My first thoughts as well. However, hospitals seem to be less stringent about germs than we think. My son was a preemie and spent over a week in the intensive care nursery before I could bring him to my hospital room. One of the first times I was rolling him in his bassinet to my room we encountered a patient from the children’s unit. She was a sick toddler with an IV and coughing severely all over the place. Her dad had her walking the halls and no one seemed to think it was s big deal for her to go into the OB dept.
I was a tad over protective, but he wasn’t able to go home because he was struggling to breathe and here this kid was sick enough to be hospitalized and was coughing out germs all over. All I could do was try to stand between her and my baby lying in the bassinet.
The nurses just smiled and watched.
I hope your son is more stable now. He’s lucky to have you as an observant, protective parent. I’m guessing this happened before MRSA infections became so prevalent in hospitials. Today, they may have offered that coughing toddler a tiny face mask to block the germs.