In late September, it started as a simple cold. Thirteen-year-old Hayden Werdal told his mom that he wasn’t feeling very well. So she kept him home from school for a few days.

It was about a week later when Hayden began having a cough, sore throat and then, a stiff neck. His mom took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with bronchitis. But by the next day, his feet felt numb and arms were weak.

“I knew right then we had to take him to the emergency room,” said Heather Werdal. “And I remember that he had a hard time putting his arm in his jacket. I thought he was joking with me.”

At the emergency room doctors decided to transfer him to Mary Bridges Children’s Hospital in Tacoma where within a couple of days, Hayden was paralyzed.

“It started with his neck and then chest and then his legs,” his mother said. “They had to intubate him — put a tube down his chest so he could be helped to breathe.”

Heather said doctors began to suspect her son had the Enterovirus D68 because his symptoms were similar to three teens in Colorado who were diagnosed with D68. They ran tests, and although they came back negative, Hayden’s mother was told that most likely the virus has dissipated in his system by the time he had the test.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are more than 100 types of Enterovirus including D68. Cases have been reported in 22 states in the U.S. this year. There were two case reports in September in Washington state. It is a respiratory virus and is spread through respiratory secretions such as saliva, nasal mucus or sputum.

Hayden spent a week at Mary Bridge and then was transferred to Seattle Children’s Hospital for continued care. He’s been at Seattle Children’s for about a month.

“He had always had some movement in his right hand and wrist,” Heather said. “He’s able to use an (electronic) tablet and that’s helped because he’s been able to read to keep his mind off of being sick. Throughout everything he’s kept his sense go humor.”

An example, she say, is that he teases his parents about their ability — or lack there of — to change out the tube in his ventilator.

“His father kind of messed up one night and took a few seconds too long do to it,” Heather said. “So the next night he told me ‘Don’t screw it up.'”

She describes Hayden as her “easy-going mellow boy.” She and her husband, Jeff, have another son, Evan, who is 14. Jeff, and Heather and Hayden’s grandfather Wayne Post, have been staying in a borrowed RV in the parking lot at the hospital since Hayden was moved to Seattle Children’s Hospital.

“There’s always someone in his room,” Heather said. “We take turns being in his room, or sleeping in the RV.”

Eighth-grade classmates from Our Lady of the Sea Catholic School in Bremerton have been able to visit Hayden and have sent cards and posters to him.

He also has a full schedule of therapies in the hospital, including music therapy which his grandfather said was his favorite.

Because the family has had to be away from home so much, one of Heather’s friends, Debby Engen, started a Facebook Page called Team Hayden Werdal, where she is gathering money to help the family pay for expenses. Gas cards and grocery cards and money for the costs of ferries are needed. She’s also asking people to send cards to Hayden.

Engen and Heather have been friends since they were in the ninth grade. They’d lost touch, but when Heather and her family moved back to Bremerton a few years ago they began their friendship again.

“Growing up, her family was like a second family to me,” Engen said. “So when I heard about Hayden being ill, I knew I had to do something to help.”

Heather also got help from friends who stayed with Hayden while she and her husband, who is a computer programmer, returned home a few times. Their older son Evan is a freshman at Central Kitsap High School and played football this fall.

“He needed his parents, too,” she said. “So with help, we were able to make it to a few of his games and see him play.”

The prognosis appears to be good for Hayden, Heather said.

“What we’ve been told is that it could take nine months,” she said. “The kids in Colorado who were sick are about two months ahead of Hayden in their recovery so we’re looking at them for what to expect. Those kids still aren’t walking yet.

“They tell us Hayden will be in the hospital until sometime around Jan. 5, and then he’ll come home and have physical therapy at home.”

Heather called the illness “polio-like.”

“It’s extremely hard to see your child not be able to move,” she said. “It’s been very scary. But he’s been very strong and we’ve always know that, with time, he’d be himself again.”