‘He was a fighter’: East Texas mother mourns loss of baby after finally returning home from treatment in Dallas

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) -A little boy whose medical struggle we had been following has died.

Eivor Calvert was born prematurely at 36 weeks, with Down syndrome and a hole in his heart.

Due to lack of pediatric subspecialty doctors in East Texas, he and his mother, Shyanne Calvert, were forced to get medical attention in Dallas.

“We had to stay 80 days in the NICU unit in Medical City Dallas.” she told us.

Throughout the process, Calvert says her little boy fought through it all.

“He was definitely a warrior, definitely a fighter.”

After three months, Eivor was finally medically cleared to come home to East Texas. However, after almost three weeks of being back, his mother says a check-up in Dallas raised a health concern.

“We got a call from the cardiologist saying that we needed to watch his breathing.”

That night, his mother says his heart stopped twice.

“He just wasn’t breathing and I, like, tapped his back, and it’s like he’s startled and started breathing again.”

Eivor was transferred to UT Health Tyler, however, despite doctors’ efforts, the second time he lost his breathing he didn’t recover. Calvert says she believes doctors did the best they could.

“I believe they went above and beyond, actually. Not a lot of people would try for two hours straight to bring somebody back.”

Yet she believes not having access to the kind of resources Eivor had in Dallas that day hurt him.

“I do think that if my cardiologist would have been here and not two hours away, that I could have gotten the testing sooner.”

She shares that she feels like they could have done more.

“There was obviously something wrong. And instead of having to wait, we could have, you know, went back in. We could have seen the scans. You know, we could have done more,” she said.

According to a case study done by the UT Tyler School of Medicine, the mortality rate of pediatric patients in northeast Texas is nearly 2.5 times higher than the national average.

Although it’s not certain in Eivor’s case, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at UT Tyler School of Medicine, Dr. Valerie Smith, says, having more resources and specialized doctors in the area would generally improve health outcomes for kids in life-threatening emergencies.

“We know that children may have trouble getting access to care when they have something happen that might be catastrophic medically,” Dr. Smith said. “But also, staff who are comfortable with young children and really understand the differences that young children often face when they face life-threatening emergencies is really key to improving those health outcomes for children.”

A memorial for Eivor was held earlier this week. Their family has opened a GoFundMe page. If you would like to help in any way, you can click this link to reach his support page.

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