KOAT spoke to 4-year-old Stella Martin and her mother, Cassandra Yazzie, a day after Stella was finally discharged from hospital after an 8-month hospitalization.
Yazzie tells KOAT in April Stella was playing on the bed when she ran to her mother and complained of back pain. From there, she says the young girl “became limp” in her arms.
Yazzie rushed Stella to San Juan Regional Medical Center, where she was quickly taken to UNMH.
Doctors diagnosed Stella with COVID-19 and shortly thereafter diagnosed with acute transverse myelitis, Yazzie said.
The disease is classified as an acute inflammation of gray and white material in one or more adjacent spinal cord segments.
Doctors told Yazzie it was the first COVID-related case they saw in a child at UNM.
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Dr Barry Ramo tells KOAT that COVID-19 is known to cause a hyper immune response in children, which can be blamed for the inflammation in Stella’s spinal cord.
According to the John Hopkins Medical Center, a third of people with myelitis have a full or near-full recovery, and most of their symptoms go away. Another third have a reasonable recovery, with some of their symptoms.
Stella spent five months at UNM in Pediatric ICU, from where she spent another three months in Carrie Tingley Hospital.
On Monday, after being away from home for eight months, Stella was able to return home.
Staff at UNMH gave the girl an applause as she left the hospital.
“I am so grateful to the staff at UNM, the doctors, the chiefs, the nurses. They did a lot for Stella. We thank everyone,” Yazzie told KOAT.
She went on to talk about her daughter’s love for those who care for her.
‘Every person there, she tells them she likes them, look at the staff. When they come in, she will ask, ‘Are you all right?’ she calls them all her friends, ‘she said.
While Stella was in the hospital, Yazzie says the girl’s father died of COVID-19.
“I miss my dad,” Stella told KOAT.
Stella told KOAT she wants to ask others to stay home, stay safe and wear your mask.
Yazzie told KOAT, doctors told her that it probably would not be that Stella would recover, but she adds that her mobility had already improved and that the girl could move her arms a bit.
“I just want everyone to stay safe, not to take COVID lightly, because it affects my daughter to a great extent,” Yazzie said.
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