‘Scary’ illness tied to virus preys on kids, alarms NY

Amber Dean had recovered from a mild bout of the coronavirus and her family of five had just ended their home quarantine when her oldest son, 9-year-old Bobby, fell ill.

“At first it was nothing major, it seemed like a tummy bug, like he ate something that didn’t agree with him,” said Dean, who lives with her husband and three young children in the western New York town of Hornell. “But by the next day, he couldn’t keep anything down and his belly hurt so bad he couldn’t sit up.”

At the hospital emergency room, doctors suspected an appendix infection and sent him home with instructions to see his pediatrician.

It was only later, after Bobby’s condition took a turn for the worse, that doctors realized he was among the small but growing number of children with a mysterious inflammatory syndrome thought to be related to the virus.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that New York is investigating about 100 cases of the syndrome, which affects blood vessels and organs and has symptoms similar to Kawasaki disease and toxic shock. Three children in the state have died and Cuomo advised all hospitals to prioritize COVID-19 testing for children presenting with symptoms.

In New York City, which has reported 52 children sick with the syndrome, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday urged parents to call their pediatricians if their children show symptoms including persistent fever, rash, abdominal pain and vomiting.

That’s what Bobby Dean’s family did, even though they live in Steuben County, which has only 239 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and is in a part of the state set to start reopening some workplaces Friday.

The family doctor performed a coronavirus test the day after his trip to the emergency room, but the results would take 24 hours. By that night, the boy’s fever had spiked, his abdomen was swollen, he was dehydrated and his heart was racing. His father, Michael Dean, drove him to Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, 90 minutes away.

“At Rochester they did a rapid COVID test and it came back positive,” Amber Dean said.

For the next six days, she was at his hospital bedside while Bobby was hooked up to IV lines and a heart monitor. He came home on Mother’s Day. “It’s a pretty scary thing, watching your child be hooked up to all these wires and IVs and there’s nothing you can do,” Dean said.

Inflamed lymph nodes caused the abdominal pain, she said. “They’re hoping he pulls through with 100% recovery but they said there have been children with lasting effects.”

Children elsewhere in the country and in Europe have also been hospitalized with the condition known as pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome.

In New York, the syndrome has been found in a range of young people. Two boys, ages 5 and 7, and a woman, 18, have died.

About 23% of cases have occurred in children under age 5, about 29% between the ages of 5 and 9, about 28% between ages 10 and 14 and 16% between the ages 15 and 19.

“This is a truly disturbing situation,” Cuomo said. “If we have this issue in New York it’s probably in other states.”

FAMILY PHOTO Bobby Dean, 9, who tested positive for COVID-19, had severe dehydration, abdominal pain and a racing heart.