ve been, and what’s next,” Allen shared.
“One cause that is close to my heart, and especially meaningful to me this year, is doing my part to help protect ALL babies from respiratory syncytial virus (#RSV),” Jimmie said of his decision to partner with Sanofi to spread awareness about RSV. “For those of you who don’t know, my daughter Zara was 6 weeks old when she had RSV, which got so severe that she couldn’t breathe,” Allen revealed. “It was terrifying for our family and something I hope nobody else has to experience.”
Jimmie Allen and his wife, Gale, delved into their daughter’s battle with RSV last year. The celebrity parents slammed medical professionals at a Tennessee hospital for sending them home without doing extensive examinations on their daughter.
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“Attention Doctors, if the parent of your one-month-old patient tells you the child [is] having a hard time breathing and the only thing your lazy self wants to do is check heart [sic] and temperature find another career,” Jimmie tweeted in anger. “Your job is to save lives so do it,” the country singer continued. “Now thanks to the lazy doctors at a hospital in TN that just sent our daughter home, our daughter Zara lost color stopped breathing, and is being rushed to another hospital.”
Gale did not go into extensive details about the experience. She did, however, allude to the notion of being exhausted with no answers.
“Turned away by hospital yesterday AM Ambulance at 2 AM,” Mrs. Allen said. “Basically, if your child isn’t blue at the lips they will not have answers for you,” Gale shared. “That’s been my last 24 hours.”
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Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) was not a well-known virus at the time of Zara’s encounter with the illness. Medical professionals now have more answers.
“Babies are actually 16x more likely to be hospitalized with RSV than with the flu – which is why I am focused on bringing more attention to RSV,” Jimmie shared with his social media fans on Wednesday. “Through my partnership with Sanofi and its #KnowingRSV campaign, I want to educate parents and help them feel confident and prepared to help protect their babies from RSV.”
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Learn more about RSV here.
Photo: Jimmie Allen/Instagram
