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'That looks like what he had': Ottawa mother says son's illness similar to other mysterious COVID-related cases
Elizabeth Payne
Publishing date:
42 minutes ago • 4 minute read
Ottawa- April 06, 2020 - CHEO, April 06, 2020. JEAN LEVAC / Postmedia News
When the Ottawa mother started seeing news stories about a mysterious syndrome associated with COVID-19 in children, she couldn’t believe it.
Her 16-year-old son had experienced many similar severe symptoms in March, baffling many of his doctors at the time and alarming his family.
“Oh my god, that looks like what he had,” she said when she first read about cases of the rare Kawasaki-like illness being reported in children and teens in the U.K., New York and other centres hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, New York’s mayor said 82 children in the city now have the dangerous syndrome.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC
CHEO doctors on alert for mysterious COVID-19-related illness in children
Ontario to monitor inflammatory illness in children with COVID-19
There have been no cases confirmed in Ottawa, but the woman wonders whether her son had it before doctors knew what to look for. This newspaper has agreed not to identify her to keep her son’s medical history private.
Her son’s alarming symptoms matched many of those described in cases of children affected with the COVID-related syndrome.
After coming down with a bad virus that was going through the family, the teenager developed large, swollen lymph nodes, started turning yellow and broke out in a rash, his mother said. She took him to CHEO, where he was diagnosed with mononucleosis.
Photos of his rashes and bloodshot eyes. SUPPLIED/POSTMEDIA
Then his symptoms worsened and he began vomiting blood. On March 15, he was taken again to CHEO, this time by ambulance. He remained isolated in the hospital for four days.
While there, the woman said, multiple doctors were perplexed about the cause of his worsening symptoms.
Among other things, he had bright red, seemingly bloodshot, eyes, two different rashes that were itchy and hot, a persistent fever, and enlarged organs, including his spleen, pancreas and liver, in addition to swollen lymph nodes. Many of those symptoms have been seen in cases of children with the COVID-19 associated inflammatory syndrome.
He also tested positive for a number of illnesses, including chicken pox, which he had both been infected with and vaccinated against, celiac disease, which he had never had, according to his mother, and pancreatitis.
Since his hospitalization and mysterious case coincided with the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, he was swabbed for COVID-19, but tested negative.
The woman said she had never seen anything like the rash that covered most of her son’s body.
“It looked like the measles at first, then the red dots clumped all together and it became super hot, like he was on fire.” Her son required cold clothes to ease the heat and pain, she said.
Even his ears were swollen with the rash and his lips were cracked.
“Every doctor would say, ‘Wow, we have never seen mono like this before’.”
While in hospital, the teenager underwent numerous ultrasounds to check on his organs and was biopsied, but the family has not been told of the results.
He was discharged once his fever went down, the mother said.
Her son is also awaiting blood testing, but has not yet received a requisition from CHEO, she said.
When he does have a follow-up appointment, the mother says she will ask whether there is any way of understanding whether her son might have had the syndrome associated with COVID-19.
Weeks later, she said, her son is recovering, although his eyes are still slightly yellow.
“Maybe it was mono, but it was so weird.”
She believes family members could have come in contact with COVID-19. They had visited a relative with severe pneumonia earlier this year and friends who had recently returned from Japan.
Among children in the U.K. whose cases were part of a published report on the syndrome, the majority did not test positive for COVID-19, but they all had antibodies, suggesting they had been infected earlier.
Dr. Jason Brophy, a pediatric infectious disease physician at CHEO, said anyone with serious concerns that their child might have the illness should get medical advice. “Now that we know what we are looking for we are definitely looking back to cases that may have come in in recent months with this in mind.”
He noted that any cases of illnesses that resemble Kawasaki, as the COVID-related case does, are very severe and children end up in hospital.
On Wednesday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott announced that the province would begin monitoring cases of multisystem inflammatory vasculitis in children.
“While the link between this inflammatory illness and COVID-19 is not confirmed at this time, we are taking immediate action to better monitor this emerging issue so that we can effectively respond to the illness and protect Ontario’s children,” Elliott said in a statement.
The case definition of COVID-19 is being updated in Ontario to include the inflammatory illness as an atypical presentation in children.
“Some of the symptoms associated with this illness include persistent fever, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as rash. Parents should contact their health care providers immediately if their children are having these symptoms,” Elliott said.
That move by the province will help doctors to diagnose and track any cases of the illness that arise, said Brophy. And the approval of a serology test for COVID-19 in Canada this week will also help diagnose the illness. In all reported cases of the illness, children had antibodies of COVID-19. Until now, Canadian doctors have had no way to test for that.
epayne@postmedia.com
ottawacitizen.com
Elizabeth Payne
Publishing date:
42 minutes ago • 4 minute read
When the Ottawa mother started seeing news stories about a mysterious syndrome associated with COVID-19 in children, she couldn’t believe it.
