COLUMBIA, Mo. – Three-year-old Colt Parris is doing much better after doctors believed he suffered a stroke after contracting COVID-19, but his parents are sharing a severe warning to others about the serious effects the new coronavirus can have on children. kids.
Colt’s mother, Sara, told FOX television stations that her son started having symptoms of a common cold in mid-December. She took him to the clinic where he tested negative for COVID-19. But he hasn’t improved.
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“So he stopped drinking and kept nothing in his stomach,” said Parris.
Parris took Colt to the hospital the next day, where the child turned out to be positive for the coronavirus. She said his symptoms got worse.
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“He was talking, but he was more murmured. I really couldn’t understand him,” she explained. While at the hospital, she handed Colt a stuffed animal and he was unable to even reach for it.
Doctors examined the child and said he had a stroke.
“I still don’t know if I believe it,” said Parris. “And then I get the news and, of course, I collapsed.”
According to FOX 2 News, Dr. Paul Carney treated Colt.
Doctors told Parris that they believe the coronavirus triggered a blood clot, which led to the stroke.
“The result came back and I looked at it and it was a clear stroke,” MU Health Care pediatric neurologist Dr. Paul Carney told the news station. “So there was a lack of blood supply to the left brain.”
“The diagnosis of COVID is important because we think that the reason this patient with COVID, including the child, has strokes and a variety of other problems is that they are prone to forming clots,” said neurologist Dr. Camilo Gomez. Gomez also treated Colt.
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Parris said her son is doing much better, although she has noticed that he moves a little more slowly during certain activities. Doctors told her they expect the child to recover fully.
Parris wanted to use his story to share an urgent message with other parents during the pandemic. She said her family took safety precautions for COVID-19 and she doesn’t know how Colt contracted the virus.
The mother said that parents should realize that COVID-19 can have serious harmful effects on children.
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Previous research in the United States, China and Europe found that children are less likely than adults to be infected with the virus and less likely to become seriously ill when they fall ill.
But a more recent CDC study found that the problem could be worse than previously thought.
In a September study, researchers from Utah and the CDC focused on three outbreaks in day care centers in Salt Lake City between April and July. Two were daycare programs for children and the other was a camp for older children. The average age of children in the three programs was around 7 years.
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At two of the facilities, the researchers managed to establish that an infected adult worker unknowingly introduced the virus to the group.
The study found that 12 children contracted the coronavirus in day care centers and spread it to at least 12 of the 46 parents or siblings they came into contact with at home. Three of the infected children showed no symptoms, and one of them transmitted the virus to a father who was later hospitalized for COVID-19, the researchers said.
Children across the United States developed a serious COVID-19-linked inflammatory disease, called MIS-C, and some even died of coronavirus.
A report by a group of American doctors published in the medical journal JACC in early December warned of the potential for heart damage in children due to the new coronavirus.
The report detailed the case of a 2-month-old child diagnosed with COVID-19, who suffered a myocardial injury, as well as a type of heart failure most commonly seen in adults.
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A 4-year-old child recently died of COVID-19 in New York. Xavier M. Harris, from Utica, died the day after Christmas.
“If you know that your child has had a positive test or been around someone who is positive … take him or her out for a checkout,” said Parris. “Just to make sure there is more to it than just a cold.”
“You don’t want to see your child, or any child, in a state that we’ve seen ours,” she added. “It is devastating.”
Austin Williams contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.