New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Milford boy recovering from COVID-linked inflammatory syndrome
MILFORD — Five-year-old
Jace Bruno “literally ran” out of Yale New Haven Hospital in a superhero cape after being treated for a rare, sometimes deadly inflammatory condition linked to COVID-19 in children.
His mother, Kendall Bruno, might be worthy of a superhero cape as well, as she persisted in trying to determine what was wrong with her son.
The boy had had COVID-19 four weeks earlier. Bruno mentioned the possibility that Jace could have Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, or MIS-C, but doctors didn’t think so because Jace didn’t have the classic rash, and the syndrome is so rare, Bruno said.
She decided to take Jace to the hospital Saturday afternoon when he woke from a nap with
104.7-degree fever.
Once in the ER, doctors knew what it was and quickly diagnosed the serious syndrome after running tests.
Jace was released from the hospital this week after four days, and as he finishes his recovery at home, Bruno — had this message for parents:
“Don’t be afraid to push and ask questions of the doctor. Trust your judgment, you know your kids,” she said. “I don’t want any other child to go through that.”
By the time Jace got to his hospital room, his fever had spiked to 105.3 and he was shaking, Bruno said. Doctors ordered an intravenous dose of immunoglobulin to trigger an immune response and, luckily, it worked.
By the second day in the hospital, Jace’s fever was gone and he had internal inflammation all over the body, blood tests showed. But his heart was relatively unaffected.
“Just a few more days and there could have been permanent damage,” Bruno said. “I knew something was wrong.”
He could have been hospitalized longer, but on Tuesday he was released with close monitoring and is taking steroids for six weeks. He will continue seeing a cardiologist — the inflammation from the syndrome can affect the heart — and a rheumatologist at a special clinic at Yale New Haven Hospital for MIS-C.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that as of March 29, there had been 3,185 cases of MIS-C in the country and 36 deaths.
Connecticut has had 25-49 cases, according to the CDC.
The CDC describes the condition as: “a rare but serious condition associated with COVID-19.” The agency website states the CDC is working to address questions about why some children and adolescents develop MIS-C after a COVID-19 illness or contact with someone with COVID-19, while others do not.
Jace and his parents will be part of a research study to determine whether there a genetic component to the syndrome. It’s so rare, Bruno said, that those doing the study are having a hard time getting 500 in the area who have had the condition.
“It’s something that could really be mistaken for a virus” or other illness, including Kawasaki disease, another inflammatory condition that was mentioned as a possibility before Jace’s diagnosis at Yale, Bruno said. “They’re still learning a lot about it,” she said.
Bruno said she and both her children — Jace and daughter Kaysen, almost 2 years old — tested positive for COVID, but her husband did not as he was vaccinated.
She now worries about Kaysen developing the inflammatory syndrome, though she says it’s unlikely, and is having her day care check the child’s temperature more often during the day.
Bruno said she had the most extreme COVID symptoms, Kaysen was asymptomatic (just cranky) and Jace, who tested positive March 9, had a mild case for a few days, with of a low-grade fever, headache and gastrointestinal symptoms.
The MIS-C issue started about four weeks after Jace had COVID-19. He developed a fever as well as stomach pain.
He was prescribed Motrin and Tylenol to make the fever come down, but the medication was “not doing anything,” Bruno said. It brought the fever down a little but then it would shoot up again, she said.
On the day she brought Jace to the hospital, he had cracked, red lips and his tongue was white with red spots. Later, an ER doctor would tell Bruno that Jace had a barely perceptible rash on his arm.
Bruno said she also wants parents to know their child can develop the syndrome even if they are asymptomatic. They may get COVID-19 and “never know it,” she said.
She said a lot of people aren’t aware of the syndrome and “it presents itself in different ways.”
“I just want people to make sure they’re aware. If they’re having doubts, they should trust their instincts,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jace is happy to be home and hopped on the iPad soon after his arrival.
“He literally ran out of there (the hospital) with a superhero cape,” Bruno said. “We’re very fortunate we caught it in time and he responded very well.”
The CDC says most cases were in children and adolescents between the ages of 1 and 14 with a median age of 9 years. Cases have occurred in children and adolescents from one to 20 years old.
The CDC also said that 63 percent of reported cases have occurred in Hispanic or Latino children, with 1,023 cases, and Black, non-Hispanic children with 868 cases.
In 99 percent of cases — or 3,152 — those with the syndrome tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. The remaining 1 percent were around someone with COVID-19. More than half — 59 percent — of reported cases were in males.