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An 8-year-old Minnesota girl contracted COVID-19 in March and quickly fought for her life after developing an autoimmune disease.
Avella Braun, of Bloomington, a southern suburb of Minneapolis, was a normal, happy and healthy child until March 2021, NBC News reported. At the start of the month, she developed a low-grade fever, but appeared to be recovering. Until the day her mother Lani found her unresponsive and rushed her to the hospital.
Avella was diagnosed with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis, a rare disease in which the body’s immune system attacks itself and causes swelling of the brain and spinal cord.
An 8-year-old girl from Minnesota has been paralyzed by an autoimmune disease triggered by a COVID infection. (Shutter/)
ADEM is triggered by viral infections, and the only virus that Avella tested positive for was COVID, according to the KMSP.
“We have every reason to believe COVID was the trigger virus here,” Avella pediatrician Dr. Michael Pitt told the station. “We are seeing cases all over the world of ADEM where the only virus they find is COVID.”
Part of Avella’s skull was removed due to the swelling in her brain, NBC News reported. She remains paralyzed in a hospital bed and needs a feeding tube to eat.
The link between COVID and ADEM was discovered at the start of the pandemic, in June 2020. Most children recover in four to six months, but Avella has an even rarer case known as AHEM (hemorrhagic encephalomyelitis acute).
“We’re seeing an extreme that’s very, very rare, but it’s definitely something we’d like to avoid,” Dr. Pitt told NBC News.
Lani Bauer hopes her daughter’s story will inspire parents to get vaccinated and convince their children to wear masks. There is also a GoFundMe for the Bauer family.
“If getting the vaccine and wearing your mask is one more step in preventing that (happening) to another child, that’s what I want to stress,” she told NBC News. “I want to insist on making sure you are wearing your mask.”
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