SANTIAGO (Reuters) – When doctors realized that Lorena Navarrete’s son had a rare COVID-19 complication that afflicts some children, it was too late to save 16-year-old Emilio.
Lorena, a single mother who lives in the city of Puerto Montt, in southern Chile, told TVN that her son, a music lover and sociable, died about a week after complaining of tiredness and pain in his legs at the end of January.
Within days, he developed pale patches on his skin, high fever, vomiting and dark urine.
The doctors at the city hospital, filled with serious cases of COVID, tested it repeatedly for COVID, but with the negative results they didn’t know what was wrong with it.
When his illness was identified as a Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, it was too late. Lorena was unable to be with her son because of strict health protocols, but a social worker called to send the message that her son loved her very much. She asked the social worker to tell her son that she would see him soon and that his pets were fine.
“A doctor said that if I had faith, I should pray because my son was very ill,” said Navarrete, who works as a nursing technician. “They had a diagnosis and it was PIMS.”
Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), as PIMS is more commonly known, is a rare, life-threatening syndrome associated with COVID-19.
It usually appears between two and six weeks after infection, even in asymptomatic cases of COVID-19.
It shares symptoms with toxic shock and Kawasaki disease, including fever, skin rashes, swollen glands, conjunctivitis and, in severe cases, inflammation of the heart, and can cause multiple organ failure. It is not always fatal if detected and treated early.
The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in January that it was investigating whether variants of COVID were increasing the number or severity of cases after anecdotal reports from some states.
Dr. Loreto Twele, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases at the Puerto Montt hospital, said that picking it up was like putting a puzzle together.
“There is no single exam. It is necessary to put the pieces together to make an early diagnosis and start the treatment ”, she said.
Chilean public health chief Paula Daza said at a news conference on Monday that of the 69,563 confirmed cases of COVID in children so far in Chile, 157 cases of MIS-C have been reported. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)
“The rate of cases of children with these conditions is quite low, but health professionals have to be on the lookout,” he said.
For Lorena, Emilio’s mother, the pain of losing her only child is partly helped by knowing that she can raise awareness.
“I don’t want Emilio’s death to be in vain and for it to be known so that it doesn’t happen to other parents,” she said.
Writing by Aislinn Laing and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Lisa Shumaker