A 3-year-old boy from Missouri who was diagnosed with coronavirus became partially paralyzed after a stroke – and will still likely make a full recovery, according to a local report.
Little Colt Parris lost the ability to move his right arm and leg on Wednesday hours after testing positive for COVID-19 at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital at the University of Missouri, NBC partner KSN-TV reported.
“I was going to give him his Boo (stuffed animal) and I noticed that he wasn’t using his dominant arm to hold him,” his mother, Sara Parris, told the station.
“I knew something else was wrong.”
Doctors ran tests and found a blockage in the toddler’s brain.
“The result came back and I looked at it and it was a definite stroke,” which cut blood to the left side of the boy’s brain, said pediatric neurologist Dr. Paul Carney.
In his 20 years of medicine, Carney said he had never seen such a case.
“What was different here was a kid and like I said, there’s really no other case like this,” he told the outlet.
The toddler needed surgery to address the clot and was recovering on Thursday at the hospital in Columbia, Mo.
He needs to make a full recovery and may be able to go home next week.
Dr. Camilo Gomez, a neurologist at the hospital, said doctors are investigating the extent of a link between COVID-19 and possible neurological problems.
“The COVID diagnosis is important because we think the reason why (patients) with COVID, including the child, have strokes and a variety of other problems is that they tend to form clots,” Gomez told the outlet .
The boy’s parents said they were grateful to his caregivers and hoped their close phone call would raise awareness about taking precautions to stop the spread of the virus.
“Masks and things like that, people have to wear them,” said Father Tim Parris.
“It’s important. If you don’t want your kids to go through this, people need to be more aware.”