Three-year-old suffers stroke after Covid-19 diagnosis

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• After testing positive for the coronavirus, a 3-year-old boy from Missouri had a stroke.
• Doctors at the University of Missouri’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia told KSN-TV that the boy, Colt Parris, is now recuperating after undergoing surgery to tackle a blood clot.
• Since the pandemic started, researchers have been studying the potential effects of COVID-19 in a person’s neurological makeup.

Missouri doctors said a 3-year-old toddler suffered a stroke after tests confirmed that he contracted the coronavirus. This case, they believed, serves as a valid example of Covid-19-related neurological problems.

Following a surgery to treat a blood clot, the boy, Colt Parris on Thursday, was reportedly on his way to recovery while being admitted at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, doctors told NBC affiliate KSN-TV.

“The Covid diagnosis is important because we think the reason why (patients) with Covid, including the child, have strokes and a variety of other problems is that they have propensity to form clots,” Dr. Camilo Gomez, a neurologist at the hospital, told the station.

He added that since the pandemic struck, doctors have been investigating the relationship between the coronavirus and blood clots including cases where a person’s brain is affected. 

Sara Parris, Colt’s mother, told the station that hours after Colt tested positive for the virus, she noticed that Colt seemed unable to move his right arm and leg when he tried to grab a stuffed toy.

“I went to hand him his Boo and I noticed that he didn’t use his dominant arm to grab it. He reached over to grab his bunny, and then again, I knew something else wasn’t right.”

Pediatric neurologist Dr. Paul Carney noted that the boy’s stroke had blocked and restricted the blood supply in the left side of his brain.

“There’s really no other case like this,” Carney told the outlet, adding that “If this had been anybody over the age of 40 or 60, they would have probably had a very different outcome.”

Hoping that his son’s experience would further raise awareness about the potential neurological effects of Covid-19, the boy’s father, Tim Parris, stressed the importance of wearing masks, saying, “It’s important. If you don’t want your children going through this, people need to be more aware.”

Early this year, one third of 214 patients in a study in Wuhan, China, showed neurological manifestations of the disease including loss of consciousness and stroke. Doctors in the US have likewise studied and recorded blood clots and stroke cases in Covid-19 patients.

Source: NBC News