Parents give warning after 3-year-old boy has COVID-19 stroke
Three-year-old Colt Parris is doing much better after doctors believed he had a stroke after contracting COVID-19.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Three-year-old Colt Parris is doing much better after doctors believed he had a stroke after contracting COVID-19, but his parents share a stern warning to others about the serious effects the new coronavirus could have on children.
Colt’s mother, Sara, told FOX Television Stations that her son had a cold in mid-December. She took him to the clinic where he tested negative for COVID-19. But he did not get better.
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“So he stopped drinking and didn’t want to maintain anything,” Parris said.
Parris took Colt to the hospital the next day where the toddler finally tested positive for the coronavirus. She said her symptoms got worse.
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“He was talking, but it was more mumbling. Couldn’t really understand him,” she explained. While she was in the hospital, she gave a stuffed animal to Colt and he could not even reach out to grab it.
Doctors examined the toddler and said he had a stroke.
“I do not yet know if I believe it,” Parris said. “And so I get the news and of course I broke.”
According to FOX 2 News, dr. Paul Carney Colt treated.
Doctors told Parris they believe the coronavirus caused a blood clot that led to the stroke.
“The result came back and I looked at it, and it was a clear stroke,” said dr. Paul Carney, neurologist at MU Health Care, told the news station. “So there was a lack of blood supply on the left side of the brain.”
“The COVID diagnosis is important because we think the reason this patient with COVID, including the child, has strokes and a variety of other problems, is that they tend to form blood clots,” said Dr. Neurologist Camilo Gomez said. 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 slower during certain activities. Doctors told her they expected the toddler to fully recover.
Parris wanted to use her story to share an urgent message with other parents during the pandemic. She said her family had taken COVID-19 safety measures and that she did not know how Colt contracted the virus.
The mother said parents need to realize that COVID-19 can have serious, detrimental consequences for children.
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Earlier research from the US, China and Europe found that children are less likely than adults to be infected by the virus, and that they are less likely to become seriously ill if they do get sick.
But a more recent study by the CDC has revealed that the problem may be worse than previously thought.
In a September study, researchers from Utah and the CDC focused on three outbreaks in Salt Lake City child care facilities between April and July. Two were childcare programs for toddlers, and the other one was a camp for older children. The average age of children at all three programs was about 7.
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At two of the facilities, investigators were able to determine that an infected adult worker had unknowingly introduced the virus into the group.
The study concluded that 12 children caught the coronavirus at childcare facilities and spread it to at least 12 of the 46 parents or siblings who came into contact with them at home. Three of the infected children had no symptoms, and one of them spread it to a parent who was later admitted to the hospital due to COVID-19, the researchers said.
Children in the US have developed a serious inflammatory condition associated with COVID-19 called MIS-C, and some have even died from the coronavirus.
A report by a group of American doctors, published in the medical journal JACC in early December, warned of the possibility of heart damage in children due to the new coronavirus.
The report sets out the case of a 2-month-old baby diagnosed with COVID-19, who is experiencing myocardial injury, as well as a type of heart failure that is most common in adults.
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A 4-year-old recently died at COVID-19 in New York. Xavier M. Harris of Utica passed away the day after Christmas.
“If you know your child has tested positive or been to someone who is positive … take them to have them examined,” Parris said. “Just to be sure it’s nothing more than just a cold.”
“You do not want to see your child or any child in a condition that we should see,” she added. “It’s devastating.”
Austin Williams contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.