Six weeks ago, Ethan was like most 7-year-olds — spending the weekend riding his new bike or playing Minecraft on his iPad on a rainy day.

Instead, since late January, the schoolboy has been confined to a hospital bed with measles encephalitis, a complication that causes swelling and inflammation in the brain. “He's pretty much as if he was paralyzed,” his devastated father, 41, told The Independent in a phone interview from his son’s hospital bedside.

Ethan’s parents decided not to immunize him against measles as they did with his three brothers. Three out of four of them contracted measles. Still, despite Ethan’s ordeal, his mom stands by their decision. “We’re not blaming God for this,” said 35-year-old Kristina. “Yes, it hurts, of course, it hurts. But God has chosen Ethan for a reason. God is doing something, and we're gonna glorify his name regardless.

“And we wouldn't change it any other way,” the mom continued. “If I knew this could be the outcome, I still wouldn't have given my son the vaccine.”

“Our biggest reason why we didn't do it is just with all the unnecessary stuff they add into it,” Kristina added, “With my own eyes, I have seen the damage it does to kids who are perfectly normal, and then once they get it, they're not the same anymore,” she claimed.

“Why do we need to add so much to our children’s bodies?” she asked.

The parents said that they hope sharing their son’s story might help other families going through a similar ordeal.