[ad_1]
UTICA, NY – On Monday, Xavier Harris was his usual happy person. The 4-year-old couldn’t sit still, running around the house and teasing his older brothers. It was a burst of movement, her mother said.
But Xavier – who was called Xavy by his family – had a fever that day, his mother, Chantel Brooks, said. Like any child, he had a fever before and it wasn’t too high, so his mother gave him Tylenol.
Brooks learned on Tuesday that her mother had tested positive for Covid-19. Xavier had spent the weekend one night with his grandmother. They had worn masks, but Brooks was still worried.
She called her pediatrician, who told her not to take her to emergency care, but to watch for her symptoms.
Six days after his first illness, the brave, nervous, super-active 40-pound Xavier was dead. Brooks said doctors told him he died of cardiac arrest as a complication of Covid.
“I miss my little guy calling me 57 times a day just to say ‘hello’,” she said Thursday. “I miss crawling in bed with me. Now I watch and he’s not there. I can not sleep.
Deaths from Covid in children are very rare.
In New York state, only nine children aged 9 or under have died from Covid, according to the state’s health department.
Children account for 0.07% of all Covid-19-related deaths, according to a report released this month by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, based on data from 42 states. In all, 172 children across the country have died from Covid, according to the report.
Xavier, who was in pre-K at Utica, was in very good health, his mother said.
“He was not a sick child at all. He had no underlying condition, ”she said. “I was the one who had cancer and I have diabetes. Everyone was afraid that I would get it, which is why we wore our masks all the time and used Instacart.
When Xavier did not improve and his fever rose to 104, Brooks drove him to the emergency room at St. Luke’s Hospital in Utica on Wednesday morning. She told them her mother had tested positive for Covid, so they tested Xavier but he was negative.
They did a chest x-ray, she said, and found two white spots on her lungs. They put on an IV because he couldn’t hold anything, including fluids, she said.
Brooks said she asked if he could have another Covid test. This time Xavier tested positive.
At Christmas Xavier was still in the hospital but his fever broke and he started asking for a drink. He was talking, smiling and telling the doctors that he just wanted to watch his movie “Toy Story 4” and go home. Doctors said if he continued to progress he would be released the next day.
Brooks named his two other sons, Darell, 12, and Jeremiah, 10. They said they wanted to wait for their little brother to come home on Saturday before opening the presents.
All of a sudden on Friday Xavier started having trouble breathing, Brooks said. Another chest x-ray showed that the spots on his lungs had increased. Early Saturday morning, they took him to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, she said.
In Upstate in the emergency room, he was surrounded by doctors and nurses, who Brooks said were wonderful to him. Xavier was conscious, was talking and asking for mom.
“He didn’t look that sick,” she said. “He was smiling at the doctor, but he didn’t want to be touched by anyone anymore. He told me he wanted to go home.
The doctors treating Xavier let his mother hold his hand.
“Don’t leave me,” her mother remembers her son. She assured him that she would not go anywhere until he went with her.
Suddenly Brooks said she heard the machine stop beeping next to her bed.
“They rushed me out of the room to work on him, but I saw his face and I knew he was gone,” she says. “I knew it was bad, but I was hoping they could do something to get it back.
Xavier died at 7:20 a.m. on Boxing Day. Brooks said he was told he went into cardiac arrest as a result of Covid.
The doctors let her into the room to see her son, and she sat for a while holding his hand and telling him how much she loved him.
“I love you and I’m so sorry,” Brooks remembers telling him over and over.
Xavier Harris (second from left) poses for vacation photos with his mother, Chantel Brooks, and brothers, Jeremiah, 10, and Darell, 12.Photo provided
Brooks, a 32-year-old single mom, finds herself with a giant hole in her heart and a lot of questions. Why his son? Why did this happen?
Xavier was a nice surprise, she said, born after having miscarried and not sure whether she could have more children.
“I lost my miracle baby,” she says. “I don’t feel normal anymore. I have the impression that I am not complete.
In shock over Xaiver’s death and funeral on Wednesday, Brooks said she was comforted by the support of her family, friends, colleagues in the Utica City School District where she is a teaching assistant , as well as foreigners. People sent cards, brought food, and helped with a fundraiser to pay for funeral expenses.
Obituary
More than 150 people watched the funeral on Zoom or walked through the call hours a few people at a time, she said. It helps, but Brooks said it won’t bring his son back.
Brooks and his two sons have tested negative for Covid. Her mother’s only symptoms were a cold and a cough. She’s made well now.
Brooks wants people to know that getting sick from the coronavirus can happen to you, young or old. No one is safe, no one can be sure that they will recover.
“We followed the guidelines,” she said. “How can it spread so quickly? For me, it’s just crazy. I don’t want anyone else to go through what I just went through. ”
Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Do you have a tip, a comment or a story idea? Contact her anytime at 315-470-3012 or by email [email protected]
[ad_2]
Source link