“These are the kids, in my thoughts, that we fear about essentially the most,” he mentioned.
Ethan Chanrdra has a uncommon situation known as heterotaxy syndrome; he was born with half a working coronary heart and different coronary heart defects. The syndrome additionally causes dysfunction in his lungs, which makes it exhausting for him to clear his airways, which, in flip, makes him susceptible to a critical respiratory sickness.
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“We fear about Covid in any child as a result of even wholesome children will be affected,” mentioned Dr. Nelangi M. Pinto, Ethan’s heart specialist. “However we do fear extra when there’s some underlying situations.”
Ms. Chandra, a former pediatric intensive care nurse, now performs checkups on her son each morning, surrounded by Legos and stuffed animals. Whereas listening by a stethoscope , she mentioned that his respiratory was quick and that he sounded “junky,” as if his lungs had been clogged. His fever has been as excessive as 103 levels since his Covid analysis, and oxygen ranges in his blood have hovered within the low 90s; a standard studying for kids his age is 98 %.
In the event that they dip under 90 %, he might want to instantly go to the hospital, Ms. Chandra mentioned — simply as he did when he was a child and he had constant excessive fevers and low oxygen ranges from his medical issues.
Like many different youngsters with advanced medical situations, Ethan has a “go bag” full of objects his household will want in the event that they must shortly rush him to the hospital. His is blue, grey and inexperienced, and it was once full of fuzzy blue Monster slippers, spare garments, toiletries, additional treatment and snacks.
As Ethan has grown older and wanted to be hospitalized much less often, his bag moved from the entrance door to his room, then up on a shelf. His mom ultimately turned so assured in Ethan’s progress that she unpacked the go bag and crammed it with tenting gear as a substitute.