Her 16-year-old son had experienced many similar severe symptoms in March, baffling many of his doctors at the time and alarming his family.
“Oh my god, that looks like what he had,” she said when she first read about cases of the rare Kawasaki-like illness being reported in children and teens in the U.K., New York and other centres hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. On Wednesday, New York’s mayor said 82 children in the city now have the dangerous syndrome.
CHEO doctors on alert for mysterious COVID-19-related illness in children
Ontario to monitor inflammatory illness in children with COVID-19
There have been no cases confirmed in Ottawa, but the woman wonders whether her son had it before doctors knew what to look for. This newspaper has agreed not to identify her to keep her son’s medical history private.
Her son’s alarming symptoms matched many of those described in cases of children affected with the COVID-related syndrome.
After coming down with a bad virus that was going through the family, the teenager developed large, swollen lymph nodes, started turning yellow and broke out in a rash, his mother said. She took him to CHEO, where he was diagnosed with mononucleosis.
Photos of his rashes and bloodshot eyes. SUPPLIED/POSTMEDIA
Then his symptoms worsened and he began vomiting blood. On March 15, he was taken again to CHEO, this time by ambulance. He remained isolated in the hospital for four days.
While there, the woman said, multiple doctors were perplexed about the cause of his worsening symptoms.
Among other things, he had bright red, seemingly bloodshot, eyes, two different rashes that were itchy and hot, a persistent fever, and enlarged organs, including his spleen, pancreas and liver, in addition to swollen lymph nodes. Many of those symptoms have been seen in cases of children with the COVID-19 associated inflammatory syndrome.
He also tested positive for a number of illnesses, including chicken pox, which he had both been infected with and vaccinated against, celiac disease, which he had never had, according to his mother, and pancreatitis.
Since his hospitalization and mysterious case coincided with the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, he was swabbed for COVID-19, but tested negative.
The woman said she had never seen anything like the rash that covered most of her son’s body.
“It looked like the measles at first, then the red dots clumped all together and it became super hot, like he was on fire.” Her son required cold clothes to ease the heat and pain, she said.
Even his ears were swollen with the rash and his lips were cracked.
“Every doctor would say, ‘Wow, we have never seen mono like this before’.”
While in hospital, the teenager underwent numerous ultrasounds to check on his organs and was biopsied, but the family has not been told of the results.
He was discharged once his fever went down, the mother said.
Her son is also awaiting blood testing, but has not yet received a requisition from CHEO, she said.
When he does have a follow-up appointment, the mother says she will ask whether there is any way of understanding whether her son might have had the syndrome associated with COVID-19.
Weeks later, she said, her son is recovering, although his eyes are still slightly yellow.
“Maybe it was mono, but it was so weird.”
She believes family members could have come in contact with COVID-19. They had visited a relative with severe pneumonia earlier this year and friends who had recently returned from Japan.
Among children in the U.K. whose cases were part of a published report on the syndrome, the majority did not test positive for COVID-19, but they all had antibodies, suggesting they had been infected earlier.
Dr. Jason Brophy, a pediatric infectious disease physician at CHEO, said anyone with serious concerns that their child might have the illness should get medical advice. “Now that we know what we are looking for we are definitely looking back to cases that may have come in in recent months with this in mind.”
He noted that any cases of illnesses that resemble Kawasaki, as the COVID-related case does, are very severe and children end up in hospital.
On Wednesday, Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott announced that the province would begin monitoring cases of multisystem inflammatory vasculitis in children.
“While the link between this inflammatory illness and COVID-19 is not confirmed at this time, we are taking immediate action to better monitor this emerging issue so that we can effectively respond to the illness and protect Ontario’s children,” Elliott said in a statement.
The case definition of COVID-19 is being updated in Ontario to include the inflammatory illness as an atypical presentation in children.
“Some of the symptoms associated with this illness include persistent fever, abdominal pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, as well as rash. Parents should contact their health care providers immediately if their children are having these symptoms,” Elliott said.
That move by the province will help doctors to diagnose and track any cases of the illness that arise, said Brophy. And the approval of a serology test for COVID-19 in Canada this week will also help diagnose the illness. In all reported cases of the illness, children had antibodies of COVID-19. Until now, Canadian doctors have had no way to test for that.
epayne@postmedia.com
'That looks like what he had': Ottawa mother says son's illness similar to other mysterious COVID-related cases
When the Ottawa mother started seeing news stories about a mysterious syndrome associated with COVID-19 in children, she couldn’t believe it.
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