COLUMBIA, Missouri (KOMU) – A 3-year-old boy from Missouri is recovering at home after doctors said he had a stroke shortly after the test was positive for COVID-19.
Sara Parris took her 3-year-old son Colt to the emergency room on December 15 because he was unable to hold any fluids. He ended up testing positive for COVID-19, and the next morning, she realized he wasn’t speaking normally.
“I thought he was in a lot of pain and so tired because he’s not resting that he just doesn’t have the energy to speak,” said Parris.
But then, she realized that he wasn’t grabbing his stuffed animal the way he normally would. Instead of catching it with her right hand, she says that he “reached the body completely with his left arm”.
It turned out that Colt had a stroke that cut the blood supply to the left side of the brain, preventing him from moving his right arm and leg.
Dr. Camilo Gomez, a neurologist at the hospital, said doctors were investigating the link between the virus and neurological problems.
“The diagnosis of COVID is important because we think that the reason these patients with COVID, including this child, have strokes and a variety of other problems is that they have a propensity to form clots,” said Gomez.
Gomez says his team rarely performs acute stroke interventions in children, but this is not new. He says helping Colt to recover was the highlight of his week.
“The ability to give that family a neurologically improved child at Christmas time, I thought was paramount for us. They were just walking in the sun, ”he said.
Colt’s mother hopes that her experience will lead to greater awareness of the complications of COVID-19, especially those that can occur in young children.
“It can be much more serious than just the flu. Children will understand, they can do it. You may not have any symptoms, like us. We had no idea he had it, ”said Parris.
Colt has already left the hospital, but still has trouble moving his right arm and leg. His mother says that if a stranger saw him, they might not know that something happened, but like his mother, she knows, he is still not entirely himself.
The 3-year-old child is expected to fully recover after physical therapy.
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