Utah family urges caution after 1-year-old hospitalized with COVID-19
Oct 20, 2021, 10:07 AM | Updated: 2:00 pm
VERNAL, Utah — A Utah family says complications from COVID-19 landed their 1-year-old in the hospital, just a month after testing positive with the illness.
After contracting COVID-19 in early September, the Freestones thought the worst was behind them.
“He had a slight cough, he mostly was having a lot of nasal congestion and then a couple of slight fevers,” Amanda Freestone said about her 1-year-old son, Mason.
Freestone said he was treated with antibiotics and seemed to fully recover. But Mason’s breathing took a turn for the worse last week. His parents rushed him to the hospital after the area between his ribs and neck began sinking in, in notable contractions.
“They did an X-ray and said he’s got pneumonia and his breathing is dropping down into the 80 percentile and we need to keep him,” Freestone said.
Doctors and nurses did further testing and found that Mason tested positive for croup and COVID-19.
“My jaw just dropped. I was like, ‘That doesn’t make any sense (that) we had COVID,’” Freestone said. “They said patients can test positive for COVID up to 90 days, so this could be a result of it. But they also said he also could’ve caught it again.”
Regardless, Mason’s family hopes he continues to heal. He was discharged Tuesday, on his first birthday, and will need oxygen treatments from home for the foreseeable future.
“The doctors are telling us we have no idea what type of damage it has done to my son’s lungs,” Freestone said.
Freestone hopes her son’s story encourages others to take as many precautions as possible to avoid getting infected with COVID-19.
“It’s really no telling who is going to be affected and whether it’s going to come back and hit you again and what it’s going to do to your body,” she said.
Friends and family have set up a GoFundMe* account to help with medical expenses.
*KSL TV does not assure that the money deposited to the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
