15-year-old describes contracting rare post-COVID disease, starting with a rash and progressing to loss of heart and kidney function

• Children who contract COVID-19, whether mild or severe, are at risk of developing MIS-C, a life-threatening syndrome.

• Abie Martinez, 15, who had a mild case of COVID-19 in 2020, shared her story about the loss of heart and kidney function with Insider.

• “It was a scary experience,” her mother said.

• See more stories on the Insider business page.

When 15-year-old Abie Martinez contracted COVID-19 last December, it didn’t matter.

“It was just a little cough, then my loss of taste and smell,” he said, adding that “I got it back pretty quickly.”

After his infection subsided, he continued with his usual routines: hitting the gym about three times a week and attending school in person. It wasn’t until more than a month later, on January 25, 2021, that he started to experience some kind of weird, sharp pain in his left leg and neck.

“My shoulders hurt every time I did something,” he said, and “it would hurt to stand up all the way.”

Abie didn’t know it at the time, but he had developed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, MIS-C. This is an extremely rare disease that appears to primarily affect children after contracting or being exposed to COVID-19. While it’s not common – the United States has counted 4,100 cases of MIS-C in children since the start of the pandemic – doctors are urging children and parents to be aware it’s not something to be discarded.

The day after Abie’s muscle aches started, he became sensitive to light and noise. On Wednesday, a large red rash appeared on the inside of his arm.

Her symptoms became severe during the week, including fever, diarrhea, and extreme fatigue.

“I had a really bad back and kept throwing up,” he said. “My body just wasn’t working.”

“The most seriously ill children we see with COVID-19”

Children who contract MIS-C after infection are “the most seriously ill children we see with COVID-19,” according to Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah who saw 100 cases of MIS-C in children during the pandemic.

The story continues

Pavie says “it’s difficult to predict who is going to have” MIS-C, as the syndrome seems to affect children like Martinez, who have had a very mild case of COVID-19, as often as children who have had more serious illness .

If left untreated, MIS-C can lead to organ failure and death. So far, at least 37 children have died from MIS-C in the United States, since the CDC began tracking cases in May 2020.

Experts still don’t know what causes the disease. More than half of confirmed cases of MIS-C nationwide have been in men (60%) and the majority of children are black, Hispanic or Latino, according to the CDC.

Martinez was hospitalized for five days with major heart problems

On Friday, five days after the onset of his first symptoms, Martinez was taken to a Salt Lake City hospital, where he remained for five days of treatment, as doctors worked to stabilize his heart rate and blood pressure.

Her cardiologist, Dr Dongngan Truong, gave her epinephrine and norepinephrine to regulate her blood pressure, as well as immunotherapies including steroids and combined antibodies (IVIG).

Six months later, Martinez is feeling almost back to normal now, with just sometimes “a little pain in his chest,” he says. He swam this summer and thinks he could participate in a gym class at school this fall, which he couldn’t safely do after his MIS-C treatment.

He goes to the hospital for checkups every three months to make sure his heart is recovering.

“It was a scary experience,” said Martinez’s mother Cendy Marquez, describing seeing her kidneys shut down and seeing the damage to her heart.

“Her kidneys are looking great and her heart is really doing great,” she said, although she still encourages him not to “overdo it” while her body recovers.

“I kind of have to remind him of that, just because he’s so young and active,” she said. “Relax.”

Experts urge parents to send unvaccinated young children to school with masks

Dr Pavia is concerned that more cases like Martinez’s will surface in the coming weeks, given the recent increase in pediatric COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations nationwide. Children now account for 19% of reported COVID-19 cases nationwide, a dramatic jump from the cumulative average of 14.3% earlier in the pandemic, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics .

“We just encourage parents not to vent things like gastroenteritis or a summer cold,” Pavia said. “We really want all parents to be aware of this possibility.”

With initial symptoms including high fever, stomach pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, MIS-C is not a subtle condition.

The best way to protect children as they return to in-person learning, with the spread of the Delta variant, is to get so many teachers and eligible students vaccinated, then to hide everyone in the class, to prevent the spread of disease to young children who have not received vaccines.

“This idea that ‘Oh, it’s good for kids to have COVID’ is really a bad idea,” said Dr. Tina Tan, professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University, in a recent briefing from the ‘Infectious Diseases Society of America.

“Send your child to school with a mask,” she said.

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