Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Student with Covid-19 ends up on life support
Mum’s anguish at seeing healthy 20-year-old son suffer
A healthy 20-year-old who ended up on life support after contracting coronavirus is warning people to take the disease seriously. Oliver Pratt’s body was ravaged by a rare multi-system inflammatory syndrome associated with Covid-19.
The Kawasaki-like condition is thought to mainly affect young children - the immune system is forced into overdrive, causing multi-organ dysfunction and in some cases sepsis. Oliver, a second-year student at the University of the Creative Arts in Canterbury, started feeling unwell one morning in May. His mum Caroline said: “He was really finding it difficult to stay conscious, vomiting blood, there was blood in his urine and he had this rash going all the way from his hands up to his elbows.”
She and husband Jonathan had isolated from Oliver and their two other children - Ben, 17, and Imogen, 13 - two weeks earlier after contracting the virus themselves.
The pair only had mild symptoms but what started as a sore throat and headache for Oliver quickly snowballed and he was admitted to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford. An antibody test revealed he had contracted the virus weeks before but had no symptoms and his body was now going through an inflammatory syndrome related to the virus. Due to social distancing measures Oliver’s parents were not allowed to be with him. Mrs Pratt said: “At 1.30am we had a call saying his condition had deteriorated so much he was going to ICU.
“His liver function was deranged, he had jaundice, his blood pressure was being monitored through a line in his neck and he was needing oxygen. “At one point while I was talking to his doctor they were in the process of putting him on life support - it was a horrendous phone call.” Eventually the decision was made by the medical team to transfer Oliver to London’s St Thomas’ Hospital in the event his heart might fail. Oliver’s parents were not allowed to see him, resorting to regular phone calls and video chats with the on-call nurses. After two weeks Oliver made a remarkable recovery, getting the all-clear to be picked up June 3.
Mrs Pratt, from Seabrook, near Folkestone, said: “We just threw our arms around him and the nurse left us to give us some privacy - there were lots of tears.”
Despite Oliver’s quick recovery, the long-term effects of the illness are still not clear, as medical researchers continue to learn more about the syndrome. For the Pratt family, Oliver’s ordeal revealed the reality that the virus can have near-fatal consequences for people who have no underlying health conditions, as well as those who are initially asymptomatic. Oliver hopes his experience will make people think twice about ignoring social distancing measures.
He said: “Just take it seriously, don’t think you’re immune. It’s easier to get the virus than a lot of people think - you don’t need to be directly coughed on.”