Mum’s Kawasaki fear for daughter

EXPERTS FEAR A SURGE IN NEW CASES HAS BEEN BROUGHT ON BY CORONAVIRUS

A WASHINGTON mum fears her daughter had Kawasaki disease after the toddler’s skin “looked like someone had poured scalding water on her”.

Little Erin Smiles was covered head-to-toe in a rash, while battling raging fevers which resulted in three trips to hospital.

Back in January, doctors believed the rash may have been from a reaction.

However, around 100 British children have since had a new Kawasaki-like disease which has been linked to coronavirus.

Tragically the condition has already claimed the life of an eight-month-old baby.

And as more information about the new condition emerges, Victoria Smiles fears her daughter may have been one of the first in the country to have it.

“’I’m not a doctor, but looking at the photos of other children who had it, she had it 100%,” claimed the 30-year-old.

“She had all the symptoms and I’m scared to think what could have happened.”

The then two-year-old was given Calpol and put to bed with a high temperature on January 12

“She woke at 4.30am crying and her face was swollen, and her eyes half closed,” recalled Victoria.

“I panicked and called 999 who sent an ambulance to take her to hospital, but she was sent away with Calpol and antihistamines.

“But I had her back at 5pm, as her lips were starting to swell and the rash was head-to-toe.”

Her temperature hit 40 degrees,

To think she was just sent away with Calpol and antihistamines was quite scary

while Erin’s hands “looked like balloons”. However, on three occasions she was sent home from Sunderland Royal Hospital. “She was breathing fast for a week and each time the Calpol wore off, her temperature would go through the roof,” added the mum-of-two.

“The rash looked as if someone had poured scalding water on her. There was a bit of white skin, but the rest of her was just red. “She just wasn’t herself, she’d just lie on the sofa and was sleeping loads, and that isn’t her at all. She’s usually up, wanting to dance around and always asks me to put some music on.

“But she would say to me ‘Mam, I can’t walk - it hurts too much’.

The youngster eventually recovered. But Victoria contacted the Chronicle to share her story after reading growing reports nationally of children suffering with the rare disease.

Experts fear it is triggered by an overreaction to coronavirus.

According to the NHS, Kawasaki mainly affects children under five. The main symptoms are a fever, rash, red eyes and swollen glands.

Like Erin, it usually clears after a few weeks. However medics fear the new condition, dubbed PIMSTS, inflames blood vessels and can prove fatal.

Alexander Parsons died in April, aged just eight months, in his mum’s arms after suffering a ruptured aneurysm.

And while the condition usually hits very young children, there have been around 200 cases across Europe in kids as old as 14.

Thankfully Erin, who has since enjoyed her third birthday, has now fully recovered after a series of blood tests failed to conclusively show what had caused the episode.

But for her mum, who said she doesn’t know of anyone who has had coronavirus, she’s issued a plea to parents.

And her voice cracks as she recalls the “scary” rash which covered her daughter - and the stress it caused the young family.

“I’d encourage every parent to get their children checked,” she added.

“To think that it could have been that, and that children who have had it have been on intensive care, to think she was just sent away with Calpol and antihistamines was quite scary.”