However, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced a serious epidemic of diphtheria that lasted for years. Hospitals would start to fill up with children stricken with measles and chickenpox, and because of the extremely contagious nature of these diseases, the victims would have to be placed in rooms with special air filters and negative air flow to keep the disease from spreading to the leukemia patient down the hall. These children would often die or suffer brain damage if they survived. In the late 1980s, immunization with Hib vaccine was begun and the number of Hib meningitis cases dropped to near zero. There is nothing worse to a parent than losing a child, nothing.
Nothing can ease the pain.
I know because I have experienced that pain. I lost my own son to congenital heart disease. I too, had to pick out a coffin instead of a birthday gift. I go to a grave site instead of a birthday party. My son's congenital heart disease was random and not preventable.