The mom of a three-year-old rushed to hospital per week after contracting Covid on 4 separate events has stated she fears a winter spike in circumstances of the “frightening” virus, which additionally left him with bronchial asthma and a uncommon pores and skin situation.
Kerry Degg, 45, stated she dreads a spike of coronavirus circumstances this winter because the final 4 occasions her son Elliott returned a optimistic take a look at, he was admitted to University Hospital of North Staffs, Staffordshire, per week later.
After his first prognosis in October 2020, medics needed to resuscitate Elliott on the prime of the steps of their household residence in Newcastle-under-Lyme after he turned blue and skilled convulsions, “ridiculous” temperature spikes and foaming on the mouth.
Kerry stated paramedics arrived at her residence in protecting fits “looking like horror film characters” however one in every of them “ripped his suit off” so he might stand up the steps to avoid wasting her son.
“I shouted at him that I think we’ve got Covid but he said he didn’t care – it was all very dramatic at the time, them trying to help Elliott,” she stated.
Elliott is now asthmatic post-Covid and through his third hospital admission he began to point out indicators of dermographism, a situation also referred to as pores and skin writing, the place uncomfortable pink rashes seem on the pores and skin when a affected person is touched.
The solely youngster of police management room operator Kerry and her 49-year-old engineer husband Tim, Elliott was born a “miracle baby” when she was 42 after years of the couple attempting with out success of their 30s.
The household now defend as a lot as they will to guard each Elliott and Tim, who can also be in danger after having two coronary heart assaults in April 2017.
She stated: “We’re dreading the positive and negative test result as it gives us this warning we’re going straight up to hospital with Elliott.”
“I’m slightly less frightened as every hospital visit was less severe.
“We’re just in limbo with it all and hope he might get a vaccine soon.”
The NHS doesn’t at the moment present vaccines to youngsters beneath the age of 5 however Kerry stated each time Elliott has contracted the virus he has had a delayed antagonistic response per week later.
“He gets really, really ill one week after having Covid which is bizarre but it’s fine when he has it,” she stated.
“Then one week later when he tests negative, we know he’s going to go into hospital, so weird.
“He doesn’t get ill with Covid, he gets ill after Covid, so that’s our fear over winter with the numbers going up.
“We’re staying away from his grandparents who have Covid at the moment because of that panic.”
The household is ready for any future post-Covid points as they’ve oxygen and temperature displays at residence to control Elliott when he falls in poor health.
Elliott was at all times “perfectly healthy” in keeping with Kerry till he first fell in poor health with Covid in September 2020.
“He was unconscious, blue and foaming at the mouth,” Kerry recalled.
“The paramedics had to resuscitate him at the top of our stairs then he was admitted to hospital.
“Nothing can ever get as bad as that so we’ve always said we’re not going to let anything hold him back.”
Kerry added: “As long as it’s not hurting him we won’t let the dermographism or asthma hold him back because after that experience (on the stairs), it was just the worst.”
Each time Elliott has contracted Covid he has struggled to breathe and he now suffers from bronchial asthma.
After his third journey to the hospital, medics first observed indicators of dermographism.
“The doctor noticed his face was marking up every time he put the oxygen mask on him,” stated Kerry.
“So they were asking me if he was allergic to the latex. They were panicking because he got lines all over his face where the mask was.”
She added: “Every time anybody touched him, he marked. It was quite pronounced. It wasn’t just minor; it was really every touch.
“It was you literally putting your hand on his chest and your handprint would be there after, he was that severe at the beginning whilst he was in hospital.”
A 2021 US research by researchers on the University of Florida, revealed within the British Medical Journal, urged that dermographism could also be an extra manifestation of a Covid an infection.
Elliott now exhibits marks on his pores and skin after one thing as harmless as a cuddle.
His mum stated: “You feel it as much as him. You haven’t done anything but you see your own handprints.
“So you pick him up underneath his arms from a bath, for instance, and your handprints are on him.”
She added: “To see your three-year-old little toddler and he’s got your hand prints on his body, you think you’ve sort of pressed too hard sometimes.
“At the beginning you didn’t dare touch him and if you just cuddled him, he’d have marks all over him, so we were panicking.”
Elliott himself, who greatest enjoys pretending to be his favorite motion hero Spiderman, will not be bothered concerning the markings on his pores and skin.
“It doesn’t seem to bother him… the other day he was a little bit itchy,” stated Kerry.
“(But) he doesn’t really know, he doesn’t notice it himself. It’s more frightening for us.
“It almost looks worse for us if he gets a scratch or if he gets really, really upset, which is rare.”
She added: “If he cries his whole body gets covered in marks, it seems to accelerate it for some reason.”
After attempting a sequence of medicines, antihistamine cetirizine has helped relieve Elliott’s dermographism.
“Whilst it’s not a cure, it improved his symptoms by 80%,” his mom stated.
“If he didn’t have his medicine it would be pretty obvious.
“If we forget his medicine once in the morning, he’d roll around on the floor and have a big mark on his face.”
Despite the trials he has confronted, Elliott’s dad and mom say he’s a “chilled child” and truly loves his time spent within the hospital.
“We’ve tried not to make a big thing about it so he doesn’t really notice any difference,” she stated.
“I think we would struggle if he was a crier.
“If he cried over everything, we would really struggle because you’ve got no way of knowing if it’s really bad, because it always looks bad.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk