A terminally ill boy exposed to measles at the California Hospital

SACRAMENTO, California – A child with a terminal illness was exposed to measles while treated at a California hospital in March. Her mother is now critical of her parents' "irresponsible decision" not to vaccinate their child.

>> Read more new trends

Rayna Bell took her 7-year-old son, Jackson Souza, to the Davis Medical Center at the University of California on March 17, after starting to have seizures, KTXL-TV reported.

Tuberous sclerosis was diagnosed in Jackson at the age of 4 months – a rare disease that caused the growth of tumors throughout his body. He has spent all his life in hospitals.

A few days after his visit to the hospital in March, the doctors called Bell to tell him that Jackson had been exposed to measles.

"When I found out that I felt mortified, my son is already terminally ill," she said. "I have no area to risk anything with him because I'm just going around it with a plastic bubble, I'm just trying to keep it here as long as I can."

Bell added that the doctors told him that a child with measles had been in the hospital at the same time as Jackson – although at the time, the doctors did not know that the child had measles. The child with measles had not been vaccinated against the disease, Bell said.

"Jackson was in the emergency room where this other patient was seen," said Dr. Dean Blumberg, pediatric infectious disease manager at UC Davis Health. "There was less than an hour of separation between them so there was potentially the measles virus in the air."

Due to exposure, Jackson was quarantined in the hospital for 18 days. His first day at home was Tuesday.

Blumberg said that even though Jackson had been exposed, he did not believe the boy had measles. But Bell said she's still worried.

"People who make irresponsible decisions for their family and their child must really really look at it and see how it could affect other people, because I could always lose my son, "said Souza.

© 2019 Cox Media Group.