The family of a five-year-old girl from Indiana is manifesting after a rare coronavirus-related inflammatory disease nearly claimed the child’s life.
Janiya Johnson’s health was rapidly deteriorating over a period of five days; she was feverish, vomited, fatigued, had stomach pains and did not eat, Advocate Children’s Hospital told Fox News.
“She’s full of energy. She’s ready to go,” said Johnathan Johnson, the child’s father, according to ABC 7. “And it was different when she wanted to lie down and sleep.”
Janiya Johnson, 5, was diagnosed with a rare coronavirus-related inflammatory disease called MIS-C.
(Courtesy of Advocate Children’s Hospital)
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Several visits to doctors and emergency care still left the family unanswered. However, blood tests revealed that the child’s kidneys and liver were failing and she was rushed to Advocate Children’s in Oak Lawn, a Chicago area hospital. There, doctors diagnosed her with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C. Much is unknown about this disease, but it usually develops several weeks after infection with the coronavirus. MIS-C involves shock, cardiac dysfunction, stomach pain and hyperinflammation. Children diagnosed with this condition usually require intensive care.
The child endured four days in the pediatric intensive care unit, but has since fully recovered, said the hospital and the child’s parents.
(Courtesy of Advocate Children’s Hospital)
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The child tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies, although her family did not know she had been infected, according to ABC 7. Janiya underwent four days of intensive treatment at Advocate Children’s, after which she had a “complete recovery”, said the hospital. . Janiya’s parents, Oshunda and Johnathan Johnson, are sharing the story so that parents can find answers and get to the diagnosis more quickly.
“One of the doctors told us that if we had waited another day, they probably would not have been able to save her,” Oshunda Johnson, the child’s mother, told Fox News. “Her liver and kidneys were very bad. She was very bad.”
Oshunda says his daughter is “perfectly fine, 200% better”.
The child was treated with steroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs, an outlet said.
(Courtesy of Advocate Children’s Hospital)
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Dr. Frank Belmonte, medical director at Advocate Children’s Hospital, says diagnosing MIS-C is difficult because it shares symptoms with less severe conditions. He says it mainly affects children under the age of 14, and minority populations are responsible for about 70% of cases.
Belmonte said that many children diagnosed with MIS-C need steroids or other anti-inflammatories to reduce harmful inflammation, reported ABC 7.
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More than 2.9 million children tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, with 2,060 cases of MIS-C, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC).
“To date, the majority of MIS-C patients have been Hispanic / Latino and non-Hispanic blacks,” said the CDC, noting that more research is needed to determine risk factors. Of the MIS-C cases reported across the country, 37% are among Hispanic patients, while 32% and 22% are among black and white populations, respectively.