Girl, 8, Beats Deadly Condition Tied to COVID-19 At Johns Hopkins Children's Center
BALTIMORE (WJZ) --Morgan Deitz is known for her spunky and social personality, but in September, the eight-year-old didn't feel like herself.
"I just felt awful and I just felt blah," she recalled.
She got COVID-19 over the summer.
She recovered and thought she was in the clear, until she started feeling sick again.
She learned she had MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
"It was affecting her stomach," said Morgan's mom, Lauren Deitz. "She had pain throughout her entire body. Her eyes were bloodshot. Even as we were sitting in the ER with her, the rash was spreading to her stomach, to her feet."
It's a serious medical condition that can cause inflammation in major organs like the lungs, kidney and brain.
In some cases MIS-C can shut down the organs and lead to death.
Morgan was treated at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Her mother said it was touch-and-go at times.
"They push the code button and tons of people come running into the room trying to work on her. It was just so incredibly scary and that happened twice," said Lauren Deitz.
MIS-C is a new condition that started affecting children during the pandemic.
According to the CDC, there have been 5,000 cases and about 40 deaths since May of last year.
"We are not used to kids getting sick from a new phenomenon that we don't have the level of expertise and knowledge about to necessarily know what the best or right treatments are at this point, and so that's difficult," said Julia Shalen, a pediatric rheumatologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Morgan's doctor says the only way to prevent MIS-C right now is for anyone who can get a vaccine to get one, since children like Morgan can't be vaccinated yet.
"Everybody wants to go back to their normal lives," said Lauren Deitz. "We want to just as much as the next family, and the only way to do that is to protect each other by getting the vaccine."
Morgan will continue to be monitored to make sure the MIS-C does not come back.
She will be getting vaccinated as soon as she is eligible.