VERNAL, Utah – A family from Utah says their 1-year-old child ended up in hospital due to COVID-19 complications just a month after testing positive for the disease.
After contracting COVID-19 in early September, the Freestones thought the worst was behind them.
“He had a light cough, mostly a bad nasal congestion and then a few mild fevers,” said Amanda Freestone of her one-year-old son Mason.
Freestone said he was treated with antibiotics and appeared to be making a full recovery. But Mason’s breath worsened last week. His parents took him to the hospital after the area between his ribs and neck sank in significant labor.
“They took an x-ray and said he had pneumonia and his breathing is dropping to the 80th percentile and we need to keep him,” Freestone said.
Doctors and nurses did more tests and found that Mason tested positive for croup and COVID-19.
“My jaw just dropped. I thought, ‘It doesn’t make sense (that) we had COVID,’ ”Freestone said. “They said that patients can test positive for COVID for up to 90 days, so this could be a consequence of that. But they also said he could have caught it again. “
Regardless, Mason’s family hopes he will continue to heal. He was released on Tuesday, his first birthday, and will need home oxygen treatments for the foreseeable future.
“The doctors tell us we have no idea what kind of damage it did to my son’s lungs,” Freestone said.
Freestone hopes her son’s story encourages others to take as many precautions as possible to avoid contracting COVID-19.
“There’s really no telling who will be affected and if it will come back and hit you again and what it will do to your body,” she said.
Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe * account to help out with medical expenses.
* KSL TV does not guarantee that the money deposited into the account will be used for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering making a deposit into the account, you should consult your own advisor and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
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