Callum (3) battles rare COVID illness

A DUNGANNON mother has called for greater awareness of a rare Covid-19 related condition that left her three-year-old son seriously ill in hospital.

Vicky Hand’s son Callum is back home but he is on medication and being closely monitored.

He has been diagnosed with Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS) an entirely new condition that occurs weeks after a child has been infected with coronavirus.

The worried mum, said her son who was perfectly healthy, tested positive for Covid on January 12 but had no symptoms. She described the frightening experience that developed almost a month later on February 9.

“Callum was sent home from nursery as he was complaining of being cold and he couldn’t warm up.

“He became very lethargic and all he wanted to do was sleep. He started to develop a temperature that wouldn’t come down. He was breathing fast, his lips started to swell and he developed a rash.

He was seen in urgent care in Craigavon hospital before being sent to Craigavon pediatrics. He was sent home from hospital with an antibiotic for a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)”.

However the following day the child still had a high temperature while the symptoms had not abated and the rash had spread. The local GP sent him to Royal Victoria Hospital for Sick Children in Belfast.

It emerged that he did not have UTI and his bloods were taken revealing he had developed PIMS.

Vicky said it was “a moment that changed their lives”.

“We had never heard of this,” she continued. “He had a whole medical team of surgeons, urologists, cardiologists, an infectious disease consultant and doctors. He had countless blood tests and scans. His blood were all over the place. We were told he might need to be ventilated due to inflammation of the heart.”

Callum spent the next two days under Intensive Care Unit observation with constant heart monitors. He was on an infectious disease ward and had a high heart rate coupled with dangerously low blood pressure. It was also difficult to stabilise his temperature.

Thankfully he gradually he started to improve and after seven days he came home.

Reflecting on the traumatic experience, Vicky said, “It was very hard to watch. It was ;like someone withdrawing from drugs. Before all of this Callum was a healthy boy. Now he has been left with fluid around his heart and a low resting heart rate. He’s on three different tablets and is a cardiology outpatient”.

Vicky has called for greater awareness of PIMS throughout the medical profession as well as pharmacists, schools and the general public.

She stated, “The school has put up a link app from Great Ormond Street Hospital to create awareness. Callum has been signed up to a study by Queens University in conjunction with the Royal Hospital. It is such a new condition that has only emerged in the last two years. We don’t know what the long-term effects of PIMS will be. Callum still has fluid around his heart and takes medication four times a day. He won’t be back at nursery school for a while. He is being closely monitored by medical people.”

When contacted by the Herald, a spokesperson for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health sent a number of website links with information regarding PIMS.

Information can be acquired by logging onto Great Ormond Street Hospital PIMS.