Adam Millar was 18 when he started experiencing colds that would not go away.
How coronavirus COVID-19 attacks the body
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FOLLOWING
It was the middle of the hockey season, and he washes away his symptoms. After two or three months of coughing and fatigue, she developed a cold. “I did not even have the strength to brush my teeth,” he told the USA TODAY.
He later found out that Millar’s heart had failed. Heart failure – often caused by myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle – is a rare condition for teens and young adults. It is more common in older people, often due to the fact that heart function decreases over a period of time.
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Since the onset of the pandemic, a very small group of young people infected with COVID-19 have developed heart failure.
Yes, children can get COVID-19: More than 1 million people have been infected since the start of the pandemic in the US, the report states
This summer, doctors in New York reported that a two-month-old boy diagnosed with COVID-19 later suffered from heart failure. This indicates another COVID-19 complication for children.
The boy choked and later turned blue, despite no prior fever, cough or other signs of infection, doctors in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reported.
The baby is the latest known case of myocarditis caused by COVID-19, said dr. Madhu Sharma told MedPage Today. Sharma is a physician at the Children’s Hospital in Montefiore, New York and contributed to the case report.
But this is not the first case of myocarditis in young people previously infected with COVID-19.
Twenty-six athletes from Ohio State University with confirmed COVID-19 – who were slightly symptomatic or asymptomatic – underwent heart tests. Nearly 50% showed heart disorders, and 15% met the criteria for myocarditis, according to a study by OSU in September.
The roots of heart failure caused by COVID-19 stem from multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, says Dr. Gary Stapleton, a pediatric interventional cardiologist at Texas Children’s Hospital. MIS-C made headlines in 2020 when a small number of children with COVID-19 began to show inflammation in their heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs. The condition usually responds well to treatment.
Although sometimes inflammation of the heart is mild in these cases, it can be quite severe where they need admission to the ICU and need a lot of medicine and support, Stapleton said.
Most children with COVID-19 do not develop the inflammatory condition. If they do, they tend to get it about four to six weeks after their initial infection. Since the pandemic began, there have been about 1,200 cases of MIS-C in the U.S. and 20 deaths, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“We don’t really have a way of predicting who gets really sick and who doesn’t,” Stapleton said. If MIS-C is not recognized and treated, it can lead to serious complications.
The number one thing parents can pay attention to? Stapleton said any changes or interruptions in their child’s normal routine.
If teens have fatigue, have cardiopulmonary problems such as breathing problems or gastrointestinal diseases, Stapleton recommends going to their doctor.
Parenting of pandemic: Experts say this is what children need to survive the COVID-19 era
MIS-C and heart failure are not a death sentence for young people. Treatment can include a variety of medical and mechanical interventions. In June, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency permit for the Impella device, the smallest heart pump in the world.
Yet heart failure can be a disturbing experience.
Millar, now 21, is a first-year student at Northeastern University. He has since recovered from his condition, but said it was a “very rude awakening.”
“I was an athlete who ran for five minutes, and then I was bedridden, I lost 70 pounds and I was told my life had changed forever,” Millar said. “We just have to start listening to our bodies.”
Nurses help each other put on their personal protective equipment before entering a patient’s room at the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System in Salinas, California, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020.
A nurse wearing personal protective equipment is monitoring a COVID-19 patient in the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System in Salinas, California, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020.
A nurse enters one of the 14 rooms in the COVID-19 unit at the Salinas Valley Healthcare Memorial Healthcare System in Salinas, California, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020.
Health worker Demetra Ransom speaks to a patient in the Covid-19 ward at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas on December 4, 2020.
Chief of Staff Dr. Joseph Varon smiles and waves to Gloria Garcia’s family as she calls them on December 4, 2020 from the Covid-19 ward at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Joseph Varon, a doctor treating coronavirus patients at Texas Hospital, was at work for the 252nd day in a row when he spotted an upset elderly man in the Covid-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Dr. Joseph Varon hugs and comforts a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) during Thanksgiving at United Memorial Medical Center on November 26, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Texas has reportedly reached more than 1,220,000 cases, including more than 21,500 deaths.
Medical staff members Tanna Ingraham, left, and Gabriel Cervera Rodriguez, right, look at a patient who is on a rotating medical bed in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at United Memorial Medical Center on December 2, 2020 in Houston. , Texas. Texas has reportedly reached more than 1,280,000 cases, including more than 22,200 deaths.
In this file photo of 24 November 2020, dr. Shane Wilson rounds out a section of the Scottish County Hospital set up to isolate and treat COVID-19 patients in Memphis, Mo., across the US. The boom has overwhelmed hospitals with patients. and nurses and other health workers were shortened and burned out.
An unknown COVID-19 patient is sitting in a hospital bed at El Paso LTAC Hospital in central El Paso on Friday, November 6, 2020.
A team of health workers performs a procedure for a patient with COVID-19 in the UMass Memorial Medical Center – University Campus on Wednesday, November 18, 2020. This group of nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists work on a floor of suppressed rooms treating 18 patients with COVID-19 requiring intensive care.
A COVID-19 patient in a ventilator lay in a negative air pressure chamber in a 12-bed intensive care unit at UW Hospital in Madison, Wis. On Thursday, November 5, 2020. The US is still struggling with its third and worst wave of the virus. On Wednesday, for the first time, more than 100,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported within a day.
Registered nurse Daniel Corral is working with a COVID-19 patient on Thursday, November 6, 2020 at El Paso LTAC Hospital.
Fan tubes will be attached to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills ward of Los Angeles on November 19, 2020. The rise of the coronavirus is taking a grim toll across the United States. vaccine appears nearby.
Registered nurses Daniele Payne, right, and Katie Zupek, who carry air-powered air purifiers, tend to treat a COVID-19 patient in a negative air pressure chamber in an intensive care unit with 12 beds on Thursday, November 5, 2020 in the UW hospital in Madison, Wis.
The Patient Council at El Paso LTAC Hospital identifies those infected with COVID-19.
EMT Giselle Dorgalli, second from right, looks at a monitor while performing chest compression on a patient who tested positive for coronavirus in the emergency at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills ward of Los Angeles, Thursday, November 19th 2020.
Medical staff members treat a coronavirus-infected patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC) on November 10, 2020 in Houston, Texas.
Sparrow ICU nurses Mary-Jo Julin, left, and Lauren Brandon prepare to see a COVID-19 patient under their care, Tuesday, October 20, 2020 during their shift in the intensive care unit at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.
Medical staff member Tanna Ingraham examines IV on a patient in the intensive care unit COVID-19 (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 19, 2020 in Houston, Texas.
A medical staff member is working on a computer as the number on the wall indicates the days since the hospital opened its COVID-19 unit at United Memorial Medical Center on November 14, 2020 in Houston, Texas. Texas has reportedly reached more than 1,070,000 cases, including more than 19,900 deaths.
Medical staff insert a tube into a vein of a patient suffering from coronavirus in the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on November 16, 2020 in Houston, Texas.
Respiratory therapist Babu Paramban speaks by telephone next to hospital beds while taking a breather in the COVID-19 unit at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills ward of Los Angeles, Thursday, November 19, 2020.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Heart Failure in Children: Another Rare COVID-19 Complication. Here’s what to look for.
