Five-year-old Scarlett is fighting for her life in hospital from Kawasaki disease. Photo / Twitter, @Junesim63
Five-year-old Scarlett is fighting for her life in hospital from Kawasaki disease. Photo / Twitter, @Junesim63
A previously healthy 5-year-old girl is fighting for her life from Kawasaki disease weeks after recovering from Covid-19, her parents have revealed.
UK girl Scarlett tested positive for Covid-19 five weeks ago which she recovered from. But now she's in intensive care with a Kawasaki inflammatory response.
Her father Piers Roberts said his daughter was given just a 20 per cent chance of survival from the disease, which inflames blood vessels and is believed to be a reaction to coronavirus.
Symptoms of Kawasaki disease include swollen blood vessels, fever, rash, red eyes, dry or cracked lips or mouth, redness in the palms and on the soles of the feet, and swollen glands.
Scarlett has since come off a ventilator but has developed heart problems, meaning she's had to go undergo surgery.
"She is now in ICU with a Kawasaki inflammatory response. She is off the ventilator but has developed heart problems," her great Aunt, June wrote.
"She's had to go to theatre to have a second line put in. Her heart is doing scary things. Her mum says it's a routine procedure and should make the next few days easier for her."
Last week, her mum also took to Facebook, opening up about what Scarlett is going through.
Symptoms of Kawasaki Disease include a high temperature and a symptom known as "strawberry tongue". Photo / Wikipedia
"I can't update you all individually so I can only do it here. Scarlett has Paediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome related to Covid-19. We think she had it a week before school closed.
"She's a pH of 7 she's being incubated so they can put a central line in. I can't respond to all the calls but I appreciate that. She's in very good hands.
"We think she got Covid pre-lockdown when testing wasn't available."
However, in a more upbeat post, she wrote on Sunday evening: "Moo has her lines in and is hopefully doing great thanks to the absolutely amazing care she has received.
"I have never been more grateful than to these nurses, doctors and all the NHS professionals who've helped her. They are amazing. The porters cheering her up were wonderful.
Despite cases of children dying with the rare disease, WHO chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan insisted today that there was still no clear link with coronavirus.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, she said: 'Very recently there have been some reports of children getting admitted with a strange syndrome, something that looks like sepsis, something that looks like a disease called Kawasaki disease, which causes inflammation in the blood vessels.
"Now, it's not very clear what the links are between Covid-19 and this syndrome. There are some children who tested positive for the virus and some who haven't.
"The WHO has discussed this with a group of international paediatricians about how to approach this, and the need to collect more data. We put out a note two days ago, which requests doctors to provide information in a standardised format so that we can quickly learn as much as possible about the syndrome.
"But again to re-emphasise the risks to children are extremely low with this infection, and there have not been many cases."
Kawasaki Disease symptoms include a rash. Photo / Wikipedia
But Scarlett's Covid-19 and Kawasaki illnesses have prompted her father to hit out at the idea of schools reopening.
Roberts said his family has been left "broken" by his daughter's battle for her life, and in an open letter to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, which was posted on Facebook, he said schools may be labelled as "death camps".
The post reads: "Dear The Right Honourable Gavin Williamson.
"As expected I know you have not cast an eye on my letters, emails etc. and they likely have not even made it past a secretary; I also am aware you have no intention of considering the individual in any way, shape or form.
"So, in due course you will see the consequences of these decisions. Schools may well be labelled as death camps in time and instead of PPE you could consider providing teachers with some form of commandant uniform as your exit strategy is to blame whatever public group you can - I suppose that way we would at least appear to 'know our duty'.
"Please continue to scapegoat us. Please continue to keep your party line amidst intentional ignoring of emerging science.
"If your boss is going to label a global pandemic as a "war"'and you want to effectively put our young people in perilous danger (now very much evidence based) whilst vilifying our profession, then that is a war crime right there and a human rights catastrophe.
"Thank you for your ongoing support for the profession and for taking heed and reacting to the evidence as we learn -not. I suppose getting back to "learning" is somewhere within the cocktail of poorly articulated lies YOU as Education Secretary speak of.
"Maybe 'earning' some crisis management would be a great new policy? But that is up to YOU as my Education Secretary.
"Don't expect attendance to be anything above R.I. in September, because I shudder to think of how many young people will not be able to attend through ... death. I do not have a code to put on my register for that as a reason for absence; perhaps you could look into that also in between your ignorance and crookedness.
