As the number of cases of COVID-19 surges, Utah doctors expect more children to be hospitalized for the associated inflammatory syndrome.

Salt Lake City — It all started with a headache. Madillin Dayton, 12, was a healthy, active child with no history of health problems.

It all changed when she woke up one October morning with a fever-exacerbated headache the next day.

By the third day, she seemed to be around the corner and was beginning to feel better. But when she woke up a few days later, things went downhill rapidly, yelling at her mother that she couldn’t move.

“I couldn’t move at all,” she recalled. “I just got stuck.”

Her mother, Marilyn Dayton, packed her in a car and drove from the small town of Wyoming, Cokeville, to the Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City for three hours.

“At that time, I knew I needed to take her somewhere early, and there was no doubt in my heart where I needed to take her,” Marilyn said.・ Dayton said.

When the pair arrived in the emergency room, the doctor asked Marilyn where Maddy flew from. He misunderstood that the young girl was urgently sent to the hospital by helicopter — how serious Maddy’s condition was.

“When we got there, it was pretty serious, but we know we were being watched over and we were very blessed,” Marilyn said.

Maddy was later diagnosed Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, Rare complications that occur primarily in children after the onset of acute COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears infection. Various parts of the body can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, and gastrointestinal organs.

The diagnosis shocked Maddy and Marilyn considerably, as Maddy had never been infected with the new coronavirus — or they thought.

Through antibody testing, doctors discovered that Maddy had the COVID-19 antibody. This means that she is likely to have been infected without developing symptoms. To date, the family still does not know where she contracted it, or if other family members had asymptomatic COVID-19.

After spending about four days in the intensive care unit and another two days in the hospital, Maddy was discharged and is currently being carefully monitored in an outpatient setting.

“I am very grateful to the Primary Children, these doctors who have worked with her, and the knowledge they have,” Marilyn Dayton said. “Without their intervention and their care, there is no doubt that she isn’t sitting by me today. I’m very grateful for that.”

Dayton joined a doctor at a press conference on Monday to help treat Maddy to inform and warn others about the serious effects COVID-19 could have on children.

According to Dr. Jason Lake, 17 MIS-C cases have been seen in hospitals since the end of April, with a total of about 20 more hospitalizations on weekends. With the surge in COVID-19 cases in Utah and across the country, doctors expect more MIS-C cases in the coming weeks.

Since the onset of the pandemic, healthy children have been reported to have a lower risk of developing serious symptoms of COVID-19 and instead are considered vectors of infection. That remains largely true, but Lake said people need to know that their children are at risk of developing serious COVID-19 complications, including MIS-C.

Although the emotional, educational, and social impacts of pandemics on children have been widely debated, Lake found that very realistic health effects were largely excluded from conversation. ..

“This is due to the very lucky situation that children usually have mild illness, but that does not mean that some of these children do not develop very severe infections. No, “he said.

Doctors said that it usually takes 4 to 6 weeks after COVID-19 infection to develop MIS-C, and the symptoms are not typical of the average COVID-19 case. Symptoms include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, neck pain, rash, red eye, and extreme malaise.

These symptoms are common in many other illnesses, even appendicitis. Due to the increasing number of cases of COVID-19, Dr. Erin Treemarcki of Pediatric Rheumatology predicts that hospitals should begin testing for MIS-C whenever patients show these symptoms. I will.

Much is still unknown about the syndrome, especially its long-term effects. Doctors will continue outpatient treatment and observation of MIS-C patients for 3-6 months to allow organ recovery and monitoring of long-term health problems associated with the disease.

During that time, children are unable to participate in intense activities such as sports.

Maddy hasn’t attended school or played basketball since she was released from the hospital. According to doctors, her heart, which was most affected during the match against MIS-C, needs time to heal.

Dr. Dongngan Truong of Pediatric Cardiology said he still didn’t know why Maddy couldn’t move that morning, but said he experienced a lot of muscle soreness during hospitalization, and further research is needed to fully understand the condition. He said it was necessary.

This syndrome resembles Kawasaki disease, a rare illness commonly found in young children. Both treatment plans also include the use of immunosuppressive drugs to control inflammation and the use of steroids. It is not yet known how similar Kawasaki disease and MIS-C are. It is also currently unknown whether children with previous Kawasaki disease are at increased risk of developing MIS-C.

Very rarely, some adults have symptoms similar to those of MIS-C patients. Reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases of MIS-C also mimic the unfortunate and common trends seen during pandemics, with more patients in Hispanic and African-American populations, Truong said.

At this point, Truong said it was unclear why it was, but with the addition of doctors, there are other genetic factors that may be present, or other trends that may follow COVID-19 trends. I don’t know if there are socio-economic factors. In any case, she said she needed more data. Several studies are currently underway to better understand MIS-C. National Institute of Cardiopulmonary Blood..

According to Treemarcki, MIS-C is a new diagnosis first seen early in the pandemic in the United Kingdom and later in Italy and New York. The phenomenon itself is not new, Treemarcki said, as doctors have previously treated hyperinflammatory syndrome after other infections.

“But I think what we see in MIS-C is, as you know, a large percentage of what we’ve seen before,” she said.

To be diagnosed with this condition, the patient must meet at least one of three criteria: PCR COVID-19 test positive, COVID-19 antibody positive, or known exposure to the virus.

Most commonly, like Maddy, patients with MIS-C test positive for antibodies.

Maddy and her mom, who are now recovering at home, warn others to take the pandemic seriously, even if they think they are not affected by the pandemic.

Marilyn Dayton, with a population of less than 1,000, believed that she and her family were socially distant by default in small towns. After seeing her daughter sick in the ICU for days, she has a renewed determination to strengthen the game on health guidelines and safety precautions.

People all over the country continue to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic, Protest health guidelinesMarilyn Dayton, like wearing a mask, is urging the public to join her to do better.

I couldn’t move at all … I got stuck.

– 12-year-old Madilin Dayton recovering from MIS-C.

“We have lived that experience, and many opinions are no longer relevant to me,” she said. “We need to be careful to conquer COVID. We need to be careful about what our actions are doing to others.”

Before Maddy got sick with MIS-C, Marilyn Dayton said she didn’t think COVID-19 could have such a serious impact on healthy children.

“I didn’t expect the children to be affected and as sick as she was,” Marilyn Dayton said. “And the way it went was very fast. That disappointed me.”

She added that asymptomatic spread is part of what makes the virus so deadly, and the family unknowingly passes the virus to others, causing serious symptoms and MIS-C. He said he remains at risk of developing the disease.

“How can I conquer COVID even if I don’t belong to the high-risk category?” Marilyn Dayton said.

Doctors are concerned that the already tense health care system will continue to deteriorate as the upcoming winter conditions and holidays encourage people to gather indoors.

“Many of us in the health community are very worried about what will happen in the coming months,” Lake said. “Our ability to provide medical care as needed may be disrupted.”

Record highs for COVID-19 patients admitted to Utah Reported on Monday at 503.

As many health officials have done over the past few months, Lake again begged the public to play their role — wearing masks and finding alternatives to celebrate holidays and social distance. please.

“None of us are safe until we are all safe,” he said.

XX

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Lauren Bennett