SANTIAGO (Reuters) – By the time doctors realized Lorena Navarrete’s son had a rare complication of COVID-19 that plagued some children, it was too late to save her 16-year-old Emilio.
Lorena, a single parent living in the southern Chilean city of Puerto Montt, told the TVN network that her music-loving and sociable son died about a week after he first complained at the end of January about his feelings of fatigue and ‘ a pain in his legs.
Within a few days, he got skin spots on the skin, high fever, vomiting and dark urine.
Doctors at the city’s hospital, inundated with serious COVID cases, repeatedly tested him for COVID, but with results that were negative, it was not good with him.
When his disease was identified as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, it was too late. Lorena could not be at her son’s bed due to strict health protocols, but a social worker called to convey the message that her son loves her very much. She asked the social worker to tell her son she would see him soon, and that his pets were doing well.
“A doctor said that if I had confidence, I should pray because my son was very ill,” said Navarrete, who works as a nurse. “They had a diagnosis and it was PIMS.”
Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), as PIMS is more commonly known, is a rare, life-threatening syndrome linked to COVID-19.
It usually occurs 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, rash, swollen glands, conjunctivitis and, in severe cases, heart inflammation, and can cause multiple organ failure. It is not always fatal if caught and treated early.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in January that it was investigating whether COVID variants had increased the number or severity of cases following reports from some countries.
Dr. Loreto Twele, a pediatric specialist at Puerto Montt Hospital, said it’s like putting together a jigsaw.
‘There is no single exam. You have to put the pieces together to make an early diagnosis and start treatment, ‘she said.
Chilean head of public health Paula Daza told 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. (Graphics: tmsnrt.rs/34pvUyi)
“The number of cases of children with these conditions is quite low, but health workers need to be vigilant,” she said.
For Emilio’s mother Lorena, the pain of losing her only son is helped in part by knowing she can become aware.
“I do not want Emilio’s death to be in vain and for it to be known so that the same thing does not happen to other parents,” she said.
Writing by Aislinn Laing and Fabian Cambero; Edited by Lisa Shumaker