Boy, 11, left with red eyes and hands after contracting rare Covid-linked illness
Rokna: Oliver Shultz needed treatment in intensive care at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh after he contracted Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome having caught the coronavirus
A young boy's hands went red after contracting a disease linked to Covid-19.
A photo of Oliver Shultz shows the 11-year-old with badly blood shot eyes lying in his hospital bed.
The Latrobte, Pennsylvania boy is suffering from Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), a condition which seems to only affect younger coronavirus patients.
It can cause different parts of the body to become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs.
Oliver was brought to UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh by his mum, who thought he was just low on fluids.
He tested positive for Covid-19 before an infectious disease doctor diagnosed him with MIS-C - the eleventh case the hospital had treated.
Aimee Schultz told WPXI : “The scariest thing for my husband and I is not knowing. It’s new, so there’s no research.
"We don’t know what the long-term effects will be for him, what his future will look like."
Oliver was left with severe muscle aches, a rash and an inflamed heart and needed treatment in intensive care.
His family are now fundraising to try and pay off some of the expenses of the linked to the illness.
"The mounting medical bills, insurance company phone calls while still in ICU to collect payments, and a projection of six months to heal Oliver’s heart that was badly damaged by Covid-19 and MIS-C have left this family with chronic health concerns, financial fears, and a need for community support," the GoFundMe page reads.
Oliver has been allowed home now where he is recovering.
“I’m hopeful I can get back to riding very soon," the young horse enthusiast told ActionNews4.
“It’s what I love to do and I don’t feel the same without riding my horse every day.”
MIS-C was first identified in Children back in April.
At the end of last year the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US warned that syndrome may also affect adults and, in rare cases, be fatal.
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