COLUMBIA, Mo (KOMU) – A 3-year-old boy from Missouri is recovering at home after doctors said he experienced a stroke shortly after testing positive for COVID-19.
Sara Parris took her 3-year-old son Colt to the emergency room on Dec. 15 because he could not contain any fluids. He ended up testing positive for COVID-19 and the next morning realized he was not speaking normally.
“I just thought he’s in so much pain and he’s so tired because he doesn’t rest that he doesn’t have the energy to talk,” Parris said.
But then he realized he wasn’t grabbing his stuffed animal the way he normally would. Instead of grabbing her with his right hand, he says that “he reached the body completely with his left arm.”
It turned out that Colt had a stroke that cut off the blood supply to the left side of his brain, preventing him from moving his right arm and leg.
Dr. Camilo Gómez, a neurologist at the hospital, says doctors were studying the relationship between the virus and neurological problems.
“The diagnosis of COVID is important because we believe that the reason these patients with COVID, including this child, have stroke and several other problems is that they have a propensity to form clots,” Gomez said.
Gomez says his team rarely performs acute stroke interventions on children, but it’s not something unheard of. He says helping Colt recover was the highlight of his week.
“The ability to give this family the child who has been neurologically improved by the time Christmas rolls, I thought was ideal for us. They were just walking in the sun, ”he said.
Colt’s mother hopes her experience will lead to greater awareness of the complications of COVID-19, especially those that may appear in young children.
“It can be much more serious than the flu. Kids will get it, they can get it. You may not have any symptoms, like us. We had no idea he didn’t even have it, ”Parris said.
Colt is already out of the hospital, but still has trouble moving his right arm and leg. His mother says that if a stranger saw him, they might not know that anything had happened, but like his mother, she knows, he is still not entirely himself.
The 3-year-old is expected to fully recover after physiotherapy.
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